Gionee Elife E8

Some of the words we’ve used to describe phones in the recent past (including those from Gionee) cover slim, svelte, stylish, elegant etc. None of these would be apt for the Elife E8 though – it’s simply too large and bulky. Think of it as the Toyota Fortuner, a popular SUV that looks like a beast, without any room for words like sleek or elegant in its description. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but our point is that the Elife E8 stands out as a massive device, something that cannot just be attributed to its 6-inch screen.

While phablets have become quite popular, most of the action is focussed around the 5.5-inch screen size. There are quite a few options with 5.7-inch screens as well. With the Elife E8, Gionee decided to go all out, and graced the device with a massive 6-inch display. It further justifies its flagship credentials by offering a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, otherwise called 2K or QHD. This translates to a pixel density of 490 ppi, and thanks to its AMOLED technology, impresses us with its sharpness, vivid colours and deep blacks.

The Elife E8 runs the latest version of Gionee’s Amigo OS, which is based on Android 5.1. Overall, the UI and its features aren’t too different from what we saw on the Gionee Elife S7 (review) and more recently, on the Marathon M4 (review), but it’s good to see that the brand is trying hard to add more features and make the platform better for its users.

The 24-meg primary camera on the Elife E8 is one of its highlights, and comes complete with top-of-the-shelf features like OIS, a 6P lens, 4K video recording support et al. There’s even a dedicated shutter key on the side for it – a feature that’s around on only a handful of smartphones, and is a boon, more so in the E8’s case since it’s a large device. On the front, you get an 8MP shooter for selfies.

The horsepower is provided by a Mediatek MT6795 Helio X10 chip, which includes a 2.0GHz octa-core CPU. Graphics are handled by a PowerVR G6200 GPU, and there’s a healthy 3GB of RAM present to make sure multitasking is a smooth affair. In our usage, the E8 fared admirably well, handling regular tasks like a champ and tearing through the heavy stuff without breaking into sweat.