Most of the phones launched at this years Mobile World Congress have focused on enhancing photography, but Chinese manufacturer Gionee is offering better selfie camera and bigger battery life.

After launching A1 and A1 Plus, William Lu, president of Gionee Communication Equipment Co, told Gulf News that consumers want handsets with a better selfie performance and seamless user experience as they want to take bright, beautiful and natural-looking selfies at any time of the day or night.

“We have noticed that more and more people are regarding selfies as an expression of themselves and they tend to share their photos through various social channels whenever and wherever they are. As a consumer-oriented smartphone manufacturer, we hope to set up the evolution of the selfie experience and provide the best portfolio at the best price,” he said.

The 5.5-inch A is powered by MediaTek Helio P10 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM. It can be expanded up to 256GB via microSD card. It houses 16MP selfie camera and 13MP rear camera. It sports 4,010mAh battery. It is priced at €349 (Dh1,351).

The 6-inch A1 Plus is powered by MediaTek Helio P25 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM. It can be expanded up to 256GB via microSD card. It houses 20MP selfie camera and dual (13MP and 5MP) rear camera. It sports 4,550mAh battery. It is priced at €499.

Gionee has embedded Waves MaxxAudio processing by collaborating with Waves Audio on the devices.

The company entered the Middle East [UAE, Iraq and Afghanistan] last year.

“Our penetration rate in the Middle East is not high as in China or India but it is very easy to double our volume this year,” he said.

India market

The promising markets for Gionee are South East Asia and West Africa. The company sold 40 million units globally last year and expects to sell 60 million units this year. Gionee is present in 50 countries.

“We are one of the first Chinese players to enter India. India is a profitable market for us. In 2016, our revenues grew 2.5 times in 2016 to Rs50 billion and expect it to double it to Rs100 billion this year,” he said.

He said that the global trend that is going to drive the smartphone industry this year will be the camera.

“We are already seeing that China has been unable to sustain its high growth rate for smartphone sales. And after China, there’s only really one burgeoning market in the world with a huge population which can sustain economic growth in future, and that’s India” he said.

Lu said that the A-series will remain Gionee’s core product line for the first half of 2017.