On video: Gionee Marathon M5 first impressions

Gionee launched the Marathon M5 in India today at an event in Bengaluru and will be available exclusively via Flipkart starting today – sans any registrations or flash sales. The company has been trying to bring its devices across all popular price ranges in India and this time around the Marathon M5 is priced at Rs 17,999. Well, the main highlight of the device is its whopping 6020mah battery, which the company has achieved by deploying two 3010mAh batteries. But the device is a lot more than just about the prolonged battery life. We got to play with it for a while, and here’s our first impressions for the Marathon M5.   Design and build

We got our hands on the golden variant, while the device is also available in White and Grey colours. The 5.5-inch phablet features a metallic unibody design. Needless to say, the weight of the device is likely to be of prime concern. Due to the larger battery, the device is slightly heavier at 211 grams. However, the limited time that we used it, we didn’t find it too heavy or don’t think it will be very difficult to carry around. It is thick at 8.5mm with a non-removable rear flap and one-hand usage wasn’t very smooth.  The right edge houses the volume rocker and power button, while the dual SIM slots and microSD slot are placed on either sides. The audio jack and infrared LED are on the top edge and the microUSB port and mic are placed on the lower edge.  A 13MP camera sits on the back with a single LED flash. Take a closer look at the back and it’s a mix of plastic and metal. We won’t say it’s the prettiest device, considering Gionee’s design principle seen in the past, but that’s not what it’s focusing on. Slightly clunky, but it did feel solid in hands.  Battery The USP of the device is the 6020mAh battery, which is a set of two 3010mAh batteries, as it makes it safer to use rather having a larger one. In terms of usage, it promises 62 hours of talk time on 2G and 28 hours on 3G.  The phone also gets two charging chips, which promise faster heat dissipation and charging. Gionee has also included a Smart Power Consumption system. Under Extreme mode, it ensures that the device can offer a standby time of up to 32 hours even with 5 percent battery life left. Well, we can confirm all these figures only once we have conducted our battery test for the device. Display Gionee’s Marathon M5 gets a 5.5-inch HD AMOLED display along with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. In our brief usage, the AMOLED display felt vivid and bright. The icons seemed sharp. However, we couldn’t test a video sample. So, right now, it’s a little hard to talk about how exactly the battery fares. It did reflect light when indoor with low light conditions.  OS The Marathon M5 runs Android Lollipop 5.1 along with a layer of its proprietary Amigo 3.1. The user interface looks neat and navigating around was slick. It also comes with a plethora of pre-installed apps such as Du Battery saver, Gionee Xender, Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Amigo paper, Game Zone, to name a few.  A swipe on the screen upwards and you will find shortcuts to Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, data connection, location, adjusting the brightness, calculator, torch, camera, and more.  Gionee has brings in auto call record, Smart gestures, Eco mode, Chameleon and IR blaster. Camera In line with most of the mid-rangers, the Gionee Marathon M5 gets a 13MP rear snapper and a 5MP front-facing camera. Gionee never disappoints when it comes to the camera and the M5 is no different.  The camera app interface is quite simple and could keep you glued with a host of features. You can quickly choose from different modes such as Normal, Professional, Beauty, Filter, HDR, Panorama, Night ad more. Then, there are options like geo-tagging, Ultra Pixel (shown in the screenshot below), Countdown and so on.  Chipset, RAM, storage The focus of the event stayed its battery, and almost no stage time was given to its quad-core 1.3GHz Mediatek processor. It also gets 3GB of RAM, which means it can handle all those apps pretty well. The 32GB onboard storage is expandable up to 128GB via microSD card slot. Out of the 32GB, 23.50GB is available for end user. For the brief period, we didn’t find the device stutter or lag, but didn’t really multi-task using the device.  Connectivity There is no dearth of options when it comes to connectivity. The Marathon M5 comes with support for GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS with AGPS. It also includes all the usual sensors such as proximity, G-sensor, compass, motion and light. Conclusion In a nutshell, the Marathon M5 is a great device for those looking for a prolonged battery life. It will also mean, you don’t have to worry the next time you leave your portable charger home when on a weekend getaway. While the prime focus of the device has been its battery, other specs and features such as camera, larger display, storage and a slew of popular apps further compliment it. In terms of competition, the Lenovo Vibe P1 stands on a similar ground with a 5.5-inch display and a 5000mAh battery. On paper, the Marathon M5 seems like a great runner in the fierce mobile competition. However, we will be able to talk about its performance and exactly how it fares only once we take it for a spin for a complete review.