Xiaomi aren’t the only brand doing well priced, big battery phones. Gionee too are in the game with the newly announced Gionee Marathon M5 Mini.
The M5 Mini has a smaller 5-inch screen to its bigger brother, and also a smaller battery, but at 4000mAh it is still a massive cell for a budget HD smartphone.
Gionee have built-in fast charging for the 4000mAh battery (likely Mediatek Pump Express) and use a quad-core Mediatek 1.3Ghz MT6580 chipset and 2GB RAM to run Android 5.1.
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Speaking of Android, the system in the M5 Mini is Gionee’s latest Amigo 3.0 ROM which offers some nice features, especially for the camera app.
Cameras are a little under specced compared to rival devices with an 8 mega-pixel rear and 5 mega-pixel front, but like most mid-range phones these days the M5 Mini has an SD slot.
Pricing hasn’t been confirmed but with a lower spec rear camera, and no LTE support (remember the MT6580 only supports 3G) the M5 Mini would need to be under 999 Yuan ($152) to compete agains the Redmi 3.
This phone can’t compete with Xiaomi, look at the cpu.
chipset is a total disaster
yup, I agree. It needs to be around 599 Yuan to even be worth considering
with the same price range as redmi 3, who in the right mind would buy this??
Horrible CPU, Camera is a ? (cant tell without a test but doesn;t look good), ugly black borders, too expensive for the hardware. Sorry Gionee your biggest fan thinks this is crap.
Hi Balco, do you think that Xiaomi will release a pro version of the Redmi 3 soon?
I was really interested to get it but changed my mind because of its price which is around 170$. Kinda expensive when considering the retail price in china. Do you think Mi4c is still a great option or should I wait a bit to see price decline for the MX5 in 32gb version or should I get the Note 3 Pro? I think that I will wait Xiaomi event in February maybe they will anounce a 5.2inch mid range phone with helio p10 cpu.
I would wait until after MWC before making any purchasing decisions. There will be hundreds of new phones announced at the event and several will be releasing soon.
Thanks Balco, you are definitely right! I think it is a great decision and am sure there will be great phones anounced during MWC. Even if at the end, this is not the case there might be some opportunities to get last year flagships (like MX5) at a very good price. I just think 170$ for the Redmi 3 is just nonsense. I do understand that resellers have to make money but the margin is huge. I would prefer to add 70-80$ more to get a device with better specs.
geekbuying sell it for 139$.
It’s going ot be exactly like with Meizu M2 – initial prices were similar, after few months it gets regular promo sales and can be bought under 100$.
Wait few months and Redmi3 will be available at ~100$, too.
If you need to buy the phone immediately, then you have a problem because it’s sheep shaving time now.
You are right, just hope that Xiaomi will offer their devices online worldwide by adding a margin of course but a margin much lesser when compared to the ones by resellers. Geekbuying is a presale so they don’t have it in stock. I think that I will MWC and other manufacturers will propose new devices with pretty decent specs for the price paid. Actually, Redmi 3 price should be around 145$ maximum.
I’m the 2nd biggest fan but Gionee is pretty disappointing lately.
bullshit. there i said it
This CPU is for shitty $50 budget phones… Very slow and no 4G support!! There is no way this will compete with the Redmi 3… =P
ded
This Gionee, Are they kidding ?
With that kind of pricing, the spec is not even close to Redmi 3.
Perhaps Gionee think their brand got those “premium feeling” that people willing to pay for such a low spec.
Hmm also maybe gionee aim for those regular buyer that don’t know shit about hardware spec and only see the prices same as Xiaomi Redmi 3.
With smaller battery yet look thicker than Ulefone Power?
And more expensive than Ulefone Power.
Ha,ha,ha , they are completely insane , they are far from competing with that poor SoC, at that price is absurd