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

Yash GargMarch 2, 2015

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.

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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.

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About the author

Yash Garg
Yash is a blogger by profession, builder of things by passion and foodie by birth. You'll usually find him talking about technology, music, travel and the game of cricket on the streets of Pune when not busy writing or speeding his way through the country! Read more on retro handheld gaming on RETRO91
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- balcobomber25
  March 2, 2015
  The earliest that will happen is September. It is usually around 6 months from the time Gionee releases it.

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
    - 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
iKosh
March 2, 2015
- - 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.

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!
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

10basetom
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
        
        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:
    The dimensions listed on GSMArena are more believable (and are the dimensions I went with in the spreadsheet above):
  - - - 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.

nick
March 2, 2015
if these fantastic dimensions are true it would be the phone i want… if costs not more then 250 dollar
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.

oceanseamaster.ibuy
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…

George
March 2, 2015
OMG whats wrong with this people?All of a sudden everybody wants to be a 400$ top shotta?
Xalis
March 3, 2015
It’s there even a point on getting a phone with a price tag higher than $250?
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