The Gionee Elife E5 is loaded with 1.5GHz quad core processor from MediaTek running Android 4.2.1  with 1GB RAM and 16GB storage. The key highlight is the AMOLED screen and the ultra slim body with a 6.85mm thickness. The Elife E5 is now available for Rs. 18,999.

Elife E5 box pack
The price of Rs. 18K may seem a bit on the higher side but once you open up the box pack, and hold the handset, you will be more than satisfied with your decision. Inside the box you will also find a free flip cover, screen guard, data cable, travel charger, warranty card and user manual.

Design, Display and OS
The handset weighs 133 grams, thickness is 7.27mm, breadth is 69.98mm and length is 137.95mm. When you hold the handset it feels good, especially because of the slim design. The battery of 2000 mAh capacity comes built in. There is no option to open up the handset (back cover), it is completely sealed.

The build quality is excellent, the finishing is superb. There is a 3.5mm audio jack on the top, volume rockers and power button on the left side and micro USB port and micro SIM slot on the right side. As mentioned the handset is sealed but there is a SIM slot on the right side for inserting the micro SIM card.  The rear side is white color with matte finish. The Gionee Elife E5 is also available in Black, Yellow and White colors.

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Gionee Elife E5 box pack

The AMOLED screen is 4.8 inches with supported resolution of 1280×720 pixels (305.96 ppi). The touch is smooth and responsive. This handset runs on Android 4.2.1 OS and the UI (customized) is different from what you have seen on other handsets running 4.2 JB. The viewing angle is very good and colors are vibrant. E5 supports Accelerometer, proximity, light and magnetic and gyro sensors.

Gionee Elife E5 unboxing

Memory and Storage
There is 1GB RAM of which 579 MB is available and of the 16 GB onboard storage space 2.8 GB is assigned for apps and 11 GB as phone storage. There is no micro SD card slot and hence users cannot add external storage. OTG is not supported (you cannot connect external pen drive).

Performance
The single SIM Elife E5 is powered by MT6589T quad core (MediaTek) processor clocked at 1.5GHz coupled with PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU. The benchmark scores are impressive.

Gionee Elife E5 quad core review

Benchmark scores

  • Quadrant Benchmark : 4871.
  • Antutu Benchmark : 16331.
  • Vellamo Benchmark : HTML5 – 1632, Metal – 579.
  • Nenamark2 : 55.1fps.
  • Multi Touch : 5 point.

Gaming and Entertainment
Game play is impressive, I tried the Dead Trigger in high graphics mode, Asphalt 7 and Modern Combat 4. All of these games played really well, with no lags, you can check the gaming video at the end of the review.

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Full HD videos can be played with ease. The sound quality is better (comes with DTS sound).

8MP camera
The camera app also looks a bit different. The still image quality is good, but it could have been better. The same goes for the video recording. I am not that much impressed with the camera quality. The front camera is of 5MP resolution and picture quality is good. Have a look at the images and videos attached at the end of this review.

Full HD videos can be recorded but with 15fps. I tried shifting to a lower quality i.e. 720p but there too the videos got recorded in 15fps. The camera quality is a bit disappointing.

8MP rear AF camera on Gionee Elife E5

Others
The in call speaker and call quality is good. 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi worked well. I got the GPS lock in just under 5 seconds (check the review video). The handset does get heated up a (mildly) when playing games or using heavy apps. Do note that I had at all times disabled the battery saver app. OTA (Over the Air) software updates are supported.

2000 mAh Non-Removable Battery
The battery performance looks good. I had disabled the power saving mode on the handset for the benchmark and the gaming part. I tried enabling the power saving mode, time was 12:22 am battery at 72% and played MC4 for approx 20 minutes the battery was at 66% and temp at 35 degree.  Overall I think the battery should easily last for over a day with moderate usage.

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Verdict
Gionee Elife E5 is a very good buy for Rs. 18,999 it come with 1.5GHz MT6589T chipset, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, a slim design and performance is better than the MT6589 chipset. Most of you would agree that this is a better buy as compared with the Micromax Canvas 4 considering the specs and the price. Initially the E5 was priced at around Rs. 20k but now it is available online for Rs. 18,999 (From retail stores you can get it for price between Rs. 17,000 to 18,500).

The free flip cover, I feel, really doesn’t go well with the handset there are gaps on the sides (check the video review).

No doubt it is the best MT6589T handset available for now, in terms of features, performance and all this packed in an ultra slim body.

Gionee Elife E5 image gallery

Sample images shot using Elife E5 handset

Gionee Elife E5 unboxing and review video

Sample video in 1080p resolution shot using the E5 handset

Dead Trigger, Asphalt 7 and Modern Combat 4 on Elife E5

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By Rajeev Rana

Founder and Chief Editor - gogi.in