Hot on the heels of Samsung’s and LG’s announcements at MWC comes Gionee, who took to the stage in Barcelona, Spain, to take the curtain off of their newest flagship, the Gionee S8. While it may not come with a gaggle of modular accessories nor cool you-really-won’t-need-these-anyway features, the S8 looks solid in its metallic body, decent processing power, and an industry-standard battery capacity.
In and around, the S8’s metallic body sports no antenna lines – something people will overlook but is a bit of a curiosity. The flagship was reported to come in Rose Gold, Silver, and Gold. The 5.5-inch full HD AMOLED display outputs great visuals at 1080×1920 resolution, and Gionee engineering was able to keep the bezels in check, putting the S8’s overall width at just a hair under 75mm.
Under the hood, the phone sports a MediaTek octa-core Helio P10 processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM, a 16MP rear camera with PDAF and laser auto focus, and an 8MP front camera. Running on the S8 is their Amigo 3.2 software built on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and can run “dual WhatsApp” for fans of the app. This is very similar to multiple account apps, allowing you to run two instances of WhatsApp simultaneously using two different accounts (we’re thinking personal + corporate accounts for chats).
The Gionee S8 is backed by a 3,000mAh battery and quick charging capabilities. It also supports 4G connectivity and can recognize up to 14 different bands, making the phone ideal for global roaming. The S8 has a price tag of EUR 449 or around USD 494, which is around the price of a Nexus 6P in the US.
