Friends+Design
- Ergonomic and well built
- Even more concerning are the serious heating issues - the phone starts to get warm as soon as you start using it - even with calling, downloading or just watching videos - the Gionee A1 Lite tends to be warm always - and gaming on the phone or using the camera raises the temperature even more, up to about 42 degree celsius, making the metal back rather uncomfortable to hold
Display
- Display resolution should have been better at this price point - video watching experience, for instance, is not as good as say the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 with a 1080p display
Software
- The UI looks decent and colorful, but is not very refined - the launcher and other apps start asking for annoying permissions as soon as the phone starts for the first time (its difficult to see why these things are not already baked in) - there are also annoying quirks like the Gallery app requiring an internet connection to work
Performance
- Sub-par performance for this price point - little sluggish, there are lags with more than 10 apps open, even browsing is sometimes slow, and games will consistently drop frames and stutter
Camera
- Good front camera - images look good, especially under ample lighting conditions - there is good amount of details and dynamic range
- Decent rear camera - produces good quality images most of the times - captures good amount details and has almost true-to-source colour reproduction in ample lighting conditions
- While the rear and front cameras are good overall, they are not without their issues - there is sometimes soft focus, and low-light images have plenty of noise
Audio
- Decent, loud rear speaker
Battery
- Good battery life - will last the full work day
- Decent charging speed - takes about 1.5-2 hours to charge completely
- Even in 2017, Gionee still misses out on the modern USB Type-C port for charging and data, putting it behind
- Battery life is good, but not great, especially given the mAh capacity - one of the likely reasons being the heating issue - which is always an enemy of battery life
More
- On the whole, the phone doesn't stand up to most of its top competition - the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Moto G5 Plus, Coolpad Cool 1, Oppo's F3 and Vivo’s V5 - if you want a selfie-centric phone, the Oppo F3 does a better job and is slightly faster - and as overall better options, the likes of Moto G5 Plus, and Redmi Note 4 lead the pack
