Launched on July 8 2016, in Nigeria the Gionee Marathon M5 Plus had one single purpose and that was to be the successor to the Gionee Marathon M5. The older M5 packed in a massive 6020 mAh and also came with a narrow form factor apart from the additional weight.

Build and Design: 7.5/10.

My original Gionee Marathon M5’s design looked chubby at best and was heavy to carry as well. Gionee has certainly improved on that and made the Plus not just slimmer, but also managed to pack in a bigger 6-inch display in what appears to be a similar footprint.

The phone thanks to its smaller but efficient battery is also lighter at (a still heavy) 208 grams than the previous model’s 211 grams. The older smartphone was definitely easier to hold thanks to the narrow (yet chubby) design and the Plus losses out on some points for that.

While i did not like plastic inserts at the top and bottom ends on the back, i did like the 2.5D glass on the front (shown above) that gave the smartphone a polished look that definitely trumps its successor.

The volume keys and the power button are on the right side, while the USB Type C port, mic and 3.5mm headphone jack take up the bottom.

I bought the gold model and I did appreciate the fit and finish of the panels that felt seamless, smooth and polished.

Features: 7/10

We get a 6-inch AMOLED Full HD display on the front. Inside, we get a MediaTek MT6735 clocked at 1.3GHz with Cortex A53 cores. The chipset is paired with 3GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage that is expandable up to 128GB using a microSD card.


As for the cameras we get a 13MP f/2.0 unit with PDAF that is accompanied by a single LED flash on the back. On the front there is a 5MP f/2.2 aperture unit for selfies.

Connectivity options include 4G bands, Wi-fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, A-GPS and an FM Radio. Add to this a USB Type-C connector for charging and data transfers. Also available on the front is a fingerprint reader that is quick.

Powering it all is a non-removable 5020mAh battery which utilizes two chips to charge the smartphone quickly and is also expected to retain its capacity after 600 charge cycles.

Display: 7.5/10

The 6-inch AMOLED display does pack in plenty of punch and shows saturated colours as many would expect from display of this type. And this shows, even when held in direct sunlight with text being legible and images looking as colourful (not washed out) as we would like it to be. Viewing angles were pretty good as well and handset made for a great PMP thanks to the battery and display combination that seemed to work well in power saver modes.

While the auto-brightness worked fine and was quick enough to adapt to the various lighting scenarios that I was using it in, we wished that the ‘LCD effect’ setting (odd right?) in the display had a customisable setting as we found the display a bit too vivid in most situations.

Software: 7/10

Having used the older Gionee Marathon M5, the software on the Plus does feel (ever so little) like an upgrade. Nothing has changed underneath the Amigo OS apart from a couple of new additions and plenty of additional bloatware that cannot be uninstalled. The Android base version also remains at 5.1 Lollipop, which is pretty old and could definitely do with an upgrade (or two).
Talking about the pre-installed apps there’s tonnes of them. From games, to app stores, to stuff that I just did not want to play around with like 360 Security Lite to Du Battery Saver, all of which we placed in a ‘Unused’ folder. Thankfully, I could uninstall most of them.

As for the UI you get the standard layout with all the icons laid out on the homescreen with no app drawer. Then you have the iOS-inspired control centre that is accessible with a swipe from the display’s bottom edge. Adding to the swiping confusion, swiping upwards anywhere else on the display gets you access to the (secret) homescreen editing menu that will also let you change themes and edit the desktop.
The interface is fairly standard and nothing refreshing. In fact, the default theme seems to be inspired by Samsung’s TouchWiz, while the pre-installed wallpapers were the result of some bad Photoshop work. I did however have access to a theme store that saved the day with its massive selection of themes.

Also worth mentioning is the Chameleon app that lets you pick colours from the environment around you and change the colour palette of the theme. An additional mention goes to the new app called the Gionee Abroad Service that was also showcased at the launch event.

The app simply acts as a companion app when you are travelling abroad and will also let you track flights, check the weather, maintain checklists and add memos. All-in-all the Abroad Service is a handy app but nothing substantial out here.

