Gionee Pioneer P3 is another budget friendly smartphone that houses the MT6582 quad core chipset clocked at 1.3GHz. This handset runs on Android 4.2.2 with Amigo UI over 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage. It is priced at under Rs. 7,500.
Pioneer P3 box pack
Inside the red box you will find the P3 handset, 1700 mAh battery, a screen guard (there were 2 screen guards), service centre list, user guide, warranty card, power adapter, data cable and earphone.
Design
The Gionee P3 handset is small in size and has got a bulky outfit. It does feel sturdy. It is a dual SIM handset (you need normal SIM’s). P3 weight with battery is 156 grams and dimensions are 68.01 x 129 x 10.86mm – it is 10.86mm thick.
Rear side is matte finish and handset is comfortable to hold. 5MP camera on the rear is a bit out. Just like the Gionee GPad G3 the P3 also has the volume rockers and the power button placed on the right side, 3.5mm audio jack on the top and micro USB port at the bottom. SAR Value: 0.679 W/kg (head) and 0.66 W/kg (body).
Display and OS
The capacitive touchscreen is 4.3 inches with 800×480 pixels resolution. Touch response is good, however viewing angles are not that good. There are accelerometer, magnetic, light and proximity sensors.
The handset runs on Android 4.2.2 with Amigo UI.
Memory and Storage
There is 512MB on board memory and of the 4GB storage 1.6GB is assigned for apps and a minimal 369MB as phone storage. On first boot 187MB RAM is available. There is micro SD card slot that can add another 32GB external storage. Users can install / move most of the apps on to the external storage. Just like as seen on the GPad G3 the Pioneer P3 does not supported OTG.
Performance
The handset comes loaded with MT6582 quad core chipset @ 1.3GHz with Mali 400 GPU. We have seen this hardware performing well on the Micromax A114 and many other handsets that are using the same chipset.
Benchmark scores
- Quadrant Standard – 5619.
- AnTuTu – 1st: 17313, 2nd: 16955.
- Vellamo – HTML5 1875, Metal 547.
- Nenamark 2 – 62.7 fps
- Multi touch : 5 points.
Gaming
It’s action time, I tried the MC4 and the Asphalt 8. Both the games got installed on external SD card. The MC4 (Modern Combat 4) was smooth however Asphalt 8 failed to load. I had faced the same issue with the Gionee GPad G3 that also could not play the Asphalt 8 game. Probably it is a low memory issue or incompatibility with the Amigo UI.
Entertainment
Full HD videos work in both H/W and S/W modes (using MX player). I also tried playing h265 video (High Efficiency Video Coding) in 720p resolution. It worked in S/W mode only.
Camera
The camera of 5MP (Auto focus) is placed on the rear with single LED flash support and a VGA camera on the front. The rear camera shoots very good quality images and videos. Front camera output is below average. The handset can record videos in 1080p resolution at 30fps. Do check the sample images and 1080p video. The long shot still image (Outdoor) is very impressive and so is the night shot street light.
Others
Sound is loud and clear. GPS lock is very fast. I did not find any issues with 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The handset gets heated up a bit when using heavy apps which is normal.
Battery Performance
The removable battery is of 1700 mAh capacity. The battery dropped by 11% when running the benchmark apps for about 21 minutes. You can expect the handset to last for about 3 to 4 hours with heavy usage on a single charge.
Verdict
The Pioneer P3 is available for a price tag of under Rs. 7,500. Again a good option for this price, however it is with 512MB RAM and some high end games may not work. The performance is good and because of a smaller screen / resolution the FPS is really good. The pricing is good and competes with several handsets in this budget quad core category. Gionee Pioneer P3 also comes with a magnetic sensor that you would usually find missing on handsets using the 1.3GHz quad core chipset.
Image Gallery
Sample Images
Gionee Pioneer P3 handset and gaming review video
Full HD (1080p) sample shot using Pioneer P3 handset
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