We recently Marathon M4 To Review Which broke all our records of battery life in the video loop test. We are expecting even better performance than the marathon M5. Gionee has included two batteries of 3010 mAh in this handset. Is the Marathon M5 a smartphone of your need? Or just a powerbank which has been given the title of the phone? Has Gionee removing all the shortcomings of his old version this time? Let’s know.
Look and design
Marathon M5 builds using metal and plastic which looks strong and durable. If you attack someone’s head by targeting this handset, then it is sure to be unconscious! Gionee has managed to limit the thickness to 8.6 millimeters by increasing the length and width of its smartphone. However, Gionee Marathon has become M5 and weighty due to large batteries. Its weight is 211 grams, perhaps it is the most weighty smartphone present today.
The 5.5-inch AMOLED display is of low resolution, the company should have given a minimum full-HD display. Pictures and texts do not appear as sharp as it should be as possible due to low pixel density. Colors are more saturated. The front panel has a 5 -megapixel camera, Gorilla Glass 3 protection and capacitive navigation buttons. The microSD card slot is on the right side and two 4G micro-sim slot to the left.
The rear has a 13 -megapixel camera and a single LED flash. With the handset you will get a charger, data cable, manual, screen guard and flip cover.
We are very happy with this that Gionee has made this handset more thinner than the marathon M4, but due to the big battery, weight gain was almost certain. Gionee has mentioned the ‘on-the-go’ cable on its website. With its help, you can use marathon M5 as a powerbank. But it was not given with our review device.
Specification and software
The Marathon M5 has used MediaTek MT6735 chipset like an older version. This time you will get 3 GB of 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 SIM slots.
The Marathon M5 will run on the Amigo 3.1 user interface which is based on Android Lollipop 5.1. The interface is a single layer, for this reason all the apps appear with a slight scattered on the page. Gionee has also given some trial games and third party apps in the device, the good thing is that you can uninstall them.
You will get a peel smart remote with Gionee, that is, you can also use it for DTH installed in the house. Also another fun feature is Gionee Gender. With this help, you can connect your smartphone to Wi-Fi with another smartphone. However, this software should also be installed on other smartphones. Now you can transfer the file with its help. The specialty is that files can be shared faster than Bluetooth.
Performance
Performance of General Interface and App is quite good. We did not have any such complaint during use. Swipe swipe on home screen easily. There was no difficulty in playing a game like Dead Tiger 2 on the phone. The call quality is also satisfactory and during the use we had no complaints of call drop.
The benchmark results can be said that they are not great, especially compared to other handsets found in this price range. However, during the use you will not find any such decrease in the performance of the phone.
The M5 supports DTS audio for stock music and video players.
The level of volume is good for small rooms but due to the mono speaker, the sound coming from it is not heard much. The headset that comes with the camera gives better performance.
The 13 -megapixel camera takes good pictures of landscape and macros in daylight. Details are also good in pictures, even if you zoom and see. The photos taken in the indoor in low light are noyzi. Photos taken at night saw a lot of shortcomings. Flash is helpful but not very helpful. The front camera can be called satisfactory because it does not have autofocus. You will be able to record videos of 1080 pixels resolution from it.
The camera interface is very clean and easy to use. Gionee has given professional mode in the interface to control ISO, white balance, exposure, shutter speed and focus.
Now the most important feature of the Marathon M5 is the battery life. The 6020 mAh battery lasted 25 hours 23 minutes in our video loop test. This broke the record of M4 by a margin of 4 hours. In regular use, we were able to easily use this phone without charging for 3-4 days. The charger given by the company works rapidly to power the battery.
Our decision
There is no cut off the Gionee Marathon M5 in terms of battery life. It is not too expensive for Rs 18,000, when it gives you freedom to use charger for several days. Gionee has tried well to improve her product this time. The marathon M5 is more thinner than its older version, but it gives a feeling of growing up. Its display is good and the camera gives fine performance on most occasions. We feel that Gionee should have given a full-HD screen, but it would have an impact on battery life. Perhaps this would have been the reason for not doing so. On the other hand, the performance of the camera in low light is a bit weak. It is very weighty and maybe you did not like Amigo UI.
If you are looking for a great battery life then the Gionee Marathon M5 is a great option for you. And you can wait for the next version for a better option.