Gionee, the maker of the two smartphones that held the record for slimmest smartphone in the world for the most of last year – the Elife S5.5 and, later, the Elife S5.1 – has announced that it will be unveiling its latest ultra-slim smartphone on the 2nd of March, at this year's MWC. There isn't much info on the device to be found, however, Gionee's head of global marketing, Oliver Sha , stated that:
"The race to make the slimmest smartphone was getting out of hand. Going so slim is actually not benefiting user experience without the performance to back it up"
The Gionee Elife S5.1 is 5.15 mm thin and was replaced from the "slimmest of them all" spot by the Oppo R5's 4.85 mm body in November. Later, the Vivo X5 Max took the throne, with its 4.8 mm profile, and now, just a couple of days ago, the Coolpad lvvi K1 Mini and its 4.7 mm side was announced.
So, judging by Mr. Sha's statement – Gionee prefers to stay out of this crazyness for now and craft a phone, which, while still impressively slim, will actually have enough girth to hold the essentials – a large enough battery, big enough antennas, powerful hardware, good cameras... Well, we will see how that goes.
Update: Gionee is now officially sending out invites for its March event. The picture provided clearly states that the new handset's name will be Gionee Elife S7, which could easily point to the handset's actual thickness - seeing as the Elife S5.5 was 5.55 mm (0.22"), and the Elife S5.1 was 5.15 mm (0.2") thin, we'd wager an educated guess and say that the S7 is definitely out of the thinness race, and will be around 7 mm thick (0.27"). Whether Gionee will be using the extra room to stick some premium hardware in there is still unknown.
Preslav, a member of the PhoneArena team since 2014, is a mobile technology enthusiast with a penchant for integrating tech into his hobbies and work. Whether it's writing articles on an iPad Pro, recording band rehearsals with multiple phones, or exploring the potential of mobile gaming through services like GeForce Now and Steam Link, Preslav's approach is hands-on and innovative. His balanced perspective allows him to appreciate both Android and iOS ecosystems, focusing on performance, camera quality, and user experience over brand loyalty.
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