14 DAY TRIAL // Chinese OEM Gionee has just released another affordable Android smartphone in India. After launching high-end devices such as Elife E7 and Elife E7 mini, Gionee is now testing the low-budget Indian market with the CTRL V5.
Android enthusiasts in India may find the name of the smartphone unusual, but this device is part of a popular Gionee family of handsets. The newly introduced smartphone is the sequel to the CTRL V4, which hasn’t been that popular.
According to AndroidOS, Gionee CTRL V5 is now available for purchase via the company’s official webstore for only Rs 12,999 outright, which is about $215 or €155.
Gionee CTRL V5 has yet to be officially introduced in India, but we expect the Chinese company to fix this minor problem in the next couple of days.
It is also worth mentioning that only the black version of the Gionee CTRL V5 is now available for purchase via the handset maker’s online store, but the white model is tagged as “coming soon,” so those who prefer this color will probably have to wait just a bit longer.
Unlike the high-end smartphones recently launched in India, the CTRL V5 is totally unimpressive when it comes to specs. Design-wise, the device slightly resembles the Nexus 4 when looking at its front side, but aside from that, there’s nothing worth mentioning.
The smartphone seems to be made out of cheap plastic and while the white version does look better, the black Gionee CTRL V5 looks like an ordinary affordable Android smartphone aimed at emerging markets.
The good news is that it offers all the major features needed by a mid-range Android smartphone to be successful in India. This means that Gionee CTRL V5 comes with dual-SIM support and a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582V/X processor.
The smartphone is equipped with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 32GB via microSD memory card.
The CTRL V5 sports a decent 4.7-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports qHD (540 x 960 pixels) resolution.
Gionee has confirmed that the handset is powered by a 1800 mAh battery, which should provide up to 325 hours of standby time or up to 14.5 hours of talk time (10 hours in 3G mode).
On the back, the device boasts an enhanced 8-megapixel photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and video recording, while in the front, there’s a secondary 2-megapixel camera for video calls.
When it comes to software, Gionee CTRL V5 is even more ordinary, as the smartphone ships with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box.