Hands-on: Gionee Elife S5.5

Yesterday, we were at the SM North EDSA Cyberzone to witness the official launch of the Elife S5.5, Gionee’s latest flagship smartphone. And while we’re at it, we thought of taking the new smartphone out for a spin to see what’s behind the craze about the “Thinnest Smartphone in the World”.

When Gionee said that the Elife S5.5 is the world’s thinnest smartphone, they really meant every word of it. Measuring only 5.5mm thick, it’s hard to imagine how the manufacturer was able to fit in all its components to this wafer-thin handset.

In addition to its slim form factor, another thing that boosted the smartphone’s appeal is the addition of two Corning Gorilla Glass 3 glasses which are laid on top of the phone’s 5-inch display and back panel. This puts the handset at par with the likes of the Sony Xperia Z2, Huawei Ascend P7 and, the handset that started it all, the Apple iPhone 4.

Of course, it’s not all fun and games having a super-thing and glass-laden handset such as the Elife S5.5. During our time with the handset, we find it a tad tricky to pick up the phone when its laying on a flat surface and/or grasp it with one hand because of its super-thin body. Moreover, having Gorilla Glass on both the front and back panels automatically makes the smartphone a smudge and fingerprint magnet.

These are just some of the minor drawbacks that users will have to live with when opting for a thin and almost all-glass handset like the Elife S5.5, but we think that users will eventually get used to it after using it for quite some time.

Now that we’re through with the handset’s design and build, let us take you to quick tour of its components. The Elife S5.5’s front panel is mainly occupied by its 5-inch full-HD screen which is sandwiched in between three capacitive buttons at the bottom and other external components like the phone’s earpiece and 5-megapixel front camera which are placed at the top portion.

Contrary to the usual button placement, all of the handset’s physical keys (Power, Volume Up and Volume Down) are placed on the left flank rather than on the right. So unless the user is a lefty, may find the placement a little awkward at first.

Instead of the power button, the right flank of the Elife S5.5 is occupied by a SIM card slot. The audio jack is located at the bottom section of the phone, while the Micro-USB port is placed on top, and it slightly off-centered.

Lastly, we have the smartphone’s 13-megapixel rear camera and its accompanying LED flash. It’s placed at left-most corner of the Elife S5.5’s posterior, making it slightly tricky to take pictures as the users index finger is likely to block a portion of the lens.

Gionee Elife S5.5 specs:
5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) Super AMOLED display, 441ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3 front and back
1.7GHz MediaTek MTK6592 octa-core CPU
Mali 450MP4 GPU
2GB LPDDR3 RAM
16GB of internal storage
13 megapixel rear camera with Sony sensor
5 megapixel front-facing
HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, A-GPS
USB OTG
Amigo OS 2.0 (Android 4.2)
2,300mAh battery
Dimension: 145.1 x 70.2 x 5.5 mm
Weight: 133 g

The new Gionee Elife S5.5 is now available locally and is currently being retailed for Php21,999.

Ronnie Bulaong

This article was written by Ronnie Bulaong, a special features contributor and correspondent for YugaTech. Follow him on Twitter @turonbulaong.

https://www.yugatech.com

10 Comments

Denise says:

10 years ago

try mo ilagay sa backpocket ng pants mo yan sabay upo, goodbye agad ang 22k mo.. lol
- Reply
randy says:

10 years ago

Ang mahal naman kasi ok na sana eh dahil gawa sya sa 98% na metal at glass…
http://www.specof.com/2014/07/gionee-elife-s5.5-news.html
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Shutter says:

10 years ago

Mukhang mas ok pa to dyan.

http://www.gizmochina.com/2014/07/14/the-xiaomi-mi-4s-specs-revealed-has-a-5-inch-display-screen-and-costs-1999-rmb-322-08-usd/

The Xiaomi Mi 4’s specs revealed: has a 5-inch display screen and costs 1999 RMB (322.08 USD)
?Frank Tu ?July 14, 2014 ?Gadget, News, Xiaomi
There’s only about a few weeks left until Xiaomi launches their newest installment in the Mi series, the Xiaomi Mi 4. Xiaomi will host a launch event for the Mi 4 along with their other new products on July 22.

In the meantime, new information has come out on the phone’s specs. The Mi 4 uses a 5-inch 1080p display screen. Its processor is the Snapdragon 801 chipset (MSM8974AC) with 2.5GHz. It also sports a 5mp/13mp camera and its operating system is the MIUI V6 OS. The biggest changes in the phone are its mid-size frames and the fact that it was designed with a metal case. Hopefully, the Mi 4 supports 4G internet.
- Reply
jenz says:

10 years ago

clearly, mobile photography weren’t considerations for this phone. that camera placement will be bothersome to any self- respecting mobile photographer. It would be specially tricky to attach add-on lenses
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Nil says:

10 years ago

No LTE? at 21k? hmmm
- Reply

Shiika says:

10 years ago

downside nya. ang mahal pa

Easy E says:

10 years ago

If you carry brandnames like sony or LG, justified ang ganitong price tag. Too expensive for a “gionee”.
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Typical says:

10 years ago

Dapat snapdragon 801 na lang nilagay ng gionee para on par sa mga kalaban, im enjoying my new z2, it may not be as thin pero it beats this phone in all major aspects
Justin says:

10 years ago

Agree! Not to mention the crappy MediaTek chip.

_montz says:

10 years ago

napakagandang phone .. kaso mahaL .. Mi3 or One Plus one pa rin ako kung papipiLiin, nice phone by the way ,, nice camera .. and display .. performance yes very good .. pero mahaL Lang .. di rin appropriate ang battery coz it sports a whooping fuLL HD display ..
- Reply