Turkey based General Mobile has introduced, the GM 6, the company's latest Android One smartphone, in partnership with Google at MWC 2017 in Barcelona. It is the successor of GM 5, and gets major upgrades in the processing department, selfie camera, a bigger battery, as well as double RAM and Storage, than its predecessor.
Nothing has changed in terms of design, and the GM 6 sports rubbery plastic rear panel and metal frame. It runs Android Nougat and is the first Android One smartphone to boast fingerprint sensor, which is embedded into the home button.
The GM 6 features 5-inch HD IPS 2.5D curved glass display with Gorilla Glass 4 protection and is powered by 1.5GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6737T processor backed by Mali-T720 GPU and 3GB RAM. On-board storage is 32GB, which can be expanded via microSD card.
For photography, there's 13MP rear camera with dual LED flash and 1080p video recording, and the selfie shooter is a 8MP unit assisted by LED flash. Connectivity options include dual-SIM slots, 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 and GPS. A 3000mAh battery gives the phone juice to run.
The General Mobile GM 6 comes in Space Grey, Gold and Rose Gold color. Pricing and availability details are yet to be announced, however, General Mobile says it plans to sell the GM 6 in 45 countries. Previously the company sold Android One device in almost 20 markets.
Speaking of Android One, for those uninitiated, its an initiative, Google announced back in 2014, to bring affordable Android smartphones to emerging markets. The Android One initiative was initially launched in India, and has expanded to more than 30 counties ever since. Google is also expected to launch Android One smartphones in the U.S soon.
Turkey based smartphone maker General Mobile has added a new member to Google's Android One line-up. Dubbed GM 5, it is the first Android One smartphone to ship with Android 7.0 Nougat. Apart from the new OS, the rest of the spec sheet is similar to General Mobile 4G, that was launched last year.
The GM5 has 5-inch HD (1280 x 720 pixels) IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection and is powered by 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor paired with Adreno 306 GPU, 2GB RAM and 16GB inbuilt storage, which can be further increased via microSD card.
For photography, there's 13MP rear camera with dual-LED flash and 5MP front camera. In terms of connectivity, the phone supports dual-SIMs, 4G LTE, 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. It is backed by 2500mAh battery.
The General Mobile GM5 will be available in single and dual-SIM versions in Black, Space Grey and Gold colors. It will be available in 20 countries via authorized sale points or carrier stores in Azerbaijan, Albania, Afghanistan, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Iraq, Kenya, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Pakistan, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Unfortunately, the pricing is not known just yet.
Google, in May last year, expanded its Android One initiative to Turkey with the launch of General Mobile 4G smartphone. Now the brand has launched an upgraded variant of the General Mobile called GM5 Plus runnuing Google's latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system. The mobile device sports a metal frame and textured back cover.
The GM5 Plus sports a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) IPS display with 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 protection, and is equipped with 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 617 64-bit processor with Adreno 405 GPU, 3GB RAM, 32GB on-board expandable storage (up to 128GB supported), 13MP rear camera (w/ Dual LED flash, 1080p video recording) and 13-megapixel front camera (w/ LED flash, 1080p video recording). Connectivity features include 4G LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and USB Type-C port. It is fuekled by 3100mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 3.0 technology.
The General Mobile GM5 Plus will be priced under $300 (Rs. 20,500) and will go on sale in Turkey soon. General Mobile said that the GM5 Plus will launch in in 15 more markets after Turkey in the coming months.
Considering the price, the GM5 Plus is the costliest Android One smartphone to date. When Android One initiative was launched, the first Android One phone offered entry level specs and had a price tag of $90 (Rs. 6,000). Over the period, the specs have been improved resulting in higher pricing. It seems like Google is revamping its strategy for Android One series by tapping the mid-range market segment.
