Gionee M3 brings 8GB RAM, 256GB of Storage for just $162

Gionee was once a relevant smartphone maker in India, however, it lost terrain in the past few years due to the intense competition coming from bigger brands. Interestingly, Gionee was one of the first Chinese brands that bet on the Indian market. The brand was put on a hiatus for some years but returned last year with new smartphones in India and China. Gionee is focusing on the low-end market and is trying to catch customers by offering cheap smartphones with huge batteries. Today, it is presenting a new smartphone in China, the Gionee M3. The device has an old MediaTek chip but offers a huge 5,000mAh battery, up to 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of Storage.

Gionee M3 specifications

The Gionee M3 flaunts a 6.53-inch panel with HD+ resolution and a waterdrop notch. The cutout serves as a home for a modest 8MP selfie snapper. Under the hood, the phone packs the MediaTek Helio P60 chipset. This chipset is quite old at this point but still sits above some recent MediaTek launches in the 4G segment. It packs four ARM Cortex-A73 cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz plus four ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz. In comparison to current standards, it is quite outdated, however, it still is better than the Helio G25 or Helio G35 also from MediaTek.

The phone is paired with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. The storage is split between variants with 128GB and 256GB of storage. The latter is only available with an 8GB RAM model. Although the chipset is modest, the RAM and Storage amount is quite generous for a budget smartphone. Of course, we’re not expecting them to be based on modern LPDDR and UFS standards. The storage probably is an eMMC memory.

In the back, we have a unique camera module. It has an Octagon form and comprises four shooters. Unfortunately, none of them is truly remarkable. The main camera is a 16MP primary camera, the secondary module is a 5MP ultrawide snapper. We also have two additional 2MP modules probably for macro and depth sensing. The phone draws power from a 5,000mAh battery that offers support for 18W fast-charging. The dimensions are 163.2mm x 75.9 mm x 9.3 mm. The device weighs in at 201 grams. The phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB-C port, and microSD card support.

Pricing and Availability

The Gionee M3 is available in Black, Green, Sky, and Gray colorways. The pricing starts at CNY 899 ($137) for the model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of Internal Storage. The intermediary model has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and sells for CNY 959 (~$147). The “high-tier” option comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and will set you back by CNY 1,059 (~$162). There’s no official word from Gionee if the M3 will reach other markets. However, we may still see it coming to India later this year.