Just a couple of days back I shared some first look hands-on pictures of China based handset manufacturer GiONEE's quad core Android smartphone Dream D1. Though in India there are already many quad core smartphones from Indian handset companies, this one still has its own charm. Gionee is one of the leading handset manufacturers in China.
GiONEE Dream D1 came with a small cute box which contains the smartphone with battery (non-removable), 16GB microSD card, charger cum USB cable, earphone, two back cover, warranty papers, screen guard, after sale service center list, user manual and other documentation.
Currently there is floods of quad core smartphones in India. Almost all Indian handset companies has launched their quad core smartphones with different display sizes. Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, Xolo, iBall, Celkon, Maxx Mobiles, Zopo, Zync and others - every one has quad core Android devices under their range, thanks to MediaTek's revolutionary yet affordable quad core chipset series.
Hardware
Shipped with MediaTek's affordable quad-core platform MT6589, it is a beast with terrific hardware - 1.2GHz Cortex A7 Quad core processor, 1GB RAM and PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU.
We used Antutu Benchmark - which is easy to use benchmarking tool, available free on Google Play Store. Dream D1 scored 12,473 which proves its powerpacked performance during multimedia and gaming.
Software
GiONEE D1 comes with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with custom UI. Gionee however provides a preloaded app to change theme, wallpapers and effects. There are lots of preloaded apps like Facebook, Twitter, NetQuin Antivirus, Clean Up, Compass, Notes etc along with regular Google apps. There are also lots of .apk files are given with to install from with your choice.
It's built-in File Explorer has some advantages, it has three tabs - Browse (sorts files on their types), File (browse through folders) and FTP (for accessing FTP server via WLAN).
Though the UI of Dream D1 is a altered one, custom made, Gionee has preloaded an app which helps to you to change the theme, wallpapers, and effects.
Though over all the Android experience is good, I find Dream D1 is OTA (over the air) enabled, means Gionee can inform you about software update and you don't have to visit Service Centers or connect it to computer to install future software updates - just direct install the updates. It is useful feature, but with Gionee it's sometimes irritating as it pushes some Chinese app download request. I downloaded the first - it was Baidu Browser. The problem is the app installed in Chinese UI - so I could not use it. So be careful, just ignore them.
Display
Gionee Dream D1 has 4.65 inch amazing HD Super AMOLED+ display with Gorilla glass 2 protection, up to 316ppi. It is full HD 1280x720p. The display is nicely back-lit and capacitive multi-touch is very responsive.
Multimedia - Audio, Video and Gaming
There is default music and video player inside it, and offer decent performance. But with jetAudio and vPlayer the perfomance is enhanced a lot. Sound quality is good, bundled earphones are also good in sound production as well its build quality is good. FM radio and FM recording is also excellent quality.
Camera
The Dream D1 packs 8 mega pixel rear camera with LED flash and a front shooter worth 2 mega pixel. The camera has lots of options including face detection, HDR capture, one-touch front to rear & vice versa conversion, some preloaded mode, panorama mode. The image quality is good, but can be better. Low light photography is below average. The flash is often high with auto mode, color production is not so good.
Sample Images:
With HDR
Without HDR
Outdoor picture
The front camera is impressive with proper light. The 720p video recording is strictly okay.
Connectivity - Bluetooth, WiFi/WLAN, WiFi Hotspot, GPS
Dream D1 has two SIM slots - one supports 3G/WCDMA/HSPA and other one supports only 2G. SIM slots and microSD slot are well placed, and you don't have to remove battery to get access to them. There is a bundled 16GB microSD card inside it.
Dream D1 has all standard Android connectivity - Bluetooth, WLAN/WiFi, WLAN Hotspot, GPS - all worked smoothly without any hiccup. Magnetic Sensor is there.
Battery
It has a 2100mAh battery, which is non-removable by users. The battery back up is quite average. You need to charge it everyday night as battery drains out with every day use of voice, text, data, music, video and gaming.
There is no mention of SAR, not even on their website. However on a blog it says, 0.639 W/kg @ 1g (head) and 1.01 W/kg @ 1g (body).
Bottomline
Like other quad core smartphones from Indian brands, GiONEE Dream D1 delivers what it promises. But somehow priced at Rs 15K+ over online stores and from a little known brand in the country it may not be well-received. Well the fact is Dream D1 is one of the first few handsets from Gionee in India. We hope that Gionee will create a brand presence in the country which will help to find its own niche in the market.
Pros
- Quad core processor & 1GB RAM gives smooth Android Jelly Bean experience
- Front Camera is quite impressive
- Battery backup is over all good
- Very light weight
Cons
- As it's OTA enabled, Chinese apps download request may come
- Rear camera can be better
- Rooting & third party apps is tough to find
- After sales service centers are limited in number
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