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US readers, the Gionee S6 could be your next cheap buy, and it's awesome

By Chris P.

Updated: Nov 16, 2015, 4:46 AM

12comments

Android

US readers, the Gionee S6 could be your next cheap buy, and it's awesome

If you're a US native, it's unlikely that you've heard of Gionee — a Chinese company that has been pushing out some rather nice devices lately. But there's one very good reason you should get excited about its new S6 smartphone: it'll likely be re-branded under Miami-based BLU and sold on the cheap. Case in point: the Gionee Elife E8 flagship is available as the BLU Pure XL in the States, and we mostly liked what we saw in our review, especially at just $350 unlocked. There's a good chance the Gionee S6 will also receive a similar treatment, given the two companies' seemingly strong relationship.

Speaking of the Gionee S6, we've got a slim (6.99mm) phone made almost entirely out of aluminum (89% of it, apparently), weighing 147 grams, and packing a 5.5-inch, 720p AMOLED display. Underneath, Gionee has planted one of MediaTek's 64-bit, octa-core MT6753 processors, clocked at 1.3GHz and coupled with an ARM Mali-T720 GPU. In terms of memory, we're looking at 3 gigs of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, expandable through the secondary, hybrid SIM card slot which also accepts microSD. As for imaging, Gionee is using a main, 13-megapixel sensor with very wide, f/2.0 lens and very quick phase detection auto focus, while a 5-megapixel selfie snapper sits up front.

Finally, the Gionee S6 is advertised as having a dedicated sound chamber that supposedly delivers richer sound. The phone is powered by a very large (relative to its size), 3,150mAh cell, which is topped off with the help of a reversible USB Type-C port, and Android 5.1 Lollipop with Gionee's custom UI on top of it on the software side. The phone is up for pre-orders in its homeland of China already, costing the equivalent of just $266 or so. Time will tell if BLU will see it fit to add the S6 to its portfolio, but if it does — it might be a pretty sweet deal for those of us on a budget.

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Chris Panayotov is a former mobile tech reviewer of phones, tablets and wearables at PhoneArena. However, his contribution to PhoneArena content includes not just reviews, but all kinds of regular and experimental features, such as news stories, buying guides, and an exclusive column on the most notable phones out of Asia.