Gionee S8 announced at MWC 2016

Now that the bigger players (such as Samsung and LG) in the mobile space have shown their cards, it’s time for some of the little guys to come out of the woodwork. Gionee happens to be one of these smaller players. At MWC 2016 the Gionee S8 has now been formally announced, touted as the company’s 2016 flagship.

Offering an attractive metallic design – with no antenna lines, interestingly enough – and a home-button that doubles as a scanner, the S8 certainly has flagship-like looks, but what about the rest of the specs? Under the hood you’ll find a very respectable MediaTek octa-core Helio P10 with 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, a 16MP camera with PDAF and laser autofocus, LTE Cat-6, a 5.5-inch 1080p display, a 3000 mAh battery with fast charging support, and Amigo 3.2 software based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. So yes, with the exception of the 1080p display, the specs here are actually pretty nice.

Gionee also brings its own Force Touch mode to the table, similar to what we’ve seen from Apple and HUAWEI in the past. This feature works with all of Gionee’s stock apps though the vendor says it is working to bring it to select 3rd party apps as well.

The Gionee S8 is expected to arrive to Europe by the end of next Month, priced at 449 Euro, or about $494. Considering you can find devices like the Nexus 6P for around that price in the US, that’s arguably a pretty high asking price, though whether the S8 is worth it will likely come down to what you’re looking for in a flagship.

For those in the United States, don’t officially expect this one to make it here, at least not under that name. Of course, Gionee has a history of working with other companies to rebrand itself for the US market, so it certainly isn’t impossible it will eventually surface under a new name.

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