dr.amfarooqi

I was hesitant to buy this smartphone as the options from HTC viz., Desire 728 and 826X were tempting. The negative in HTC was second sim supporting only 2g and poor battery life. As a Reliance CDMA Zero plan user, my data usage and voice calls are pretty heavy. The ultimate choice remained Gionee Marathon M5 owing to its 6020 mAh battery and CDMA support (Box says CDMA+GSM, GSM+CDMA, GSM+GSM). I bought the phone which was delivered on 11th Dec. I went for the white colored model as it goes well with Formal image of mine. Coming to the one week review of this phone, I feel that the phone is decent to look at with average finishing. The chrome skirting is uneven at some locations. The screen is good and has deep blacks owing to AMOLED. The resolution is acceptable but would have been better if it was HD. Connectivity is good in both slots and is better than my earlier phone (LG G2) in terms of network lock. There is NO NFC but Gionee compensates this by bringing in HotKnot, which I haven't used yet. Infrared shortcut exists on Lock Screen, and the blaster works fine. I noticed a major glitch in terms of messaging. SMS which is longer than 160 characters is not received by the recepient when sent using this phone's sim1. I haven't tried SIM2 yet. SMS is classified into conversations, service and others. GPS performance is good. The major doubts which people may have on EVDO Rev B is not clear as the download speeds are not crossing 200kBps (roughly 2.3Mbps) which corresponds to under Rev A limits, even though I stay in Delhi. I doubt that Rev B is provided although Gionee claims. User Interface is without the App Drawer and has control drawer from below, which is not editable. The lock screen is customisable as per our choice according to genre. Feel and appearance is wonderful and without any hassle. The weather animations are very creative and rich, while the gesture support enables knock on feature you could find on LG phones (believe me it's a blessing). Video playing is not smooth maybe due to poor GPU. Audio playback is loud and is clear. Battery performance is great and is as per expectations. I use EVDO data 24x7, and yet I get 48 hrs+ on my phone on a single charge, which takes about 6 hours. There is not much heating even on playing games or using browser/internet. Camera quality is above average. It has a 13 MP rear cam and it could manage decent image quality. Video quality is good. Storage option of expanding upto 128GB exists but the 128 Gigs are expensive as of now, and cost upwards of 4k (unless you buy on ebay from HK/Singapore). Overall, I feel this is among the better available phones for a CDMA user. I rate this at 8.5/10. Other Alternatives: 1. Infocus M810 (Single Sim) 2. HTC Desire 828 (GSM/CDMA/4G+3G, battery is small) Improvements which will make this phone rock solid: 1. Better processor and GPU 2. At least an HD screen 3. A little lesser weight (maybe with some compromise on battery) 4. Regular updates.