Almost a year after launching Elife S7 at Mobile World Congress 2015, Gionee returns to the event once again with yet another new flagship smartphone in tow. Dubbed as the S8, it is the first device to be launched under the company’s new branding which was also unveiled at MWC this year.
Featuring a metal unibody chassis together with what the company claimed as the world’s first invisible antenna design, the new device is equipped with a 5.5-inch full HD (1920 x 1080) AMOLED display and runs on a 1.95GHz MediaTek Helio P10 MT6755 octa-core processor. It also features 4GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage, and support for microSD card.
The new flagship smartphone also comes with a 16-megapixels RWB sensor for its rear camera that is accompanied by f/1.8 six elements lens, laser focus, phase detection autofocus, and LED flash. Gionee has also included a 70dB dual-microphone system and AKM4961 chip into the phone to ensure that video recording on S8 will be accompanied by good quality sound as well.
There is also an 8-megapixels camera on the front of S8. Comes standard with Android 6.0 Marshmallow underneath its Amigo OS 3.2 UI (upgradable to 4.0 in June), the S8 is also built with fingerprint sensor on its home button, USB Type-C port, and 3,000mAh battery with support for fast charging.
Aside from its exterior physique and internal hardware, one of other interesting features within the new S8 is its 3D Touch which is similar (function-wise, that is) to the one on Apple iPhone 6s. On the S8, the device is able to sense three types of interactions for apps: touch to select, tap to preview and press to run.
Not to forget, the company also claimed that users are able to run two instances of WhatsApp simultaneously on the S8 which also supports dual SIM cards. In terms of pricing, the S8 will be made available for EUR 449 (about RM 2,070) once it is released to the market starting from end of March onwards.
