The new Elephone S3 has just arrived for the review so we can take a first look at highly hyped bezel-less wonder and share our initial findings and pictures with our loyal readers.
First of all i want to say, that Elephone for sure did something right in the design department and the “wow” effect when first litting up the S3 screen is just there, because they are not lying about the bezel-less stuff and i’m a sucker for those.
The 5,2-inch incell IPS with the FullHD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution looks vivid and thanks to the so-called “3D” rounded edges the Samsung Edge look-alike status is almost complete. Yeah the edge is not used for control sure and takes some time getting used to properly holding it without rearranging the icons or starting apps by mistake, but all in all thumbs up for it.
The full metal body feels good in hand and thanks to the curved back it’s quite pleasant to hold it. It’s not the slimmest phone out there with 8.3 mm, but nothing to be ashamed of. I will need to weigh it properly for the review, cos it feels quite heavy and i suspect the official info about 145 g might be too optimistic. Or my sense is tilted 🙂
There are no hardware capacitative buttons for the basic controls so everything is done via the bottom bar with the software ones. Fingerprint sensor in the back looks pretty snappy and can be used also for more tasks like scrolling or music control. Slightly dissapointing for me is the protruding camera lens, i prefer it personally not being like that.
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Hardware side of things will be quite lower midrange oriented with the MT6753 and 3 GB RAM, but so far everything runs smooth except some heavy 3D games where the GPU just falls flat, but that’s something common for such hardware. I’m curious about the 13 Mpix Sony IMX135 sensor camera performance, but not expecting too much, same with the 5 Mpix front one. OS side of things is handled by almost stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow so everything in order.
Elephone S3 hands on – Gallery
So far i’m pleasantly surprised with the build quality and looks of the Elephone S3, not surprised at all with the hardware performance and totally worried about possible disaster looming around with just the 2100 mAh battery capacity.
All the questions will be answered in just a few days in our detailed review so stay tuned. If you have any questions about the Elephone S3 (coupon ELE2016S3) feel free to ask in the comments below and i will do my best to answer to your satisfaction.
i want Andi’s opinion on this !
Probably will end up to be
“Decent phone, garbage battery.”
lol … but it would be nice to hear something to back up or bring down the MASSIVE waves of criticisms this phone has faced since its inception. No offense to the other editors/writers on this site , i respect them all.
but it would be very satisfying and authentic to hear it from the Chief himself. iirc , he’s the one incharge here , leads this website … yes ?
also , Andi hasn’t talked to me in ages 🙁
so i would like to see that change too !
I get your point, but andi can’t do everything here: he’s already working at least on a couple of other reviews, adding more would mean a delay for more important phones like zuk z2 pro, not to mention he will surely work on other reviews as soon as phones like op3 will be officially announced.
We want andi’s reviews because we trust his judgment, and his opinion about this is “martin is good enough to handle this”, so we should trust him on this one too ?
Plus, spoiler: it’s going to be the same 6753 phone we’ve been flooding into this whole year, only with a ridiculous battery life, so the only reason for buying it is that useless and annoying bezeless-ness.
And, to be completely honest: let andi rest a bit… He already had to deal with enough elecrap throughout this year, he deserves something better for a bit… ?
hahah … aight.
I understand what your saying as having different people reivewing different phones makes it much harder to compare reviews, as much of a review is personal preference and a 7/10 for one person might only be 5/10 for someone else. I personally think one person should have the soul task of reviews and nothing else, it makes it much easier for he/she to compare like for like and answer questions like ‘ which camera is better phone X or phone Y’ etc.
That would be an ideal solution in ideal world, but realistically that’s just not possible to pull off. Reviews are always the main time consuming article so you need to spread the samples around more editors .
Agreed, testing a phone properly takes time and i don’t mind who reviews it really as long as it’s not the gizchina superhero ‘ad-man’!
sole*
on a more serious note, while i agree with you and want nothing more than Andi to review EACH AND EVERY phone … MattD has emphasized the nightmares Andi has been subjected to by Elephone 😀 , which means he deserves some well deserved rest atm. we could give him that now , can’t we ?
Andi is not an octopus so he can’t juggle all the reviews by himself. But even from the lowly grunt like me the review is going to be as impartial as any other. If you have some specific question or suggestion for the Elephone S3 review I’m all ears.
just make sure you are as strict as the MOST UNKIND GSM Arena reviewer. those guys are famous for their scrutiny… esp on camera. if u find the SLIGHTEST of the mistake , make sure to point it out. esp since Elephone are famous for deploying something substandard in some part of their phones …. always.
and heyy … i never said anyone is a lowly grunt here (Karel Blanc jokes apart , he’s really good at advertising 😀 ). its just that everyone believes andi to have the right mix of criticism and praise to truly gauge a phone’s actual mettle.
sorry if i offended u tho …
No problem 🙂 You can judge the level of “harshness” when the review is up.
hehe 😀
Is the 2100mAh battery good ? how many hours does it last for heave usage
Battery will need further testing, the full review will be up in few days. So far battery life seems average to below average, we shall see.
Thanks . It looks like vernee apollo, i think vernee would be better option
Vernee Apollo Lite vs Elephone S3? OMG! It’s like comparing a Ferrari vs a Toyota… =P
Maybe like comparing a Ferrari vs a bicycle LOL
Please be as OBJECTIVE as possible with your reviews. But to be frank to many bad news about Elephoney that we already lost trust in their products.
I am not against china small odd brands but to be honest, i tried some of their products and all don’t have the features that they promised. And to make it worse, their build quality SUCKS BIG TIME. More or less cannot stand for 1 year.
I created a ticket inquiry on shipment on Elephone’s main website, several days passed and totally no respond. I actually regret ordering. How could I order from a some company that couldn’t even do basic reply to their customer
Tempted but will wait for the higher specced P9000 edge.
Great looking phone though.
You are up to a looooong wait then….
Holy shit! That smartphone look really really good! 😉
I think i smelled enough sarcasm to know that this will be a decent review, once it’s finished.
This is the exact footprint of honor 7. 2100mah battery is a big no no!
Lol 2100mAh? Really Elephone? Pass.
I pass every Elephone exists… Almost all of them have problems. LOL.
No kidding. I had an Elephone P8 and it was a terrible experience. After half a year the phone got really slow and the battery died very quickly.
I like the P9000, first elephone to not make me cringe. I think the M line is half decent too. But this,this is just nope.
it’s a shame the battery is below par (capacity), but those bezels (or lack of them) really makes me want to hold the phone for once. guess this one will be for the more adventurous buyers.
2100mah?? seriously?
this design looks more appealing and beautiful to me than the other elephones