We go hands-on with the Marathon M5!

The concept of phones with big batteries aren’t new, but there are usually big tradeoffs to get the awesome battery endurance that’s associated with them. The biggest one is overall thickness – big batteries = big phones, at least that’s how it’s been for a while now. Gionee, one of the forerunners of big-batteried smartphones is looking to change that with their Marathon M5 smartphone, a phone that packs a 6020mAh battery that’s only 8.6mm thick. Let’s take a look at its specs:

Gionee Marathon M5

• 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735 processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 5.5-inch HD AMOLED display, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• 16GB of storage, expandable via microSD
• 13-megapixel f/2.0 aperture, phase detection AF, LED flash
• 5-megapixel front camera
• Dual SIM
• 3G, LTE
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
• 6020mAh battery
• Android 5.1 Lollipop

Initial Impressions: a slim phone that can last for a long, long time

Once you pick up the M5, you’ll see how thin it really is. While 8.6mm isn’t an impressive number for typical smartphones, the M5 isn’t your typical smartphone. We’re rather impressed how Gionee managed to keep the thickness of the phone down considering the size of the battery. Unfortunately, it’s also rather heavy – at 211 grams its one of the heavier phones out in the market today.

As far as styling goes, the M5 looks good, but isn’t going to knock your socks off. The device has a metallic finish and a metal frame that’s been chamfered on the sides much like their other metal-framed phones. The back of the phone is plastic, but it’s non-removable. Access to the SIM and microSD slot is on the left side, while the volume rocker and power button is on the right. The 3.5mm jack and USB port are located on top and bottom of the device, respectively.

While the phone is thin for the battery inside of it, it’s rather long for a 5.5-inch smartphone at 152mm. The panel used for the display is an AMOLED panel, but disappointingly it’s only HD resolution. At that screensize, pixels are easily discernable if you look hard enough. On the up side, images are vibrant and colors pop. Viewing angles are good too.

The M5 also comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture along with phase detection AF, with a 5-megapixel front snapper. Inside the phone runs Amigo OS, Gionee’s attempt at their own UI that’s running on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop.

Under the hood, the M5 runs Mediatek’s MT6735 quad-core processor, paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. While it’s not an octa-core processor, the phone’s performance is still quite zippy during our brief time with it. While many will miss the performance of the higher core octa-core processors of MediaTek, the MT6735 doesn’t sip as much battery. That, combined with the already power-efficient AMOLED display and HD resolution should ensure that the M5 will run for days before it needs a charge.

Gionee is pricing the Marathon M5 at Php 11,999.