The Gionee M6 and M6 Plus target business professionals with their novel encryption chips

Chinese smartphone maker Gionee officially announced its new high-profile smartphones, the M6 and M6 Plus at a Beijing event. Their defining feature is built-in data encryption chips, which Gionee claims is a first for any smartphone. This is partially true, as the TouchID-equipped Apple iPhone handsets do contain a "secure element" chip. But as far as we know, the financial industry-compliant silicon is used for storing data related to the Apple Pay feature, whereas Gionee went all in.

The chip in the M6 and M6 Plus protects user data from malware and prevents potentially intercepted communications from being decrypted easily. We don't have more elaborate details on it, but we will let you know about the chip's practical use cases once we get specifics from Gionee. Unfortunately, the encryption chip is limited to M6 and M6 Plus units sold in China – global users will have to get their peace of mind from the fingerprint sensor alone.

Sold in Champagne Gold and Mocha Gold, the elegant handsets are powered by the 1.8GHz (2GHz for the M6 Plus) MediaTek Helio P10 octa-core processor with 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB expandable storage. Both phones have regular microUSB ports and pack common connectivity features, such as 4G LTE, 3G, GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and USB OTG.

This is where the similarities between the M6 and M6 Plus end, though. Measuring 5.99 x 2.96 x 0.32in (152.3 x 75.3 x 8.2mm) at 5.29oz (180g), the Gionee M6 features a 5.5-inch, 1080p-resolution AMOLED screen tuned to cover 100% of the NTSC color gamut. There's a 13MP main camera with phase detection auto-focus and a single LED flash on the back, and the front is adorned with an 8MP cam. THe phone has a 5000mAh battery that's good for up to 6.4 hours of video playback, 55 hour calls, and 33 days of standby – according to Gionee.

The M6 Plus measures a bigger 6.31 x 3.17 x 0.32in (160.5 x 80.6 x 8.2mm) at 7.58oz (215g), and has a 6-inch, 1080p-resolution AMOLED screen, along with a 16MP rear camera with dual-LED flash, and an 8MP front cam. It has a bigger, 6020mAh battery as well.

The handsets are priced moderately high by Chinese smartphone market standards, with Gionee asking around $403 for the M6 and $448 for the M6 Plus. Global prices and release dates aren't currently known.


source: Gionee (Translated) via NDTV

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