Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions: 6-inch Phablet loaded with Impressive features

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Chinese smartphone company Gionee has launched its new flagship smartphone, the Elife E8 in India. The phone comes to India a few months after it was initially launched in China. The successor to the Elife E7 smartphone, the Elife E8 boasts new and updated specifications on board, which include 24MP camera, fingerprint scanner and MediaTek Helio X10 chipset.

 

Rating:
3.5/5

Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions

The Gionee Elife E8 smartphone has been launched for a price of Rs 34,999 in India, which puts it in competition with the just arrived Moto X Style, which comes at price starting from 29,999. Note that the Elife E8 has been launched on the same day when Motorola's flagship Moto X Style got announced in the country, and interestingly, both phones bet on camera, flaunt big displays with 2K resolution, bring 3GB RAM on board and belong to the same price bracket. The company says that the smartphone is better than its premium rivals in all aspects.

 

We spent some time with the Gionee Elife E8 smartphone at its launch event, and here are our first impressions of the Gionee Elife E8:

Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions

Design and display

The Gionee Eife E8 is targeted at those who want a beasty treat, be it in terms of display or features. It has a 6-inch display which makes it large on hands, but at the same time provides more screen space, which is good for watching content, writing long texts and mails, and do more. The AMOLED display with QHD (2K) resolution, and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection offers great viewing angles and is a visual treat, with good colour reproduction and vivid imaging.

Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions

Speaking of its design and form factor, the phone has a metal rim across the sides, getting along with the metallic-coloured plastic chassis that define its rear panel. The rear panel curves towards the sides, to sit comfortably on a hand. Despite the big size, it is thin and feels light on hand. If you have not used a big sized smartphone, it may take time for you to be at ease with using a huge device. Moreover, we doubt if you will be able to operate it single handedly, until you have exceptionally big hands.

Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions

The front of the phone features a front-facing camera, 6-inch display and capacitive keys. As far as key placement and slots are concerned, the right side is home to volume rocker, power on/off key, and a dedicated camera button. The left has been kept free. The top accommodates a 3.5mm audio jack while the bottom features a microUSB slot.

The back side is where all the action happens. So you see the "exceptional" 24MP camera paired with dual LED flash, and followed by a circular fingerprint scanner that as per the company is much faster and accurate, and is an ultimate way to securing phone from being misused. Its back panel can be removed to expose the non-removable battery.

Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions

Overall, the phone looks nice with its metal-like chassis and curved back design, and is even light in weight, but we did not find it very appealing.

Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions

Processor:

The Elife E8 smartphone boasts the MediaTek Helios X10 MT6795 octa-core chipset clocked at 2.0GHz. The chipset is paired with 3GB of RAM with 64GB of inbuilt storage, which can be expanded to 128GB using a microSD card.

Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions

Camera:

The key highlight of the phone is its 24MP rear camera, which the company has touted as the best camera on a phone which results in better images than the iPhone 6S Plus. The company also says that the phone uses a camera technology that can help it produce images with up to 120MP in resolution. The rear camera has optical image stabilization, phase-detection autofocus, and dual-LED dual-tone flash. Moreover, it is supplemented with several modes, features and editing tools to enhance images and add elements to photos. Up front, you get an 8MP selfie camera.

In the brief time, we found the camera good, but will talk more about its performance in our detailed review.

Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions

Software:

The smartphone runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop wrapped under the company's own Amigo 3.1 UI. The company says that the Amigo UI has been designed to suit India consumers, and brings local language support.

Gionee Elife E8 First Impressions

Conclusion:

The Gionee Eflife E8 is a powerful phablet offering quite impressive features and specifications to give a tough competition to its rivals. It has all the ingredients to impress consumers. Though, we think that it could have been even better at a slightly lower price point. Moreover, it misses water resistant capabilities, which would have been an added advantage otherwise. Priced at Rs 34,999, this phone will pit against the likes of the OnePlus 2, recently launched Moto X Style, and the upcoming Nexus 6P smartphone.

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