IT Guru

Gigabyte GSmart Aku A1

Quite recently a mobile phone from a rather unusual manufacturer - Gigabyte - came to my attention at a very attractive promotional price of 99 Ls. Judging by the rather sparse information available on the web, the model only came to market in July 2013.

Despite its rather laughable price, the device has:

4 cores at 1.2 GHz clock frequency each.
Graphics processor - PowerVR SGX544.
Storage for apps - 1 GB
The screen is nothing outstanding - TFT with 854x480 resolution.
There is a microSD card slot (up to 32 GB),
Replaceable battery (if that matters to you).
Battery capacity: standby 333 hours, talk time (presumably also when operating with the display on) - 5h.
Dual SIM support
Built-in 5 Mpix camera. Although its quality is not outstanding, it does have geo-tagging (possibly this is no longer a new feature, but it was quite important to me).
FM radio (works when earphones are plugged in, but can listen through the built-in speakers).
Has an LED flash which can equally well serve as a torch (though an app must be installed separately).

Some things missing:

No super-duper AMOLED or Retina or Gorilla Glass screen. If you know what that is - you will miss it. If you don't - the screen is sufficiently large (4.5 inches), bright and pixel density (218 ppi) is adequate.
No NFC (a way to make payments or exchange information by touching the phone to a reader). Though this feature is not yet popular or widely usable.
No compass, altimeter, gyroscope, barometer or thermometer. GPS is present and navigation will work.
No Wi-Fi hotspot

Descriptions indicate no DLNA (ability to stream images, video and music from the mobile phone to, for example, a "smart" TV). Note that this function may be included in a "smart" TV's mobile app. For example, Philips has one.

Camera

The built-in camera is 5 megapixels. Despite the, albeit modest yet still notable, pixel count, image quality in poor lighting conditions is low. There is autofocus, which works well enough and quickly. There are various effects and even an HDR function which, in my opinion, does not improve photo quality. A pleasant feature is geo-tagging. Although a decent application for the computer has not been found, the phone has the ability to view the location where a particular image was taken on Google Maps. There is no image stabiliser. Some images for comparison:


Taken with a digital SLR camera	Taken with Gigabyte GSmart Aku A1

Graphics Processor

The mobile phone has a built-in graphics processor - PowerVR SGX544. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has an Adreno 320, and the iPhone 5 - PowerVR SGX543MP3. GPU performance can be assessed using the GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt app. Comparing the processors listed above, it can be concluded that their performance is adequate and ranges from 36 to 41 fps. There is no basis for claiming that the iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S4 are superior in this regard.

Compared to Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5

Comparing dimensions, the Gigabyte GSmart Aku A1 is quite thick (12.35mm vs 7.6mm). The chassis material is unknown, probably plastic. Screen size - 4.5 inches (Galaxy S4 - 5'', iPhone - 4''), pixel density is almost half as much, but it can display 16 million colours and recognises all 5-finger gestures (though I don't yet know where and how to use these).

The battery can last up to 13.9 days, but with active use - only 5 hours. By comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S4 can last 15.4 days, but with active use - 17 hours. iPhone - 9.6 days, with active use - 8 hours.

Gigabyte Aku A1 operating system - 4.2 (Jelly Bean), Samsung Galaxy S4 - 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean).

There was no opportunity to compare cameras by taking photos. The Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 resolutions are 13 Mpix and 8 Mpix respectively, and both have image stabilisation, touch focus and many other pleasant features. The front camera (intended for e.g. Skype) is a disaster - only 0.3 Mpix.

However, compared to the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5, the Gigabyte Aku A1 has FM radio.

Conclusions

The first conclusion is the price :)
- Gigabyte Aku A1 promotional price 99 Ls (regular price >139 Ls).
- Samsung Galaxy S4 >397 Ls.
- Apple iPhone 5 >510 Ls

The Gigabyte Aku A1 battery holds less charge when the phone is used actively. Weak photo quality. Small (but still adequate) built-in storage for apps. I have not tested whether and how images and media can be stored on the SD card, nor how to move some apps there.

The dynamics of technology development should also be kept in mind - in a year or two there will be new technologies and reason to change the mobile phone.

Links:

[1] http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/GIGABYTE-GSmart-Aku-A1,Samsung-Galaxy-S4,Apple-iPhone-5/phones/8050,7597,7378
[2] http://versus.com/en/samsung-galaxy-s4-64gb-vs-gigabyte-gsmart-rio-r1