Gionee S6 review: Great build and battery life let down by a poor camera and high price

I must admit, this was the very first Gionee phone I’ve ever used and being an unknown brand to me, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the device. I wouldn’t say the same for the colour of the test piece, a hideous gold, but that’s just me and I’m sure there are many among you who appreciate that particular shade.As you’ll see later in the review, two things really stood out with the device, the great build quality and the poor camera.Build Quality: 8.5/10[caption id="attachment_303789" align="aligncenter" width="640"] From the front, the phone is almost identical to the LeEco Le 1s[/caption]The all-metal finish of the device was very nice to hold. I expected an all-metal device to be slippery, but strangely, that wasn't the case here. I suppose the low weight of the device had something to do with it. The edges are chamfered and not curved, as on the iPhone, further aiding grip.The left side of the device features a combined SIM card tray and microSD card slot and the right features the power and volume buttons. The buttons have a very nice, tactile feel to them and respond instantly when pressed. There’s no play to them either and seem to be very firmly set. The camera module on the back protrudes ever so slightly, but since it sits on the side and the back is slightly curved, it doesn’t actually touch the table surface when the phone is placed on its back.Overall, the build quality of the device is very good and we were impressed. The finish itself isn't perfect and there are two panels on the back that don't fit flush with the body, but that's just us nit-picking.Oh, and did we mention that it looks identical to the LeEco Le 1s? Place the two side-by-side and you wont' be able to tell them apart.Features: 7/10There’s nothing of particular interest on the features front. You get a 5.5-inch AMOLED screen (720p), a Mediatek MT6753 chipset, 3GB of RAM and 32GB onboard memory with support for 128GB microSD cards. The battery is a 3150mAh non-removable Li-ion type.A 13MP f/2.0 camera graces the rear and a 5MP one, the front. You get the regular connectivity options of Wi-fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, GPS and an FM Radio. A USB Type-C port is seen on the bottom of the device and it does charge remarkably fast with the bundled charger. We really miss the finger-print sensor though.Display: 7.5/10The display is a bright and vibrant AMOLED display, but a 720p resolution at 5.5-inhces might seem low compared to the 1080p and QHD screens of today. Still, that works out to 267ppi which is more than enough for regular use.If we have a complaint, it's that the screen is just that little bit too vibrant. Reds in particular jump out.Software: 7.5/10Amigo OS 3.1, with an Android 5.1.1 core, seems to be surprisingly quite fast, fluid and responsive on the Gionee S6. Being used to iOS, I like the fact that I can swipe up to access quick settings (swiping down from the top is inconvenient on large screen phones). Long pressing any of the icons in the quick settings panel takes you straight to the relevant settings option, which is also very nice.[caption id="attachment_303803" align="aligncenter" width="233"] This is what a fake call looks like[/caption]There are also some other weird, but interesting add-ons, like a fake call button in the quick settings panel. You tap the button and you get a fake call within 15 seconds, complete with a pre-recorded message to make it sound like there actually is someone on the other end. Lock-screen wallpapers are updated automatically and you can swipe through them on the lock screen. Another nice feature is the Extreme Low Power Mode that restricts the phone to a bare minimum of functionality and  turns the display into grayscale. Unusually, the lock-screen brightness goes to max and you still see the vibrant wallpapers in all their glory even in this mode.Now to the things we don't like. For starters, the lack of an app drawer is a real pain. iOS also doesn't feature an app drawer, but search is just a swipe away. Not so in the case of Amigo OS. If you've got a tonne of unsorted apps, as would happen when you restore a previous Android backup, sorting through the apps is a real pain. You need to have the search widget handy. You can of course work around this by installing a custom launcher like the Nova launcher.[caption id="attachment_303807" align="aligncenter" width="233"] The various Smart Gestures at your disposal in Amigo OS 3.1[/caption]Not being able to access the camera directly from the lock screen was also frustrating at first (swiping only switches wallpapers and the quick access panel has to be explicitly enabled in the lock screen). Delving into the menu settings however, I discovered a whole bunch of so called "smart gestures" that do ameliorate this problem by a very large extent.If you want to open the camera for example, you just swipe a "C" on the screen (when the screen is off) and the device will boot directly to the camera. You can also set custom gestures for the same as well as for a number of other apps and settings like e-mail. It was odd that we could access the camera using a smart gesture, without unlocking the phone, but couldn't do so via the quick access panel on the lock screen.I liked many of the features of Amigo OS, especially the fact that it attempts to meld the best of Android and iOS in one platform. The OS also gets its own sprinkling of quirks, many of which need ironing out, but I was quite pleased with the overall experience.Performance: 7/10In terms of performance, the device was zippy and fast. The UI would randomly freeze at various intervals, but not frequently enough to be worth more than a passing mention. Apps and games ran very smoothly and we only noticed the occasional stutter in Chrome.I did notice a very odd issue with the network at a station near my home, where it couldn't pick a band and stick with it. Suppose I was browsing a web page, the network would first show "H+", start loading the page, then switch to "3G" and reset. This kept happening at intervals of a few seconds, the end result being that I just couldn't browse the web or do anything else at that spot. I've used a handful of phones at that same location with the same SIM and am yet to face such issues.I couldn't replicate the issue anywhere else, so I'm just hoping it's a one-off or a software quirk that will be fixed in a subsequent update.Camera: 6/10Note: You can view the high resolution images by clicking on them and selecting Original image size in Flickr.By far the worst aspect of this phone was the camera. The camera is fast and responsive and colours are spot on. That said, there is no detail in the images. If you enlarge the images beyond 30 percent, there's nothing to see but a blurred mess.Panorama images also showed a significant amount of banding unless we applied extreme care while taking the shot. Worse than all of this was video recording. The videos were streaky and not very clear, though the audio was alright. The only videos with any degree of quality were the ones with a minimum of moving objects.Battery Life: 9/10Battery life was impressive. It packs in a 3150mAh battery that managed to pull a 9 hour 25 minutes in our battery life test (PCMark), which is rare. In real world usage as well, the battery life was impressive. Pulling through the entire day on a single charge is easily possible.Verdict and Price in IndiaThinking about the Gionee S6, I can't think of a single reason to actually recommend it to someone. It's not a bad phone, that's for sure, but it's not a great one either.Off the top of my head I can easily recommend the Moto X Play with an excellent camera and battery or even the Lenovo Vibe X3 with a better design and superb audio. We are in the process of reviewing the QiKU Q Terra 808, which certainly offers a better camera output for sure, and it's around the same price bracket.Spend a little bit more and you can grab a Google Nexus 5X, which needs no introduction. The Redmi Note 3, which we're still in the process of reviewing, is also an exceptional device at almost half the price.The Gionee S6 isn't a bad phone, but it lacks character and does nothing to justify a price tag of Rs 19,999.