I’m sure you’ve heard the old adage, “different strokes for different folks”. Motorola was the pioneer the online only sales approach for its first generation of E, G and X series Android phones. The online only approach was then adopted by XiaoMi, OnePlus, Meizu and ZTE, with great effect. Now Gionee, the pioneers of the Chinese Premium segment in India, have launched the latest iteration of their bestselling Elife series with an exclusive online launch on Snapdeal. Will the online only approach work similar wonders for Gionee remains to be seen, but let’s first examine the phone up close and personally.
In the hugely cluttered cell phone market, aesthetics is a one major differentiator. On this count the Gionee ELife E8 has nothing to fear, with the phone scoring big props on design. The Gionee Elife E7 was wildly popular because of its premium design and this quality is retained by the E8. Smooth edges on this massive 6 inch beast, add an aura of premium styling. Encased in metal, with a slightly darker bezel to body color index, this phone is rather cool to look at.
The Gionee Elife E8 is a beast in terms of performance. And here’s what backs up that claim. The phone features a mammoth WQHD Super AMOLED display, which is gorgeous in terms of colour clarity. In terms of resolution it measures in at 2560 x 1440 pixels with 491 pixels-per-inch. All the display’s gorgeousness will be powered by a Mediatek Helio X10, 2GHz chip with a massive 3 gigs of RAM. With so much power, it should breeze through tasks thrown its way with consummate ease. Another of the phone’s USPs is the 24MP primary camera that clicks images with a crispness, and low loss of detail. The phone also feeds your passion for selfies with a wide angle 8MP front shooter. Other bells and whistles features include optical image stabilisation, a massive 64gig internal memory, expandable upto 128 gigs with SD card support, and a fingerprint reader. A massive 3500mAh battery powers this beast of a machine. In the software department, it runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop and features the company’s app drawerless iteration of the Amigo User Interface in 9 regional languages.
The Gionee Elife E8 is a power packed performer of that there is little doubt. Priced at Rs. 34,999/-. The only question we have is how will it fare against the OnePlus 2 priced at Rs. 24,999, and with the two new Google Nexus variants slated for launch this month (from Rs. 31,999/- onwards), it will be interesting to see how the Chinese brand fares against the more well entrenched online competition.
