Gionee Elife S7 announced at MWC 2015, comes with 64-bit octa-core MT6752 and 5.2″ screen


As we expected, Gionee has finally announced the Elife S7 smartphone that everyone had been waiting for. GizChina had previously leaked information about the device, including the fact that it will have an octa-core MediaTek MT6752 SoC. It turns out our report was indeed spot on!

64-bit octa-core CPU , 5.5 mm thin frame

The Elife S7 has a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED display with a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080p pixels. The 1.7GHz octa-core MT6752 is accompanied by 2GB of RAM on the phone, which means Gionee isn’t really aiming at the flagship area with this one. The Elife S7 also has 16GB on-board storage, which doesn’t seem to be expandable. I think that can be attributed to the fact that the chassis of the device doesn’t allow for much flexibility; the phone measures 139.8 mm x 67.4 mm x 5.5 mm, i.e., is as thin as the Elife S5.5 which was the thinnest phone at one point in time last year.

Gizchina News of the week


The phone also features a 13 mega-pixel main camera along with an 8 mega-pixel front sensor, which is fixed focus. Battery is often a problem with thin phones, but it looks as though Gionee have it sorted on the Elife S7 with a 2700mAh cell which doesn’t sound too bad on paper.

As is the trend these days, Gionee will be shipping the phone with its own skin — Amigo 3.0 — over Android 5.0 which is certainly something Gionee can be proud of. The dual SIM phone has support for 4G networks on the following bands: TDD LTE B38/39/40 FDD LTE B3/7/8/20.

The 13 mega-pixel sensor of the Elife S7 is also supposed to feature what Gionee call the Image+ processing engine which enabled users to shoot ‘stunningly high quality images’. The MediaTek MT6752 of the Elife S7 is already a proven horse; we’ve previously seen phones such as the JiaYu S3 and Siswoo Cooper i7 powered by the chip.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

Previous ZTE Grand S3 takes security to a new level with eye scanner
Next MWC: Snail Gaming Console and phone

57 Comments

  1. Yakunty
    March 2, 2015

    I’m waiting titl it shows up as the BLU VIVO Air II…

    • balcobomber25
      March 2, 2015

      The earliest that will happen is September. It is usually around 6 months from the time Gionee releases it.

  2. Lukas
    March 2, 2015

    if the dimensions are correct, it would mean that the side bezzels are circa 1 mm wide :O just that price…. :/

    • Mustafa
      March 2, 2015

      THL 2015
      Lenovo P70
      Siswoo Cooper I7

      Which is your recommended phone in the list?

      • Lukas
        March 2, 2015

        i would say no to thl, too pricey for what it offers and really ugly for me
        lenovo is more trustworthy producer, and the P70 2GB version has pretty decent VFM, and really good battery 🙂
        never heard of siswoo, could be fine too, but lacks in battery againts p70

        • Mustafa
          March 2, 2015

          Thanks!

        • balcobomber25
          March 2, 2015

          The THL is only about $20 US more than these others. Personally I like the design of the THL better and they are more established brand than Siswoo. As for Lenovo they have one of the worst ROM’s on any Android phone. They all have their plus and minuses, just comes down to which brand you like best.

          • Mustafa
            March 2, 2015

            Thank you mate. Well, this will be my first smartphone. I was planning to get the Redmi 2 enhanced version but for $20 or $30 more I would prefer to get something much powerful. There is also the Meizu M1 Mini but I don’t know when it will be available in the market. Zte Blade S6 is also very interesting in terms of specs for a price around 200€. It is damn difficult to make a choice.

      • CiroD
        March 2, 2015

        Personally I love AMOLED display, but 4000MAh of Lenovo … WTF

  3. iKosh
    March 2, 2015

    Price?

    • Lukas
      March 2, 2015

      i have read that it will cost 400€ for europe :/

      • Nick
        March 2, 2015

        400€ haha Gionee are too funny with their pricing!

