Gionee M7 Power Review: Good selfie camera and long-lasting battery backup

Excellent battery backup

Gionee has always focused on battery life with its M series devices and the company's handsets manage to last a bit longer when compared to their competitors. The latest M7 Power is no different as it is backed by a big 5,000 mAh battery unit that easily survives a day on a single charge with moderate to heavy usage.

I played videos on a stretch with screen brightness and speaker's audio levels set to maximum and the results were better than any other handset in mid-range price-point. You can click pictures, use multiple email clients, read books, browse internet, play music and the handset will still have at least 20 to 30 percent juice at the end of the day. Some handsets that manage to come close to this level of battery endurance are manufactured by Xiaomi and Lenovo; however they are still not as good as M7 Power in battery department.

Gionee M7 Power can also be used to charge other handsets, which gives us more reasons to recommend the handset to users who carry two active devices at the same time. Overall, when it comes to battery life, the M7 Power is the safest bet in sub Rs. 18,000 price-point.

Bright Screen but resolution is a problem

The big battery device M7 power also offers a big screen. The M7 Power sports a 6-inch display which is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and offers an 18:9 aspect ratio. The screen is bright and responsive and color reproduction is also good. What does not work in the favor of M7 Power is the low 720p resolution.

The taller aspect ratio is definitely a plus point but the resolution can be a deal breaker for some users who seek out pixel popping graphics and crisp multimedia experience. Nevertheless, videos and games look good and you can also comfortably browse web pages or use two apps simultaneously on the 6-inch display. However, not all apps support split screen feature which is a bit letdown.

Good selfie camera but rear camera performance could have been better

Perhaps the second best feature on Gionee M7 power after the big battery unit is its 8MP selfie camera. The front camera can create pleasing bokeh effect with just software algorithms. The bokeh effect output is not downright natural, but is at par with some handsets in this price-point that boast dual-lens front shooters or AI backed selfie cameras. The software algorithm tends to soften the images around the edges; however the overall results are still quite appreciable.

The 8MP front camera captures pictures with a good amount of exposure and saturation. The natural tones are also retained but the details are lost quite easily. You can spot more details in selfies captured from OPPO A83 and Honor 9 Lite as compared to Gionee M7 Power's front camera. If you can adjust with some loss in detailing, the 8MP selfie camera on Gionee M7 Power will not disappoint you much.

The 13MP rear camera is a good everyday performer but it tends to add extra sharpness to images that make them noisy and unappealing. The pictures shot from 13MP rear camera are not as appealing as output we have recorded from other smartphones in this price-point. Overall, the front camera is impressive but the rear camera performance is questionable.

Smooth multitasking and good everyday performance

As far as multitasking is concerned, Gionee M7 Power will not disappoint you for two reasons. First, the smartphone has ample 4GB RAM that efficiently takes care of memory management. Secondly, the 6-inch screen makes it possible to comfortably run two apps simultaneously with the help of split-screen feature.

You can watch YouTube videos and also scroll your Facebook timeline at once. As far as gaming and computing is concerned, the smartphone is a good everyday performer but is not the best bet in its respective price-point. The Snapdragon 435 octa-core CPU is good enough to deliver a lag-free everyday performance . The apps load quickly and you can also run light games without any performance slowdown.

For storage, Gionee M7 Power offers 64GB internal memory that can be expanded by up to 256GB via hybrid SIM card. Here I would like to mention that Infinix Zero 5, which sells in the same price segment, offers a dedicated micro SD card slot and does not force you to compromise on storage and connectivity.

Amigo UI is improved but can still confuse some users

Gionee's in-house Amigo UI is undoubtedly feature rich but can confuse first time smartphone users, or someone making a shift from stock Android or iOS. Like most of the Chinese handsets, there's no App drawer and all apps are placed on home screens. The quick stetting panel, settings menu and notification panel has been tweaked for good and you get a variety of useful features such as gesture controls, smart eye protection, private space, power saving modes for battery, app clone that let you run tow accounts of apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, etc.

There's significant amount of pre-loaded apps but thankfully you can uninstall them if you don't find them useful. Overall, the feature-rich Amigo 5.0 UI has been slightly improved over time but can still be a bit confusing for some users. We would love to see a Gionee handset running the stock Android layer as it can simplify things and boost the overall performance of the company's handset.

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Sturdy design

Gionee M7 Power has a sturdy build and is overall a good looking metal handset. The 6-inch display takes most of the front as it extends from top to bottom; however the design is still not entirely bezel-less. There is enough room on top as well as at the bottom of the handset. Even the right and left borders on either side of the display are very much visible.

The front panel of the device boasts the secondary camera on top along with earpiece and ambient light sensor. The home button, back button, and multitasking buttons are all placed on a retractable tray on the display itself. We liked the rear panel of the M7 power. It has a striking glass band at top end where camera and flash module are placed. The middle part of the rear panel, which we believe is crafted out of high quality plastic has been given a matte finish. The fingerprint sensor is also placed on the rear panel, but its positioning is a bit off and your index finger has to make extra efforts to unlock the handset.

The power toggle and volume rockers are on the right side edge of the device whereas the hybrid SIM card tray is placed on the left edge. The speakers along with micro USB 2.0 port and 3.5 mm audio jack are at the bottom edge.

The bulky M7 Power has rounded corners and chamfered edges that ease up the handling process to some extent. Single handed use is not quite advisable given the large display size and bulky form factor of the handset. Overall, Gionee M7 Power looks decent enough yet it fails to match the ergonomics of its bezel-less competitors.

Conclusion

Gionee M7 Power is not an ace smartphone but whatever it does, it does that very well. It makes total sense for users who keep battery life as their priority. The smartphone can easily survive a day on a single charge with moderate to heavy usage. The multitasking is also taken care of very well and the front-facing camera is also a good performer. The M7 Power lacks in software, display to some extent, rear camera and computing power.

If you need a capable rear camera and good computing power, you can consider Xiaomi MiA1 or Honor 7X. Moto G5S Plus is also a good option but make a note that these handsets will not last as long as the M7 Power in battery department.