Gionee ELife E6 Unboxing and Initial Hands-on: Is it Worth Php18,999?

Unboxing: Gionee ELife E6!

Gionee entered the PH smartphone market a few months ago with the hopes of grabbing market share from both global and local branded manufacturers alike. Their entry level Gionee Pioneer P2 definitely has a chance of getting a slice of the pie but today we’re going to focus on their flagship smartphone — the Gionee ELife E6. Gionee is positioning this smartphone as an alternative to likes of the Samsung S4 and LG G2. They priced it way higher than the premium threshold of local brands at Php18,999. The big question on everyone’s mind now is if the Gionee ELife E6 can deliver. We’ll try to answer that as we get to our full review. For now we’d like to share with you our unboxing and initial impressions!

Gionee ELife E6 Spec Sheet

1.5GHz quad core Cortex A7 MediaTek MT6589T processor
2GB RAM
32GB internal memory, no expandable storage
5.0-inches Full HD LTPS LCD display (1920 x 1080 resolution) 441 ppi
13.0-megapixels rear facing camera with autofocus, back side illumination and LED flash
Dual Mic Noise Cancelling Technology
5.0-megapixels front facing camera
HSPA+, WiFi, Bluetooth, WiFi Direct, WiFi hotspot
GPS, A-GPS
144 x 69 x 7.7mm
2,020 mAh battery
Android 4.2 Jellybean

Unboxing and Initial Impressions

The package is your typical carton square box. Upon opening it, the Gionee ELife E6 (in white) greeted us, eager to be reviewed. Before we go the unit itself, lets check what’s included in the box. We are happy to report that Gionee included freebies in the package – a flip case and a screen protector. Other items included are manuals, sim ejector, USB charger, and cool white earphones which we really like.

Encased on a shiny polycarbonate, the phone has a unibody design and there is no way to access the battery. Many of our friends who saw the phone for the first taught it was the new iPhone 5s (which we think is a compliment). We must say “pulidong pulido ang gawa” (well crafted, well built). The phone is extremely thin at 7.7mm and surprisingly light at 128 grams. On the sides,the 3.5mm headset jack and volume/lock button on the top, volume buttons on the right and the micro SIM card tray on the left.

If the Gionee ELife E6 has one thing going for it, it’s definitely the display quality. The 5-inch Full HD LTPS display is absolutely stunning and bordering on mesmerizing, hehe. Viewing angles are exceptional as well.

Gionee has heavily customized the UI on top of Android 4.2 Jellybean. There is no app tray here just like the phones from Huawei. In our opinion its a love or hate thing. Potential iPhone users who might want to switch to Android may like this phone but if you’re going to ask us, it looks good and it doesn’t cause any lag unlike Huawei’s UI.

Is it worth Php18,999?

The P18,999 SRP is a MAJOR MAJOR concern for buyers. At this price range you can easily get a very good LTE-enabled smartphone already and take advantage of Smart’s super fast LTE network. Gionee does offer a lot of good features but at this point we can’t say that it actually is worth every peso. We will be in Bangkok next week for a 7-day vacation so we’ll be bringing along this phone with us, We’ll test everything including those notable eye and hand gesture features, camera, over all performace and battery. We will feature this phone on Unbox podcast next week. Watching out for our full review in the coming days and we’ll give a clear verdict if this is worth your hard earned cash by then.