      • David Košič
        March 2, 2015

        Lol if I add a just a little bit extra I can buy the samsung galaxy s6 or the htc one m9.

        • balcobomber25
          March 2, 2015

          If by a little bit extra you mean 299 euro extra….

    • March 2, 2015

      30K INR in India, should be around $475

      • Hbk
        March 2, 2015

        That is dissapointing. I have no idea what happened to gionee all of a sudden. their pricing is pathetic riduculas.

        Their Elife E7 with Sd800 and 3gb ram was priced at 27k inr in india.
        Which is actually avail. for less than 250$ usd in some other country now.

        This phone is worse than Elife E7. And 30k?

        OnePlus One, Vibe X2, Xiaomi Mi4, Huawei Honor 6. All betyer option for less price.
        even Samsung Galaxy Alpha is avail in india for 32k i think. -_-

        • Hbk
          March 2, 2015

          **Galaxy Alpha 26k INR in india.

          This gionee phone should be DOA in india at that price.

        • balcobomber25
          March 2, 2015

          How is this phone worse than E7? This has a better and newer SOC, runs 5.0, has LTE and is in much smaller and slimmer form factor. The only thing better on the E7 is the camera. What makes the Mi4 (which I own) or Honor 6 better options than this phone? On Flipkart right now the Galaxy Alpha is selling for 29,870.

          • MaxPower
            March 2, 2015

            What makes a MI4 (which I own too) better than this one?
            GPU, price, IR blaster, Quick Charge 2.0, price, software support, battery, ram, barometer.
            Let’s say CPU and camera are comparable.
            Lollipop for miui is going to be released this month.
            My MI4 has no LTE because I was in a hurry to get it but now they make the LTE version too.
            Oh yeah, dual Sim.I forgot about that.
            But still not enough to make this phone better than MI4.

            • balcobomber25
              March 2, 2015

              I don’t have the LTE version either and I paid more than the cost of the S7 to get my Mi4. IR blaster to me is useless feature, I have honestly never used it on Mi4. Ram is equal, both phones have 2GB. As far as battery life that remains to be determined; while its smaller on paper the MTK in this phone is supposed to use a lot less power than the Snapdraon in the Mi4. Lollipop is already available on this phone. I love my Mi4 and have no problem paying what I did for it, but it really doesn’t offer anything this phone doesn’t.

            • MaxPower
              March 2, 2015

              I think that guy meant the price for indian market. The LTE version of MI4 in India is 310$.
              You probably have the youth edition of MI4 with 2GB of ram since mine has 3GB.
              I also thought that IR blaster was a niche feature but I use it everyday.
              But this is not the point,I didn’t want to argue about what’s useful or not, some people might not need dual Sim, like me for example, for other is a deal breaker.I simple listed all the things that MI4 has and this one has not. Hopefully this one won’t have the same issue of Jiayu that takes more then 3 hours to charge. Come on mate, don’t tell me you don’t love how fast the Mi4 gets fully charged!

          • Hbk
            March 3, 2015

            Mi4, OPO, Honor 6, All has 3gb ram. 64gb internal storage. Honor 6 has 16gb expandable storage.

            And they all cost less than this phone. (Dont know you are in which country, But in India, they all cost less than 400$ usd)

            This phone has 16gb and no sd card. 2gb ram.

            Snapdragon 801 in MI4 and OPO. Which has way superior performance specially in graphics. +They both support quick charge.

            Cyanogen/Oxygen Os and MIUI vs Gionee’s amigo UI. lol. Their updates are slower than anything.

            LTE? OPO has that too. So does Honor 6.

            Elife E7 had SD800 + 3gb Ram + 32gb Internal.
            Wlife S7 has Mt6752 + 2gb Ram + 16gb Internal.

