After the success achieved in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Turkey, General Mobile arrives in Italy bringing with him two new smartphones, including the model GM 6 that we got to try for a few days.
But how does this device that aims to conquer the low end of the market behave?
A questionable design
If you usually judge a book by its cover, then you will surely turn up your nose at GM 6. General Mobile's smartphone it is not particularly attractive, thanks to a rather anonymous front part that houses the display from 5 inches, with HD resolution, and a fingerprint reader which doubles as a Home button.
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In general however GM 6 turns out a solid and well built device, comfortable to hold and difficult to drop.
A look at the technical characteristics
From the hardware point of view we are not faced with a monster of power, primarily thanks to the processor, un MediaTek MT6737T da 1,5 GHz. However, we have to support him 3 GB of RAM, GPU Mali T720 MP2 e 32 GB of internal memorya, expandable thanks to the aforementioned microSD and without sacrificing the slot used for the second SIM. This will allow you to install a lot of applications, applications that however tend not to open lightning fast. GM 6 is in fact a quick and simple device to use but it tends to have some unpleasant - but not disabling - slowdown.
Among the pluses of the smartphone we find the 4.5 G connectivity, flanked by Bluetooth 4.2, the micro USB connector and dual-band WiFi, while NFC is absent. The battery instead is from 3.000 mAh and allows you to get to the end of the day without major problems, provided, however, that you do not stress it particularly; in fact, with heavy use you will need a small boost of energy in the middle of the day.
It is forbidden to take pictures in the dark
GM 6 takes advantage of a 13 megapixel sensor with Flash LED Dual Tone and relies on Mediatek software, which makes the shots discreet but certainly very far from perfection. The result is all in all honest in good light conditions, with bright photos and quick shots, while drastically worsening when lighting becomes dim. Here the noise becomes too much, making the photo look like an antiquity relic rather than an image taken in 2017.
He generally thinks about improving the quality of the photographs HDR, but this will require a small sacrifice on your part. In fact, the shutter speeds with the activated High Dynamic Range become a little longer. A shame if you are trying to seize the moment.
The front camera is instead from 8 megapixel, equipped with LED Flash and capable of giving discreet shots.
Android One
I have described the design to you, I have told you about the technical characteristics of the smartphone and I have told you about the perplexities relating to the photographic department, but I have not yet told you what is the most interesting aspect of this GM 6. The General Mobile smartphone is in fact a Android One, i.e. a device whose updates are controlled directly by Google.
On board we find Android 7.0 in its stock version, which should make it very similar to the various Pixel and Nexus produced in Mountain View. Yes, I know, it is a bit turn-up that it is not sold with version 7.1.1, but the fault here is not Big G but Mediatek. To avoid compromising the stability of the processor it was in fact preferred to skip the latest version of the operating system for go directly to Android O, coming this fall.
The two versions of the Italian market
GM 6 has landed on our market in two versions, the one with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory that I got to try in the last few days and a version with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. To differentiate them there are exclusively these two parameters and, of course, the price: the first is sold at a price of 179 Euros while the second a Euro 159.
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General Mobile GM 6 is therefore suitable for anyone looking for something economical, robust and constantly updated, without paying too much attention to design and performance.
