General Mobile has launched the new GM 5 Plus which is an upper-budget Android One smartphone. Android One is a very special program from Google for developing countries. The aim has been to provide a smooth Android experience for budget phones with stock OS. Smartphones with Android One started to come in 2014 at budget prices. Since then many models have come to the Asian market. This 2017, General Mobile Nepal launched its new Android One phone in Nepal on a budget. General Mobile GM 5 Plus price in Nepal is Rs 24,999 and it has quite a few things to offer.
Android One Speciality
One might think about what is this Android One and why should one care about it. Well, it’s important to know what the program offers compared to normal smartphones from other brands. The special thing about Android One phones is that it provides regular guaranteed OS updates from Google. All Android One phones are sure to get updates for at least 2 years. It means all the major updates such as OS. Android One phones also run on pure stock Android UI and no other junk. This means GM5 Plus is simply a budget Google phone but with lower specs.
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In 2014 during the first phase, mainly Indian manufacturers made Android One products. This included brands like Spice, Micromax Canvas, and Karbonn Sparkle V. Slowly, many other international companies joined for manufacture in other developing countries too. Google and other smartphone manufacturers clearly know that the biggest smartphone consumers are in developing countries. So they are focusing on the Android One project. The demographics in this location don’t spend much but the number of buyers matters is huge and they are in big numbers.
General Mobile GM 5 Plus Specifications and Details
- Dimensions: 152×76.5×7.9 mm
- Weight: 160 g
- Display: 5.5 Inches IPS LCD Screen
- Resolution: 1080×1920
- Protection: Gorilla Glass 4
- SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 (Quad-Core)
- CPU Details: 1.5 GHz Cortex A-53 and 1.2 GHz Cortex A-53 Quad Core Sets
- GPU: Adreno 405
- Memory: 3 GB RAM
- Storage: 32 GB In-built, 128 SD card support
- Battery: 3100 mAh Lithium Ion
- Back Camera: 13 Megapixel
- Front Camera: 13 Megapixel
- OS: Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
Design and Build
From the front side, the General Mobile GM 5 Plus looks pretty neat and solid. It has a big screen at the front with a camera, earpiece, and sensors at the top. The navigation buttons all appear on the screen. GM5 Plus has a solid metal frame and polycarbonate back. The power button and volume rockers are all made of metal and are situated on the right side of the phone. The earphone jack is at the top while the USB port and speaker grill are at the bottom. The back side has a big camera bump which looks quite old design and bulky.
Core Hardware
General Mobile GM 5 Plus is powered by a Snapdragon 617 SoC which has a very powerful processor with Adreno 405 GPU. It has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage as well. It also holds a 3100 mAh battery on the inside. This battery supports Fast Charging, thanks to the Qualcomm chipset. As mentioned earlier, GM 5 Plus has Android One with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. So we can assume that it is sure to get up to Android 8.
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For the network, the phone is 4G and CAT 7 capable which means a very high data transfer rate. However, practically you are bound by Nepali telecom companies like NTC and Ncell’s capacity. General Mobile GM 5 Plus has a lot to offer like USB Type C, a better operating system, and faster charging. The only thing missing is a fingerprint scanner.
Display and Cameras
General Mobile GM 5 Plus has a big 5.5″ screen that is protected by Gorilla Glass 4 on top. It has a full HD 1080p resolution which is fantastic for a big screen. This makes consuming content, watching videos, playing games and normal use quite enjoyable.
For the camera, both the front and back sides have 13-megapixel sensors that shoot great photos and 1080p videos. Selfies from the front camera are also crispy with very high details due to the bigger sensors. 13 MP is very standard for the back camera but having a 13 MP camera on the front is pretty amazing because it’s a rare spec.
Summing Up
At this price of Rs 24,999, General Mobile GM 5 Plus is offering a great overall package. We get a good set of cameras, a faster processor, a bigger battery, storage, sufficient RAM, a big screen, and a great software guarantee. Personally, I am a fan of stock Android because of my clean experience and speed. So GM5 Plus is a great option to get good hardware and clean software on a budget.
GM5 Plus is going to sale from the 4th of April 2017. It is available for purchase at popular online shopping sites in Nepal like Thulo.com and Nepbay.com. Thulo.com is a subsidiary company of Nepbay.com. We are not saying that it is cheap because Rs 25K ($230) is an upper-budget price range. However, GM 5 Plus is unique and gives good competition to lots of popular phones in the market due to its perks in software and features.
