Gionee booth has considerably grown in size this year at MWC. Gionee has garnered global recognition thanks to phones like Gionee Elife E7 and Gionee Elife S5.5. With a 5.55 mm of body sleekness it is the world’s slimmest smartphone and scores high in terms of build quality compared to other Gionee phones that we have seen so far.
Gionee Elife S5.5 Quick Specs
- Display Size: 5 Inch Super AMOLED, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 441 PPI, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Processor: 1.7 GHz Octa Core MT6592
- RAM: 2 GB
- Software Version: Android 4.2 with Amigo 2.0 UI
- Camera: 13 MP camera, LED flash, 1080p Video Recording at 30 fps
- Secondary Camera: 5 MP
- Internal Storage: 16 GB
- External Storage: No
- Battery: 2300 mAh
- Connectivity: HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, aGPS, GLONASS
- sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Gionee Elife S5.5 Hands on, Quick Review, Camera, Features and Overview HD at MWC 2014 [Video]
Design and Build
The phone has beautiful metallic body design. It is the most premium phone we have seen from Gionee so far. Though we don’t know the exact weight of the device, we could comfortably hold it using 2 fingers. It was quite light. both the black and white color variant look quite premium and have a glass at front and back side. Aluminum alloy runs around the edges further enhancing the beauty of Elife S5.5.
The display is super AMOLED, which implies that the phone will give you excellent darks and good contrast ratio. Viewing angles were good but not the best that we have seen. The resolution is full HD and we did like the color and sharpness it had to offer. The capacitive buttons below the display don’t light up when touched in the prototype we reviewed. The Loud speaker is at the back side and sound will be muffled when the phone rests on its back.
Camera and Internal Storage
The primary camera has a 13 MP sensor at the back and is supported by LED flash support. The sample shot we took of Lenovo Vibe Z was rich in details in spite of the artificial light that we tested it in. The 1080p Video that we recorded was also of fine quality. The front 5 MP camera will also provide with good quality video chat.
The internal storage is 16 GB and you will have to pacify yourself with only that much onboard storage. There is no microSD card slot, but Gionee has provided with OTG support in this phone, which means you can connect external flash drive to view multimedia content.
Battery, OS and Chipset
The battery is 2300 mAh, which is understandable considering the sleek design. Gionee claims this will last one day usage similar to the flagship Elife E7. The Operating system is Android 4.2 with Amigo UI 2.0 on top, which we are not a fan of. The chipset employed is 1.7 GHz MT6592 true octa core processor from mediatek. The RAM capacity is 2 GB out of which 1.5 GB was already in use in the prototype that we reviewed. We didn’t notice any operational lag in our initial time with the device, but we will have to test it some more before we can confirm that.
Gionee Elife S5.5 Photo Gallery
Conclusion
Considering the price tag will be in the range of 20k to 25k INR, Gionee has a solid value for money device at hand. The display, camera and processor are all impressive. The Build quality is of course the USP of this device. The compromise here is the Amigo UI. You could always throw in a few extra thousand and go for the flagship Elife E7.
