It’s arguably one of the most ambitious launches of this year: The Gionee Elife E8 is a monster whichever way you look at it.
Priced at Rs 34,999 on Snapdeal and available from Oct 12, the phone offers the most high-end features that anyone can ask for in today’s Indian market.
The move marks the entry of Gionee into the low-price, high-volume market as it seems to have embraced the online-led distribution model with its Snapdeal tie-up.
The biggest attraction is the E8’s display and its camera. It has a 6-inch 2560 x 1440 pixel (Quad HD) screen powered by AMOLED technology.
The phone’s can produce photographs of 120 megapixel resolution by ‘upscaling’ its 24 MP native images. The camera also has dual-tone LED flash, 1/2.3″ sensor, 6P lenses, Optical Image stabilization (OIS). Support for 4K video recording is inbuilt.
It also has a 8 megapixel front-facing camera with wide-angle lens for selfies and video calling.
All this is not good news for Motorola, which is expected to launch its Moto X Style in India in today at around the same price for its 32 GB version.
The biggest difference between the Gionee model and the Motorola X Style will be in the display. The Moto X Style comes with a 5.5-inch LCD display, which would not have the same ‘popping’ colors as the E8, which has a display built on AMOLED technology. (Of course, there is also a small section who actually prefer the slightly less saturated LCD display).
The E8 is powered by a 2 GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 (MT6795) processor. It also offers a generous 3 GB of RAM and comes with 64 GB of internal memory. The phone also supports 128 GB of microSD card expansion.
In addition, the Moto X Style with 64 GB of built-in memory is expected to be priced around Rs 38,000. There are some areas in which the Moto X Style trails the E8. However, in terms of ease of handling, the X Style will score over the humongous Gionee phone.
The E8 is a stocky phone. It has a thickness of 9.6 mm and a weight of 207 grams. Most phones are only around 8 mm thick and weigh around 150 gm.
The metallic device does come with dual SIM support and a fingerprint sensor at the back.
The Elife E8 has 4G LTE on both SIMs), and a rather average-sounding 3,520 mAh battery.
At Rs 35,000, the Elife E8 has virtually no competitor in India. Though Sony does have the Xperia C5 Ultra, which is also a 6-inch device and is priced at Rs 30,000, the phone is no comparison to the Gionee model in terms of specs and capabilities.
Gionee has already built up a reputation in India as a provider of high-quality hardware. However, the company has been suffering from perceived high prices. The launch of the E8 should help address some of that concern.