Teletalk Pvt. Ltd, the official distributor of Gionee smartphones in Nepal recently launched their latest mid-tier smartphone, the Gionee X1s. The phone is the contemporary addition to their new X lineup of smartphones. Priced at Rs 19,999, the phone brings a lot to the table including a capable selfie camera and a sleck design. That said, should you buy this phone? Is it the best smartphone under Rs 20,000 here in Nepal? Let us find out the answers to those questions in this full review.
Design
The Gionee X1s is a well-designed phone with its rounded edges and faux metallic back. Having a plastic build in this price range quite a discomposure! This makes the phone susceptible to creaks and grate, which is not a good thing. A metallic shell would have been highly appreciated in a phone of this price range in 2017. That said, there is no denying that the X1s looks good. This may suffice to many people’s need and draw them towards this phone.
Display
The Gionee X1s sports a 5.2 inch HD IPS display giving it a pixel density of 282PPI. The display is covered by Gorilla Glass 3 and is edged out by a 2.5D glass. The display itself is very good with fine details and good color reproduction. It also gets pretty bright and has great outdoor visibility. That said, we would have much preferred a Full HD display instead of the HD display the phone offers. Having only an HD display in a 2017 mid-tier smartphone is somewhat of a letdown in our opinion. Nonetheless, the display is not bad by any means and will cater to many people’s wants.
Performance
The X1s had no trouble keeping up with our day to day activities. The MediaTek MT6737T processor coupled with 3GB RAM was able to take whatever we threw at it. That was until we started multitasking on this device. We did notice a bit of struggle and slow down even with the high RAM capacity. Gaming on this phone with the Mali-T720MP2 GPU was also good. It was easily able to handle smaller titles like Temple Run 2, Subway Surfer and Clash Royal with ease. We, however, did notice some level of choppiness while playing graphics-heavy titles like Nova 3, Modern Combat 5, and Dead Trigger 2. Overall, the performance of the phone was congenial, especially for the price tag.
Also Read: Deal: Gionee A1 now available for Rs 26,999
Software
The Gionee X1s runs Android 7.0 Nougat with Gionee’s own custom skin Amigo 4.0 UI overlaid on top of it. The UI is highly customizable with built-in themes, wallpaper collection and an array of widgets. We personally are not fond of Gionee’s take on Android, especially how they handle notifications. The iconography too is getting pretty stale and is due for an update. That aside, the UI is very functional and is packed to the core with tons of useful features.
Camera
In the camera department, the phone packs a f/2.2 13MP rear camera accompanied by a LED flash. The camera takes some decent photos in well-lit scenarios with great details and sharpness. But dim those lights down and the pictures come out to be soft and grainy. That said, the camera will please many customers who want to take a quick snap.
Gionee, with the current smartphones, are heavily focused on the selfie cameras. And this phone is no exception as it packs a f/2.0 16MP front camera. The front shooter also comes equipped with a LED flash to get those precious selfies even under low light conditions. The snaps taken from this camera is great with accurate color reproduction and clarity. To make the experience even more seamless the phone packs a ton of beautifying tool and creative feature set. Overall, the selfie camera definitely is its strong point and it flaunts it without any hesitation.
Biometrics and others:
The phone has an active fingerprint scanner embedded into its back panel. It works very well as I was easily able to unlock the phone in a jiffy. The sensor additionally acts as a shutter button to take those quick selfies. The phone also has an Infrared blaster and a rear-mounted speaker. The speaker gets loud but desperately lack the base!
Connectivity:
Connectivity wise the phone offers a dual-sim card slot and a memory card slot. The storage of the phone can be upgraded up to 256GB from the 16GB of inbuilt storage the phone comes with. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 4G and USB 2.0.
Battery:
The X1s packs a large 4000mAh non-user removable battery. The battery life of this phone is amazing as I was easily able to get 5-6 hours of screen on time. Heavy media consumers will be overjoyed with this offering of the Gionee X1s. Binge watching your favorite TV shows will be congenial with this large battery. And to top it all off, the phone also supports reverse OTG charging enabling you to share your battery life with a friend in need.
Conclusion
The Gionee X1s cuts some corners especially in areas like build, processor and display resolution. A Full HD display encased in a metallic shell powered by a Qualcomm processor would have been highly appreciated in a mid-tier smartphone in 2017. That said, the X1s stands on its own ground with a good design philosophy, an amazing selfie camera, and a feature-packed software package. Overall, the Gionee X1s will suit to many people’s need especially selfieholics on a budget!
