Gionee Elife S5.5 'world's slimmest smartphone' to launch on March 18 in China

Gionee, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, is all set to launch its slimmest smartphone in two countries this month. Dubbed the Gionee Elife S5.5, the 5.5mm-thick smartphone was first unveiled last month ahead of the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.

The smartphone will be launched first in China, with an 18 March 2014 release. This will be followed by its launch in India, on 31 March 2014. During its official MWC announcement, Gionee said that the device will head over to 40 more countries soon after its initial launch, and that consumers will also get a 4G LTE variant of the smartphone in June 2014.

The Gionee Elife S5.5 3G variant will be priced at CNY 2,299 (approximately $374 or Rs. 23,000) in China. Actual pricing and availability of the smartphone in India will be unveiled on the phone's launch on 31 March 2014.

The Elife S5.5 is a single-SIM smartphone and runs the company's Amigo UI on top of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It features a 5-inch display with no word on its resolution and display quality. The Elife S5.5 is powered by a 1.7GHz octa-core CPU coupled with 2GB of RAM. The camera options on the handset include a 13-megapixel rear shooter with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front camera for video calls.

The inbuilt storage on the Elife S5.5 is 16GB and there is no memory expansion option available. The smartphone packs a similar 2300mAh battery to that seen on the company's flagship, Elife E7.

The Elife S5.5 measures in 145.1x70.2x5.55mm and weighs 130 grams. At just 5.5mm thickness, the smartphone may just be the slimmest smartphone in the world.

Connectivity options on the smartphone include 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and USB OTG. The Gionee Elife S5.5 comes in Black, White, Pink, Blue and Purple colours.