Gionee had made its name for having the slimmest smart phone last year with its Elife S5.1 that’s only 5.1mm thin. After that, it didn’t take too long for Chinese rivals OPPO and Vivo to take slimmest to a whole new level with their 4.85mm R5 and 4.75mm X5 Max. Just a few days ago, another Chinese smart phone maker Coolpad has claimed to be the thinnest with a 4.70mm Ivvi K1 mini.
With MWC 2015 happening in early March, Gionee will be introducing yet another ultra-slim device but it appears that they might have given up the pursuit for ultimate slimness. According to Oliver Sha, head of global marketing of Gionee, “The race to make the slimmest smartphone was getting out of hand. Going so slim is actually not benefiting user experience without the performance to back it up”. He added that to make a phone slimmer, some sacrifices had to be made such as removing the headphone jack, having a protruding camera, shortening of battery life and a thin frame which affects cooling and signal strength.
After being beaten in their own game, Gionee is looking at making slim phones that delivers a better user experience. Surely most users won’t mind having the extra mm if that means having more than a full day of usage on a single charge. The biggest problem that we have with these ridiculous slim phones is its short battery life with capacities ranging at the low end 1,800-2,000mAh. Then there’s the feel in the hands as they don’t give that much confidence when it’s picked up.
