With their new flagship phone Elife S7, Gionee has proven that it is not only fixated on making its products slimmer, but has also focused on improving the performance benchmarks to keep up with the demands of new applications.
Even though you may not notice much difference in the thickness of the phone compared to its predecessor, you will be treated to the new Amigo 3.0 operating system, which is based on the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop – the first in their line up of smartphones.
Updated with a bigger 5.2” Super AMOLED screen display and longer battery life of 2750mAh, the newly announced Elife S7 is set to appeal to users who enjoy playing mobile games on the go or watching videos in Full HD (1080p). The grooved sides of the phone provides a comfortable hold while not compromising on the premium build of its aviation-grade alloy body, complemented by Corning’s highly scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 3 on its front and back.
Gionee has included a MediaTek MT6752 1.7GHz octa-core CPU, which critics say may further improve battery life but not necessarily perform better than a quad-core with a greater clock speed. Then again, the iPhones have been running smoothly on just a dual-core processor. The company has also taken heed from leading brands like Samsung and Apple to improve its front facing camera to 8MP from the previous 5MP.
While a dual-sim functionality brings convenience to regular travellers and businessmen, who have to otherwise carry two phones in order to separate their personal line from work, I was hoping that Gionee would go a step further by improving its internal memory space or processor instead. This would be a widely welcomed move as it now only has 16GB of internal memory, without the option to add on an external memory card.
The overall look and feel of the Elife S7 may look familiar to Sony Experia users but it comes at a much affordable price. If you are currently still on the Elife S5.1 or you’re looking for a new mobile phone in the market, the improvement in specifications, performance, and new operating system in the Elife S7 makes it a worthy upgrade.
YANTRICK’S VERDICT: The Elife S7 may fall short of being the ultimate upgrade, but given its attractive price tag and specs, it is definitely worth a look.