            Its their marketing stratergy to not to update Elife E7 to lollipop.
            -_-
            Whats the point of newer Soc when it costs more and performs less than older one. This one doesnt perform better than SD800. Even if cpu performace is slightly better. GPU performance Adreno 330 will be way superior.

            Look at Lenovo A7000. Almost Same Spec, Almost Same performance, With dolby Atmos, For less than half the price of this Phone. (Mt6752m, 8MP, 720p screen) vs (mt6752, 13mp, 1080p screen). Performance should be same because of screen diff.

            Coming from a chinese brand, This phone doesnt deserve more than 225$ usd price tag.
            IMO.

            P.S – And there you go. 26.5k on snapdeal for Galaxy alpha. Yesterday it was 25999.

            http://m.snapdeal.com/product/samsung-galaxy-alpha-charcoal-black/99738213?vendorCode=S63a1e&utm_medium=101727620&utm_campaign=12_175&utm_source=earth_feed

            On flipkart its 26999.

            http://www.flipkart.com/samsung-galaxy-alpha/p/itmeyg8srcj3vh3w?pid=MOBEYAW2YZNKXETE&cmpid=content_mobile_8965229628_gmc_pla&tgi=sem,1,G,11214002,g,search,,50314732220,1o1,,,t,,,,,,,&gclid=CLK-w_6MjMQCFUUnjgodvysAHw

            Please get your info right. You have been posting wrong information on this post and the other one leneovo vibe shot post. -_-

      • Mustafa
        March 2, 2015

        Hi Yash, have you been able to test the Siswoo Cooper I7? What’s your feeling about the phone? How is the battery life for a normal usage (phone calls, internet)? Siswoo is brand new company with no track record, is it worth to buy it? I am hesitating between the THL 2015, Siswoo Cooper i7, Lenovo P70 and Redmi 2 Enhanced. The Redmi 2 with 2GB ram will be sold around $185 for international buyers so maybe it would be better to add $20 or $30 more to buy a device with MTK CPU (much powerful comparing to Snapdragon 410). Your help and advices are welcome.

        • March 3, 2015

          UPDATE: Fixed, now testing.

          Unfortunately I’m waiting for a fix from the supplier because the Siswoo doesn’t seem to register itself on my network (most likely an IMEI issue). Other than that, I simply love the ergonomics of the phone. If you could wait a bit, the picture will be clearer about the Siswoo… And if you’re in a hurry Xiaomi is always a safe bet.

          • Mustafa
            March 3, 2015

            Thank you mate. Redmi 2 might be like you said a safe bet but it will be sold at $185 or more for international buyers. For $20 or $30 more, maybe it is better to get a device with a MTK processor for more power. I have seen a video regarding the IUNI U3 Mini, do you know when this device will be on sale and the price? THL 2015 has pretty good specs for the price.

  4. Muhammad Yasir
    March 2, 2015

    pricing will determine how well it performs sales wise , people are already being swayed by SUB $200 flagships that really perform outrageously well. I hope Gionee have thought this one through!

  5. Meghrajsinh chadasama
    March 2, 2015

    I personally interested in iocean rock, Jiayu s3 becoz 3gb ram, expandable memory slots, fast charging, half price & also preferred kingzone z1 for better smart looking ….. What you think about this yash

  6. March 2, 2015

    “139.8 mm x 67.4 mm x 5.5 mm” – I won’t believe the width and height are accurate until someone measures them with a ruler. When you follow Chinese phones long enough, you learn not to trust their advertised specs. As a comparison, here’s the dimensions for the Elife S5.5 with a smaller 5-inch screen: 145.1 x 70.2 x 5.55 mm. What’s interesting here is that the width and height are identical to those of the 4.8-inch Elife S5.1 — could someone have simply copied and pasted them and forgot to update the numbers? The original printed dimensions are more believable: 148.8 x 72.4 x 5.5 mm.

