Set up in 2002 in Shenzhen, Gionee was a maker of budget phones even before Xiaomi. It quickly won over a large number of consumers even at the age when ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad and Lenovo dominated the Chinese mobile market.
However, Gionee went bankrupt in 2018 due to unpaid debts and poor financial management. It's a brand that's rarely heard of in the mobile phone market anymore.
Gionee released several mid-range and entry-level smartphones last year, a flip phone and feature phone that gave the impression of a comeback. Recently, Gionee has released another phone called Gionee K6.
The Gionee K6 is positioned as a mid-range machine and is powered by the MediaTek Helio P60 chipset.
The chipset was released in 2018 and is in the same category as the Snapdragon 660, but has not performed well.
By comparison, the Redmi Note 6 Pro with Snapdragon 660 may be more popular with consumers.
The Gionee K6 Base Edition comes with 6GB of RAM built in + 128GB of ROM storage and is priced at 799 yuan, a price that should attract many buyers.
There's even an 8GB + 128GB ROM storage version for 899 yuan and an 8GB RAM + 256GB ROM storage version for 1,099 yuan.
In addition, the Gionee K6 comes with an impressive 4350mAh battery and supports 10W fast charging, so a day of normal use is no problem.
In terms of design, it has a 6.2-inch LCD display with a water drop port on top and a 13-megapixel camera.
On the back of the phone, a dual camera setup is used, including a 16-megapixel AI primary camera. There is also a rear-mounted fingerprint recognition on the back.
There is no doubt that the K6 will have some advantage in cost control, but it is not certain that it will provide good software support.
Typically, the 8GB + 128GB is priced at the same price as the 4GB + 64GB on the Redmi Note 8. But Xiaomi and other popular brands (like OPPO, Vivo, OnePlus, etc.) offer better after-sales protection.
Of course, with Gionee launching the Gionee F9 Plus in India last year, the Gionee K6 may also be available in India.