A lot of Filipinos are probably clueless with the mobile brand Gionee. Well, they just arrived in the market early this year but has been enjoying success in China for the past 11 years so they’re really not that new to the game. They already have affordable low to mid-range smartphones in stores but just recently launched their high-end ELife E6 smartphone.
The ELife E6 looks like a cross of the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the iPhone 4. It has a uniform thickness of just 7.7mm with slightly rounded edges and weighs just 128g. It felt actually light for its looks and is a teeny bit thicker than the iPhone 5. It also has a unibody design with a glossy pearly white back that houses a non-removable 2020mAh battery which they claim can last you 7-days on standby.
In its unibody design, buttons are a bit minimal. There’s the tiny Power button on top, the tiny volume rocker on one side and a push-to-pop microSIM slot on the other side. A microUSB port is found at the bottom. Speaking of bottom, I’m not particularly keen on the huge space at the bottom of the display. They could’ve made this more compact by shaving off a few millimeters at the bottom.
The Gionee ELife E6 is a 5-inch Full HD phone with a lot of features akin to the known brands we have right now. First, it uses a Full Lamination Technology on its LTPS LCD (a fancy term for AMOLED) scratch-resistant display for a thinner but brighter out. I didn’t find it that bright though even at full-brightness under a sun-lit room. The auto-brightness setting is controlled by the content on the screen instead of the ambient lighting which according to them is more easy on the battery.
This phone features a 1.5Ghz quad-core MediaTek chip (same as the Cosmos Z) with 2GB RAM and a built-in 32GB internal storage with no slot for a microSD. It uses DTS 3D stereo sound on its speakers with an integrated Sound Camber Box for a more fuller audio output. The phone also features motion gestures such as holding it over your ear to answer a call, flipping it over to mute the sound or snooze the alarm, sweeping air gestures to answer calls, moving through photos, or controlling the volume, and even pause or play a video depending if the person is facing the screen.
There’s a 13-megapixel camera at the back and a 5-megapixel up front with loads of camera features. It can take a photo once it detects a smile or a V-gesture, like a peace sign as popularized by Asians. It also has a Best Shot feature and 12-levels of Beauty Mode for instant Photoshop magic. It also has what they call Picture Clear which is now a popular camera feature in high-end phones to remove unwanted photo bombers.
If you’re still wondering how they can say this has a really good battery life, according to Gionee, their 2020mAh battery is manufactured by Samsung who they say has a far superior battery technology than your typical smartphone battery. It also has what they call Heartbeat Synchronizing Technology or HST which wakes up applications simultaneously every 10 minutes instead of having them wake up whenever they want to. Their AMIGO ROM, which is a modified Android software, also has something to do with it but also makes the device feel a bit alien for the first time even for experienced Android users.
According to the Gionee sales rep that I’ve talked to, they are positioning the ELife E6 to compete with the S4’s and the iPhone’s but with the price of a Lenovo. The Gionee ELife E6 is only available in pearly white color starting this weekend for Php18,990 and comes with a flip case. It’s primary distributor is MemoExpress but you can also find it in similar mobile shops in malls.
Gionee ELife E6 Specs: |
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5-inch Full HD OGS AMOLED display, 1080 x 1920, 441 ppi |
1.5GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589T processor |
PowerVR SGX544 GPU |
2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, no microSD |
13MP BSI rear camera with flash |
5MP FHD front camera |
HSPA+, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 |
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean |
Single SIM |
DTS 3D Surround System, FM Radio |
non-removable 2020mAh battery |
128g |
SRP: Php18,990 |