    • balcobomber25
      March 2, 2015

      Gionee has no history of lying about product dimensions, why would they suddenly start now? The body of this phone looks almost the same as that of the 5.1, if they shrunk the top and bottom bezels even by just a few mm each they could fit the bigger display.

      • desponent
        March 3, 2015

        You’re delusional if you think they’ve fitted 5.2″ phone to 67mm width body. It’s not and every picture of the phone can tell you that easily. Wait for the official spec to be released, since I’m not sure where gizchina got them.

        • balcobomber25
          March 3, 2015

          “It’s not and every picture of the phone can tell you that easily.” You are able to actually judge dimensions based on pictures? Seeing as you are the expert then, tell us the exact dimensions? We shouldn’t need to wait for the official ones, we have pictures and desponent.

          • desponent
            March 3, 2015

            Are you really thinking that those are the dimension of the phone when Gionee themselves didn’t say anything about it beside the thickness? What are you gonna do when the official spec comes out and you’re proven wrong? Deny the world too?

            • balcobomber25
              March 3, 2015

              I’m honestly not going to give it a second thought. I really am not as deeply invested in this phones dimensions as you appear to be. Clearly phone dimensions strike a nerve with you. Take a breath it will all be ok.

            • balcobomber25
              March 4, 2015

              Might want to check the Gionee website they have the following listed for specs: 139.8mmx67.4mmx5.5mm

              http://global.gionee.com/product_elife-s7/home/

            • desponent
              March 4, 2015

              They should fire whoever responsible for their english language site http://www.gsmarena.com/gionee_elife_s7-7032.php
              148.8 x 72.4 x 5.5 is more likely since they also claim it has 69% body to screen ratio.

              But oh well, I don’t really care either way. I’m just baffled at how people are so readily able to throw their logic just to argue and try to win argument in internet against some anonymous. I’ll just let you believe whatever you want to believe. Carry on.

            • balcobomber25
              March 4, 2015

              I love people like you who try to call others out for doing something you also do. Makes you look really smart….

      • March 3, 2015

        I’m not saying they are lying — it could just be an honest copy & paste mistake. Not to nerd rage, but the dimensions printed in this article are pretty unbelievable, and if true would give the Elife S7 a Portability Index of 89.79, which is unheard of and would make Gionee the most impressive phone manufacturer in the world (maybe the entire universe) given current technology.

        What is the Portability Index? It is a phone’s volume (cubic mm) to screen size (in) ratio multiplied by its weight (g) to screen size (in) ratio divided by the battery size (mAh). If you calculate the PI of some popular phones you would immediately realize that the holy grail would be a score of 100, so that’s the long answer to why I don’t think the dimensions printed in this article are accurate. Here’s a spreadsheet listing the PI scores (the last column) of various phones I’ve tracked over the years — see for yourself:

        https://www.dropbox.com/s/j376f8zftooneeu/devices.xls?dl=0

        The dimensions listed on GSMArena are more believable (and are the dimensions I went with in the spreadsheet above):

        http://www.gsmarena.com/gionee_elife_s7-7032.php

        • balcobomber25
          March 3, 2015

          You have entirely too much time on your hands….

      • Velisar
        March 3, 2015

        The LG G2 is 138.5 mm X 70.9 mm with a 5.2 inches screen of the same dimensions. The G2 has 2.65 mm lateral bezels. This results in 0.9 mm lateral bezels for this one… If I were Gionee, I would sure brag about this world record. Also, I made you a quick montage with the G2 and the large xperia Z3 (by having the same height in the middle of the screen, the different perspective don’t matter). I guess that the height is actually 149.8 mm.

        Hey Yash, those dimensions should scream that something isn’t right.

        • balcobomber25
          March 3, 2015

          It’s very tough to make any sort of comparison using promotional pictures that were all taken at different times with different cameras. I am not saying the above dimensions are or aren’t correct, just that it’s not completely out of this realm of possibility.

        • Angry Mobile Nerd
          March 3, 2015

          Doesn’t anyone here know how to use CAD?

