Gionee F103 review – 64 bit mediatek quad core powered with 4G support

The Gionee F103 is the first handset in the ‘F’ fashion series. This dual SIM handset with 4G LTE support is powered by 1.3GHz 64 bit quad core processor and its running Lollipop with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The F103 is priced at ₹9,494.

F103 Unboxing
Inside the box pack you will find the F103 handset, screen guard, data cable, user guide, warranty card, plastic case, travel charger (5V ~ 1A), earphone and 2400 mAh battery. SAR value as mentioned on the box : 0.76 W/Kg @ 1g head and 0.84 W/Kg @ 1g body.

Design and Display
F103 looks great, hardware is packed inside a plastic body with silver metal coated frame. The silver side with metallic finish and shiny silver border and the plastic layer on the top and bottom gives a unique look.

This handset is available in Black and White colour options, I got the White colour version for the review. The F103 has got a glossy finishing, very good built quality and the rear panel has a glass type layer made of plastic. Overall the handset does look impressive, I guess the black version will look much better.

The power button and volume rocker is on the right side, micro USB port is at the bottom and audio jack is on the top. Weight with battery is 139 grams and dimensions are 70.53 x 142.86 x 7.18 mm. There are dual SIM slots you need 2 micro SIM’s, 4G is supported and it works on both the SIM slots.

Gionee F103 sports a 5 inch screen with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution, screen comes with Dragon trail protection. Colour reproduction, viewing angles and touch response are great.

Native video calling is not supported. There is no LED notification. Handset comes loaded with accelerometer, light, proximity and magnetic sensors.

Memory, Storage and OS
The F103 is packed with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. On the first boot you will get about 1.4GB free RAM, and of the 16GB storage there is a minimal amount of storage space for apps approx 3GB. The issue is that you will not be able to install many apps. Asphalt 8 did not play because of low internal storage space, even though there is a good 16GB space. Large amount of free space (approx 8GB) is allocated for other storage. This issue however can be fixed via software updates.

There is micro SD card slot but apps are getting installed on internal storage and there is no option to move them to external SD card. OTG is supported.

The handset is running Amigo UI 3.0 based on Android Lollipop 5.0.

Performance
F103 is powered by 64 bit MediaTek MT6735 1.3GHz cortex A53 quad core processor with Mali T720 GPU. Performance is smooth, handset does tend to heat up when using heavy apps, the max temperature I encountered was 45 degrees.

Benchmark

Gaming
I installed Asphalt 8 and the game got installed on the internal storage. The app plus the data files of about 1.5GB were downloaded, however when playing the game it did not work, I got a message low storage, free up some space and try. I then uninstalled the Asphalt 8 and downloaded and installed the Real Racing 3 game – about 500 MB.

The RR3 game worked really well, game play was smooth and very much playable. I guess the Asphalt 8 would have worked in medium quality mode, but because of uneven distribution of apps space even with 16GB storage you will run out of space, sooner depending on the number of apps you may have installed.

Camera
This handset comes with an 8MP camera on the rear with LED flash support and with FHD video recording capabilities and the front camera is a 5MP shooter. Camera quality is average. Do check the sample images and videos at the end. I did find some issue with the camera focus when recording FHD videos, the same is mentioned in the video sample below.

Others
Sound is loud and clear, in-call sound is all pretty good. No issues found when using 4G, 3G, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth.

Battery
There is 2400 mAh removable battery that does a average job, you can expect 3 to 5 hours of continuous moderate to heavy usage.  I am getting just over one day of mixed usage on a full charge.

Verdict
The Gionee F103 has got a very good build quality and finishing. The performance is smooth, camera is average and so is the battery backup. However even with 16GB internal storage space you will not be able to install many apps / play high end games because the space allocated for app is too less, I Believe Gionee will fix this issue via OTA updates.

But still considering the price of ₹9,494 with average performance, the handset pricing is slightly on the higher side.

Gionee F103 is available for ₹9,494.

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Video Review