Gionee GPad G2 Review

Gionee GPad G2 is the successor of the original GPad from Gionee that was launched in India back in May. The GPad 2 is considerably a big improvement over the original GPad with a better display, better processor, more RAM and better front facing camera. The Gionee GPad 2 falls into the mid-range phablet market in terms of pricing and features. Lets check out how it performs.

Box Contents

For a midrange device, the Gionee GPad 2 comes with a lot of stuff in the box. The various box contents include

• Phone
• Battery
• 16GB microSD card
• Flip cover with plastic back
• Two Scratch guards
• microUSB cable
• USB Charger
• 3.5mm Headphones
• SIM eject tool
• Documentation including service center list, manual and warranty card

The Flip cover that is offered is of reasonably good quality. Usually, we find a single scratch guard with budget devices, but we were surprised to find two scratch guards that comes with the phone. The headphones that come with the phone are definitely not the best, but they get the job done.

Video Review

Design and Build Quality

Unlike other budget phones, the Gionee GPad 2 feels quite solid in the hand despite an all plastic build. The phone is quite solid and seems a little heavy because of the metal rim running across the device.

In terms of dimensions, the GPad G2 feels big because of 5.3inch display and the not-so-thin bezels.

On the front of the phone, we have the 5.3inch display above which we have the earpiece. To the left of the earpiece, we have ambient and proximity sensor placed one above the other giving it a different look. To the right of the earpiece we have the 2MP front camera. The phone also has a Magnetic compass.

Below the display, we have the capacitive touch keys for Home, Menu and back which lit up when pressed. The mouthpiece is present along the bottom edge.

The positioning of keys is different from the other phones with the volume rocker on the right side.

The microUSB slot is at the bottom of the phone.

On the left side, we have the power lock key.

On the top, we have the 3.5mm audio jack.

Moving to the back of the phone, we find a very glossy back which is prone to fingerprints. The glossy plastic also makes the otherwise solid device slippery. There is the 8MP camera along with LED flash at the top left position and the speaker grill is present at bottom right position.

Removing the battery cover, we find a huge 3000 mAh battery above which we have the microSIM and regular SIM card slot next to each other. The process of removing a microSIM is a little difficult and hence they have given a SIM ejection tool with the box. The hot swappable microSD card slot is present on the top right corner.

Overall, the design feels a little played out and the reverse positioning of keys makes it a little confusing to use at first. Otherwise, the build quality is solid and the phone is quite sturdy.

Display

The Gionee GPad G2 comes with a 5.3inch qHD screen thereby having a pixel density of 207ppi which is slightly on the lesser side. When seen from a very close distance, pixels can be seen and this is a because of the low ppi. The display has a 5point multi-touch which is very good for the price. In terms of viewing angles, the display isn’t the upto the mark. Contrast begins to fade and we see a lot of whites. The brightness isn’t very high either. The positive thing about the display is that the colors are true when looked at from a straight angle.

Overall, considering the pixel density, viewing angles, brightness, color reproduction, the display on the GPad G2 is average.

Hardware and Performance

Like most of the budget phablets in the price range, the Gionee GPad G2 is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor from MediaTek – MT6589, has 1GB of RAM and the graphics are taken care by PowerVR SGX 544 GPU.

Out of the 1GB RAM, 976MB is usable and when the device is idle, about 635MB is free. The GPad G2 comes with 4GB internal storage out of which about 1GB is allocated for apps and remaining 1.74GB is user accessible.

There is also a microSD card slot and the phone comes preloaded with a 16GB microSD card. You can choose the preferred install location and also move the apps to the SD card.

In terms of performance, the device is not as smooth as we would have expected it to be. When you make your way through the default launcher, there is noticeable lag which can be annoying at times. There is a small delay in opening apps and switching between them.

In terms of benchmarks, the device performed on par with the competition. It scored 4049 in Quadrant, 49.2fps in NenaMark 2 and 12834 in AnTutu.

Camera

The Gionee GPad G2 comes with an 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front facing camera. Both the cameras can record 720p HD videos and sadly there is no 1080p video recording.

The camera app is very minimal with just the basic features. On the left of the UI, we have three shooting modes – normal, HDR and face beauty. HDR enhances the contrast and brightness of an image while Face beauty smoothens out the skin in images. On the right side of the view finder, we have the Flash toggle and Front/Back camera toggle. To the right of it, we have the shortcut to the photos taken. Below it we have the camera and video shutter key. There is a settings toggle on the bottom right corner. Opening the settings menu, we have all the basic options like Effects, Moving to photo specific settings, we have options to set the image size till 8MP and set ISO from 100 to 400. There is also a video settings option which lets you set Time Lapse interval, enable sound in the videos, set video quality. You can swipe left from the viewfinder to goto the recently taken photos.

Unlike other phones, there is no option to capture photos while recording videos.

In terms of image quality, the details are there and the colors are good, but there is a lot of noise. The images look when on the phone, but when looked at 100%, the noise is clearly visible. Low-light photography isn’t great either. Here are some camera samples.

The videos too disappoint as the maximum video resolution is 720p from both the cameras.

Gaming

The GPad G2 has a quad-core processor, 1GB RAM and PowerVR SGX 544 GPU to handle games on a qHD display. The device was able to handle small games quite easily, and even games like Need For Speed Most Wanted, Riptide GP2, Shadow Gun ran well on this device. The graphics were high and the game was reasonably smooth.

Considering the price of the device, the gaming performance is good.

Software

The Gionee GPad G2 runs on Android 4.1.2 Jellybean with a layer of custom UI over it. The custom UI makes things little slow and sluggish. The notification bar resembles the ones seen in other mid-range phablets with various toggles. Other than the skinned UI, there isn’t much difference in terms of features.

Gionee has also given the option to use various themes for the UI and we liked the “Android UI” theme which brings a complete stock experience in terms of UI. Even the stock theme showed a bit of lag and sluggishness throughout the UI. In addition to theming, Gionee has given an app that lets users check for OTA updates. There are lots of preloaded apps like NQ Mobile Security, WeChat, WhatsApp, V5 Music and many other apps.

Battery and Connectivity

One of the positives about Gionee GPad G2 is its battery. The 3000mAh battery lasts really well and can get you through for nearly two days of moderate use. Despite heavy use, it lasts a day.

Being a mid-range smartphone, it comes with a wide-range of connectivity features like 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and microUSB. It has Dual SIM support (3G+2G) as well.

Conclusion

The Gionee GPad G2 is a decent mid-range phablet with very good specifications, but the sluggish software implementation pulls it back. For its current price tag of around Rs. 12,500, we are more than satisfied with the hardware, but we expect more smooth and stable UI and UX.

Pros

• Good Build
• Free flip cover and scratch guard
• Good gaming performance

Cons

• Heavy and bulky
• Sluggish software
• Average Camera