Gionee S8
Gionee unveiled the narrowest 5.5"
phone yet - just 74.9mm wide. Meet the Gionee S8. The company called out the
iPhone 6s Plus, Huawei's Mates, the Oppo R7s as examples of wider phones. Well,
that's what Gionee says, it conveniently forgot to mention the LG G3, a
5.5" phone that's actually narrower.
The Gionee S8 features a
"loop" full-metal design. "Loop" here means that the
antenna runs around the side of the phone. Unlike the LG G5, the S8 has
traditional antenna lines, but they are painted to perfectly match the rest of
the body.
The AMOLED screen has 1080p resolution
and is covered with 2.5D glass. It has 3D touch too, recognizing three levels -
Touch (selects), Tap (previews) and Press (opens). The camera comes fully loaded. It's a
16 MP shooter that's geared towards low-light shooting. It has a bright f/1.8
aperture and a RWB sensor - that means the usual green pixels have been
replaced with more sensitive white ones. Gionee promises a 40% boost in sensitivity
and an 80% reduction in noise. There's also Laser focus and Phase Detection AF.
The phone records 1080p video with advanced audio capture. A 70dB
high-sensitivity dual-mic system and an AKM4961 chip do the work. There's
"multi-dimensional" noise reduction and "3D recording."
The Gionee S8 is powered by a MediaTek
Helio P10 chipset (octa-core CPU) with a healthy dose of memory - 4 GB of RAM
and 64 GB storage. The 3,000 mAh can be fast charged at 18W (9V, 2A). The phone
will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow at launch and has a fingerprint reader on its
Home key. Initially, the custom Amigo 3.2 skin will be used (Gionee's own take
on Android), but the 4.0 update will come out in June.
The company has brokered an interesting,
unique feature with WhatsApp (the popular chat app). The S8 can log into two
WhatsApp accounts, so you can keep personal and work communications separate.
Also in terms of communications, the S8 is a dual-SIM phone with LTE and VoLTE.
The Gionee S8 will launch at the end of March for € 450.
