Gionee Marathon M5 review

While smartphones brought convenience to us, it also brought the problem of battery. Especially the touchscreen only served to aggravate this problem. Until new technology is discovered, we will have to use lithium-ion batteries. A common way to get more battery life is to increase the size and capacity of the battery. Gionee This is what Samsung has done with its Marathon series handsets.

We recently marathon m4 To review Which broke all our battery life records in video loop test. We are expecting even better performance from the Marathon M5. Gionee has included two 3010 mAh batteries in this handset. Is the Marathon M5 the smartphone you need? Or just a power bank that has been given the title of a phone? Has Gionee removed all the shortcomings of its earlier version this time? Let us know.

Look and Design
Metal and plastic have been used in the build of the Marathon M5 which looks strong and durable. If you aim and hit someone on the head with this handset, it is certain that he will faint! Gionee has managed to limit the thickness to 8.6 mm by increasing the length and width of its smartphone. However, the larger battery makes the Gionee Marathon M5 heavier. It weighs 211 grams, probably the heaviest smartphone available today.

The 5.5-inch AMOLED display is of low resolution, the company should have at least provided a full-HD display. Due to low pixel density, photos and text do not appear as sharp as they should be. Colors are more saturated. There is a 5-megapixel camera, Gorilla Glass 3 protection and capacitive navigation buttons on the front panel. The microSD card slot is on the right side and two 4G micro-SIM slots are on the left.

The rear has a 13-megapixel camera and single LED flash. Along with the handset you will get a charger, data cable, manual, screen guard and flip cover.

We’re glad that Gionee has made this handset thinner than the Marathon M4, but the weight gain was almost inevitable due to the larger battery. Gionee has mentioned an ‘on-the-go’ cable on its website. With its help you can use Marathon M5 as a power bank. But it was not provided with our review device.

Specifications and Software
Like the older version, the MediaTek MT6735 chipset has been used in the Marathon M5. This time you will get 3 GB RAM and 32 GB inbuilt storage. The smartphone has Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, FM radio and USB OTG features. Apart from this, you can use 4G network on both the SIM slots.

The Marathon M5 will run on Amigo 3.1 user interface which is based on Android Lollipop 5.1. The interface is single layer, due to which all the apps appear scattered on the page. Gionee has also provided some trial games and third party apps in the device, the good thing is that you can uninstall them.

With Gionee, you will get Peel Smart Remote, which means you can use it for DTH at home also. Apart from this, another interesting feature is Gionee Zander. With its help, you can connect your smartphone to another smartphone over Wi-Fi. However, this software should be installed on other smartphones also. Now you can transfer files with its help. The specialty is that files can be shared faster than Bluetooth.

performance
The general interface and performance of the app is quite good. We did not face any such complaints during use. Swiping on the home screen was smooth. There was no problem in playing games like Dead Trigger 2 on the phone. Call quality is also satisfactory and we did not face any complaint of call drop during use.

The only thing that can be said about the benchmark results is that they aren’t spectacular, especially compared to other handsets in this price range. However, you will not find any such reduction in the performance of the phone during use.

The M5 supports DTS audio for the stock music and video players.

The volume level is good for small rooms but due to mono speaker, the sound coming from it is not heard very clearly in a big room. The headset that comes with the camera gives better performance.

The 13-megapixel camera takes good photos of landscapes and macros in daylight. The detail in the pictures is also good, even if you zoom in. Photos taken indoors in low light are noisy. Many shortcomings were visible in the photographs taken at night. Flash is helpful but not very helpful. The front camera can only be called satisfactory because it does not have autofocus. You will be able to record videos with 1080 pixel resolution.

Now let’s talk about the most important feature of Marathon M5, battery life. The large 6020mAh battery lasted 25 hours and 23 minutes in our video loop test. This broke the M4’s record by a margin of 4 hours. In regular use, we could easily use this phone for 3-4 days without charging. The charger provided by the company works to power the battery quickly.

our decision
Gionee Marathon M5 has no edge in terms of battery life. At Rs 18,000, it’s not too expensive when it gives you the freedom to use the charger for days. This time Gionee has made a good effort to improve its product. The Marathon M5 is thinner than its predecessor, but it still feels bigger. Its display is good and the camera performs decently on most occasions. We feel that Gionee should have provided a full-HD screen, but it would have affected the battery life. Perhaps this might have been the reason for not doing so. On the other hand, the camera performance is a bit weak in low light. It is quite heavy and you may not like the Amigo UI.

If you are looking for great battery life then Gionee Marathon M5 is a great option for you. We can wait for its next version for better options.