Amid much fanfare, Gionee announced the launched of its latest smartphones, the Marathon M5 and the Elife E8 in Beijing on Wednesday.
“While everyone looks to provide the cheapest smartphone, we look to provide the best quality at the most reasonable price,” said Gionee’s Chairman Liu Lirong, at the launch event.
While the Marathon M5 targets the problem of low battery life, the Elife E8 aims to tackle poor picture quality, he added.
The first model, the M5, comprises two batteries, with a total capacity of 6,020 mAh, an improvement over the previous model, the M3, which had 5,000 mAh.
Long-lasting charge “The battery will last up to four days,” says company President William Lu. The maker claims it is the only smartphone in the world to provide offer such a long battery life. Apart from this, in ‘extreme’ mode — a system of smart power consumption devised by it — the model can last up to 62 hours on standby mode, even on as little as 5 per cent charge.
The M5, the brand claims, can charge within a short span of time and is capable of reverse-charging: it can be used as a power bank to charge two mobile phones at the same time.
Summing up, Lu said that “the product stands for endurance, with its super battery pack, fast charging and low power consumption. You no longer need to carry a back-up phone.”
High-res camera The second model, the E8, took a year to develop its “show-stopper feature” which, the company claims, is its 23.7 mp rear camera with a true-tone flash.
A true-tone flash enables users to manually moderate the flash variant and set it according to the user’s requirements and available lighting. The E8 is capable of producing photographs of up to 100 megapixel resolution.
Gionee says this is the first android smartphone to offer ‘lossless’ zoom — that is, despite zooming in, a picture it would not lose its quality or pixelate.
“With only two steps, as opposed to five in most other smartphones, in two seconds the camera can capture five frames,” said Lu. After his presentation, there was a demonstration by National Geographic magazine’s contributing photographer Fitz Hoffmann, who explained how the E8’s camera can help novices take better quality, blur-less pictures.
While the Marathon M5 is priced at ¥ 2299 ($370/Rs 23,656 approximately), the Elife E8 is priced at ¥3999 ($644/Rs 41,118 approximately) and will be released in India this August, according to fonearena.com.
(The writer is in Beijing at the invitation of Gionee)