          A 1080×1920 5.2″ screen kept at perfect ratio (16.9) will be approximately (or exactly, for that matter) 64.8mm wide and 115.1~2mm tall.

          Anyways if the S7 is in fact 67.4mm wide that leaves 1.3mm for bezels on each side.

          • Angry Mobile Nerd
            March 3, 2015

            Looking at my screen it also doesn’t look right, there is no way “139.8 mm x 67.4 mm x 5.5 mm” are the correct dimensions so I headed over to http://www.gionee.com and checked the specs there:

            148.8mm x 72.4mm x 5.5mm

            Ah it makes sense now. You guys have been fighting over this for hours when simple CAD or checking the official website would have solved everything.

            EDIT: fyi after seeing it in CAD it was actually the “139.8mm” height that made less sense than the “67.4mm” width which caused me to double check the website.

            • balcobomber25
              March 4, 2015

              Gionee’s website has the following listed for specs:

              139.8mmx67.4mmx5.5mm

              http://global.gionee.com/product_elife-s7/home/

            • Angry Mobile Nerd
              March 4, 2015

              Straight from the horse’s (Chinese) mouth:

              http://shop.gionee.com/zhuanti/2015/0303s7/details.shtml

              The problem when Chinese companies do “global” sites is they’re always littered with mistakes as you guys have found.

            • balcobomber25
              March 4, 2015

              one of them is obviously wrong we won’t know which one until someone measures it in a review.

              Gionee are a little different than other manufacturers who do “global” sites. While Gionee is a Chinese company, their phone divisions biggest market and some of its offices are in India.

            • Angry Mobile Nerd
              March 4, 2015

              Here’s the quick CAD drawing I mocked up yesterday with the two questionable dimensions and both sporting true 16:9 5.2″ displays.

              You’ll see why the 139.8mm height (left) immediately stands out as being two short leaving the top and bottom bezels too small and no where near matches the look of Gionee’s own S7 product illustrations. Where as the one on the right with the 148.8mm height looks a lot more like the product illustrations. That’s why I said it’s actually more about the height than the width.

            • balcobomber25
              March 4, 2015

              I’ll take your word for it as I have no experience with CAD.

  7. nick
    March 2, 2015

    if these fantastic dimensions are true it would be the phone i want… if costs not more then 250 dollar

  8. RRRobert
    March 2, 2015

    FDD-LTE support also covers band B20 (800 MHz), that’s a big plus compared to many competitors. I do however sincerely hope that 16 Gb of storage space is not the limit. My 2013 model Mi2S already has 32 Gb inside and i don’t want to go back in storage capacity.

  9. March 2, 2015

    Well, I don´t care about slim phones, just want balanced specs. Gionee phones normally lack balanced prices and battery capacity.

    Anyway if you need a proper workhorse of low end phone, I´d purchased a Jiake M4 for my little sister and the phone lasted a full day of facebooking, whatsapping, twitteing, and all the things we do, but teenagers do them fulltime… with just 20% of the battery!!!

    I´m amazed, even if I purchased it for an endurance reason…

  10. George
    March 2, 2015

    OMG whats wrong with this people?All of a sudden everybody wants to be a 400$ top shotta?

  11. Xalis
    March 3, 2015

    It’s there even a point on getting a phone with a price tag higher than $250?

  12. Angry Mobile Nerd
    March 3, 2015

    The three launch colors will be “North Pole White”, “Maldives Blue”, and “Los Angeles Black”. Los Angeles Black? WTF was Gionee thinking?

    • Guest
      March 3, 2015

      They might have been in the African American neighborhood of Los Angeles

  13. March 3, 2015

    umi zero / z3 meets find 7

  14. agismaniax
    March 3, 2015

    Support 4G Band 3,8,40. Interesting!

  15. MexiDroid
    March 4, 2015

    too much bezels!