Performance: 6/10

With a MediaTek MT6735 performance was not a problem a problem.
The audio quality while listening to music via the headphones was really good. The DTS was not exactly to my liking, but it did enhance the audio to quite an extent. Also available was an equalizer with preset effects and a user-customisable one. Audio output through the speakers on the back was sufficiently loud, but it did sound a bit empty.
Coming to call quality, I faced no issues whatsoever. The handset offers HD voice as well and conversations at both ends could be heard loud and clear.

Gaming was not so great but normal experience given the processor at hand. Casual games worked fine and ran smoothly without any hiccups, but the same cannot be said about graphic intensive games that raised the processor temperatures a bit. Still then, it was not too hot and neither did performance take a hit. The handset cooled down much faster than it heated up. Dead Trigger 2 on the other hand ran pretty smoothly. The big screen is definitely a plus point for this handset.

Camera: 6/10

The images we got did get the saturation levels right but that’s about it. While the Full HD AMOLED display did a great job of showcasing those images, the sensor did a good job by actually recording the right colour saturation levels. So I was sure that they weren’t deceiving. The same can be said about the white balance levels as well.


One will really need the lighting scenario to be just right when using this camera (indeed most of the times it is not). There’s purple fringing all over and it is noticeable. The ISO levels creep up in almost every light setting no matter whether it was low light or daylight, which is a bit disappointing.
In short, you can only get good photographs with this camera if you are pointing in the direction of the light (still the autofocus does not lock accurately). Anything else and the results are far from impressive.
The front facing camera saw similar results, but the images looked better because of the distance from the subject (usually at arm’s length) but add a little opposing light and they get ruined.
However, video recording was pretty good and showcased smooth and steady frame rates, but the troubled auto focus mechanism would suddenly falter ruining some videos.

Battery Life: 8.5/10

As expected, the M5 Marathon Plus delivered when it comes to battery life. And it can help you get some more juice when needed by including a number of power saver modes under Power Management in Settings. While we did get a day and half of battery life with casual use on just 4G networks, turning on the Standby Intelligent Power Saving checkbox helps take it to 2 days, which is pretty good.

But one should note, that like every other power saver mode on an Android smartphone, you may miss a couple of notifications, as the smartphone will turn off data to save power from time to time. This also means that it will sync data only when you switch it on or according to its own schedule depending on the battery life available.

Using the camera frequently will bring down that two day battery life and by quite a big margin. When taking camera samples, I noticed that the battery life did drop quickly. Overall, it gets the job done, but it comes at the price of a heavier smartphone.
Verdict and Pricing
For what it was supposed to offer, the Gionee Marathon M5 Plus does deliver plenty. You get battery life that you can depend on and a large AMOLED display that works well both outdoors and indoors.
But the company really needs to ramp up with its software. And while this did not make much of difference earlier (older versions of Android), it does today. Marshmallow is a big improvement over Lollipop and for those who have been left behind; the cracks are beginning to show. The software experience could have been smoother even though it was polished with the Amigo UI.....

The current retail price is 75k
Haven't regretted the phone since I bought it... Plus it charges extremely fast
I hope this little review of mine help out

Xo how much is it

adedayo3193:
Xo how much is it

The price is there oh

I want to buy this phone (Gionee M5 plus) but I heard that pictures, videos and other files doesn't save directly to the sd. Please how true is that?

austin5k:
I want to buy this phone (Gionee M5 plus) but I heard that pictures, videos and other files doesn't save directly to the sd. Please how true is that?

I heard that too.

austin5k:
I want to buy this phone (Gionee M5 plus) but I heard that pictures, videos and other files doesn't save directly to the sd. Please how true is that?

download link2sd card to move files to your sd card

for now is 80k

Adigwe1:

The price is there oh

3 weeks old Gionee m5 plus for sale @ 80k including earphones and pouch, free otg cable as incentive ........reason for sale..... Wana sell and add some money 2 get d xiaomi redmi note 3 pro
....altho other specs are awesome...D 1.3ghz processor speed of d Gionee m5 plus wasn't impressive enof..... As I am a very heavy gamer.....modern combat 5 and a lot of other heavy games skip framerates on d m5 plus... the snap dragon chipset on d xiaomi redmi will fulfill my needs........... Location:Sheraton ikeja..... Pack available... Contact 08123285351 on whatzapp or 07053944977 for more info