Camera and Internal Storage
Gionee has not incorporated the best imaging aspects in the Marathon M3, but they are good with an 8 MP primary snapper that is coupled with LED flash and auto focus for enhanced low light photography. Also, there is support for HD 720p video recording as well. For clicking selfies and for video conferencing, the Gionee smartphone uses a 2 MP secondary camera at its front. The internal storage capacity is 8 GB that is definitely not sufficient to store all the necessary content. However, there is an expandable micro SD card slot onboard that supports up to 128 GB of additional storage.
Processor and Battery
The Gionee Marathon M3 employs a quad core MediaTek MT6582 chipset that ticks at 1.3 GHz clock speed. This chipset is backed by Mali 450 GPU and 1 GB of RAM that should suffice in rendering decent graphics handling and multi-tasking without much hassle. Furthermore, we have seen this combination in several other devices such as Xolo Q1200, Intex Aqua X and more and we believe it should render a decent performance. The mammoth 5,000 mAh battery in the Gionee offering sounds pretty impressive and it is claimed to pump in a backup of up to 33 hours of talk time and up to 33 days of standby time on 3G networks.
Display and Features
The Gionee Marathon M3 is fitted with a 5 inch IPS LCD OGS display that packs a HD screen resolution of 1280×720 pixels. While the IPS technology is capable of rendering decent viewing angles, the OGS panel technology makes the device thin and more responsive as well. These aspects make the screen on par with those of its rivals. The handset is based on Android 4.4 KitKat operating system and comes packed with connectivity features such as 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and dual SIM functionality. Furthermore, there is support for Smart Gestures, Face Unlock feature and OTA updates as well on the Gionee offering.
Comparison
The Gionee Marathon M3 with a long battery life would be a tough challenger to the other similar long lasting devices including Lava Iris Fuel 50, Celkon Millennium Power Q3000, Xolo Q3000 and Micromax Canvas Power A96.
Key Specs
What we Like
Capacious battery128 GB MicroSD card support
Price and Conclusion
The Gionee Marathon M3 sounds like an impressive offering as the device takes advantage of a juicy 5,000 mAh battery. However, the device has not compromised on the other aspects as it comes with a capable processor, decent display, acceptable storage and moderate camera department. The only thing is that Gionee has priced this smartphone at Rs 13,999 that seems to be relatively higher than the pricing of its rivals making it a mid-ranger with a superior battery life. If you are not concerned of shedding few extra thousands, you can opt for the Marathon M3 and enjoy long lasting battery backup.
