Gionee Elife S5.5 Full In Depth Review + Unboxing [Video]

Gionee Elife S5.5 Quick Specs

Display Size: 5 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen with 1920 x 1080 HD resolutionProcessor: 1.7 GHz Octa Core MediaTek Mt6592RAM: 2 GbSoftware Version: Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) OSCamera: 13 MP AF camera.Secondary Camera: 5 MP front-facing camera FF [Fixed Focus]Internal Storage: 16 GB with approx 11 Gb available to userExternal Storage: NoBattery: 2300 mAh battery Lithium IonConnectivity: 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, aGPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM RadioOthers: OTG Support – Yes, Dual SIM – No, LED Indicator – YesSensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity

Box Contents

Handset with non removable battery, In ear headphones of good quality, Micro USB to USB data + charging cable, USB Charger 1 AMP output, user manuals, SAR Value Document, 4 Screen guards – 2 for front and 2 for rear, OTG Cable and leather flip cover (good quality).

Build Quality, Design and Form Factor

Built quality is the most premium on this phone compared to any other phones which we have seen from Gionee previously. It has a metal alloy frame which hold the front and rear glass and complete construction is just amazing. It looks premium in looks and feels great when you hold the device in your hand. Gionee S5.5 is designed on the lifestyle and it has a very different design which makes it stand out of the crowd of plastic phones. The form factor of the phone is good, it weigh just 128 grams with battery inside which makes it really light and easy to carry around. The metal finish on the edges is good but slightly sharp, it wont cut your hands but may not be very comfortable to hold at times but if you use the flip cover you don’t have to worry about the grip. The overall grip of the phone is not great because of the glossy glass back which is finger print catchy and you can easily see flinger prints on the glass after some minutes of usage. Thickness of the phone is just 5.55 mm which makes it thinnest phone in the world as if now, however thickness does vary a bit in the center when measured, but still its ever much thinner than any other phone out there at the time of writing this review.

Camera Performance

13 MP rear camera has auto focus and can record HD videos at both 720p and 1080p as well. The photo quality from rear camera is decent in low light and day light photos were good if not great. Everything seems much better at least on the phone, thanks to super AMOLED display. Front camera is 5 MP fixed focus can take good selfie in proper light conditions and can also be used to do a good video chat with any third party apps like skype or cellular video call over 3G is also possible on this phone. Take a look over some camera samples below. Camera Samples

Gionee S5.5 Camera Video Sample

Display, Memory and Battery Backup

It has got a colorful Super AMOLED display which does a great job in terms of the color reproduction and viewing angles are the best compared to any other phone in the same price segment. Display is quite readable in sunlight as well. In built memory of S5.5 is 16Gb out of which approx 11 Gb is available to the user. There is no SD card slot on this device which does limit the storage space, but it supports OTG feature and OTG cable comes inside the package. How much battery backup you will get from this phone will depend on kind of usage you have. If you play games a lot and watch videos then it will not give you one day of backup, it will last for 6-8 hours in that case but with moderate usage it can give you around one day of battery backup with full charge.

Software, Benchmarks and Gaming

It runs AMIGO User Interface on top of android which provide good amount of customization, features and good looking icons but does take away app drawer as it show all apps on the home screen. Its responsive user interface but not that smooth in transitions as stock android could have been on this S5.5 with the current hardware configuration. It might lag at times in animations and home screen transitions on heavy apps usage, amount of RAM you get on first boot is around 600 MB which is not much but makes the device responsive on the UI front. It can play almost all the graphic intensive games without any major graphic lag but the major issue arises when you play HD games it heats up and temperature can go up to 50 degrees which will result in battery drain. Too much heat can make it uncomfortable to hold in hands, but still you can get rid of feeling the heat if you use the flip cover which comes in the package. Benchmark Scores

Quadrant Standard Edition: 12944Antutu Benchmark: 22194Nenamark2:  56.5 fpsMulti Touch:  5 point

Gionee S5.5 Gaming Review [Video]

Sound, Video and Navigation

The sound from the loudspeaker is quite loud and clear but the placement of the loudspeaker at the rear back at the bottom can get blocked with hand at times or when you place the device on a flat surface while watching a video. It can play HD videos at 720p and 1080p and we played two videos at 720p and 1080p both of the videos got played in the default video player without any audio and video sync issues. It can be used for GPS navigation with google maps, we tried locking the GPS it get locked in 2 minutes inside indoors and outdoors it took less than a minute to fix the GPS coordinates.

What We Liked

Great Built QualityThinnest PhonePremium LooksDecent CameraGreat Performance

What We Did Not Liked

Average battery lifeHeating Up

Conclusion and Price

Gionee S5.5 is right now available for approx Rs. 23,000 but you can buy it even at a better price as if now as well. It comes with Octa Core Processor, Premium Looks, Amazing Build Quality and does stand out from other regular simple old style phones in terms of looks and built quality. One thing which we do not like about this phone is that heating part which makes it heat up and it feels slightly more because of glass at the back and this heating affects the battery backup of the device, but still for more moderate usage it will give you around one day of backup.