In a bid to stand out amongst the jam-packed Chinese smartphone marketplace, Indian manufacturer Gionee has created the world’s thinnest smartphone.
The Gionee Elife S5.5 measures in at 5.5mm (makes sense). For comparison, the iPhone is almost 50% thicker at 7.6mm. As far as gimmicks go it’s probably the most practical, and there’s few people out there who would ever complain that their smartphone is too thin, so Gionee has given itself a decent shot at success with this model.
The company claims that battery life won’t suffer, with its 2300 mAh battery apparently capable of lasting ‘all day’ – vague, yes, but there’s no reason to suspect that it wouldn’t give most thicker phones a run for their money.
The rest of the specs are standard fare, with a 5-inch display, Android OS with Gionee’s ‘Amigo’ overlay, a 1.7GHz quad-core CPU of some sort, 2GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel back/5-megapixel front camera.
The 3G version of the handset is currently available for pre-order in China at roughly $370. With the average cost of smartphones sold worldwide dropping to $317 last year, the Elife S5.5 is clearly more than a little above the Chinese median, but with its appealing USP and decent specs Gionee will be hoping it’s on to a winner.
