Gionee to launch Elife E8 in June, talks about 'Make in India' plan: Report

Chinese smartphone maker Gionee plans to launch its 5.5mm sleek Elife S7 smartphone in India on April 4. The device was unveiled at MWC this year. International pricing for the S7 is at 399 Euros, which is approximately around Rs 27,800. Gionee Elife S7 sports a 5.2-inch full HD Super AMOLED display, 64-bit MediaTek SoC which has a 1.7GHz octa-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM. It includes an internal storage of 16GB and sports a 13MP rear camera.   The company is planning a global launch for the successor to its popular flagship device Elife E7. In conversation with Times of India, Gionee President William Lu confirmed that the company’s new flagship phone - Gionee Elife E8 - will release globally in June, including India. The company will be launching its new flagship smartphone after a gap of almost 18 months of the Elife E7. Explaining the reason for the gap, Gionee President stated that the upcoming model was not supposed to be an ‘incremental upgrade’ but would adopt a completely new design that would ‘compete with the best’. In terms of specifications, the Gionee E8 is rumoured to feature either a 5.5 or 5.7 inch IPS display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels and a pixel density of 258 ppi. It’s said to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset with a 2.5GHz quad-core processor. It will be paired with 3GB RAM. The device is also rumoured to have a 16MP rear camera with an LED flash, autofocus and BSI sensor, along with an 8MP front facing camera. It will mostly have an onboard storage at 16GB which can be further expanded to 64GB via microSD card. The smartphone is said to run on Android OS v4.4 (KitKat). An earlier  **report**  had stated that the Chinese company wanted to manufacture smartphones in India. Times of India states that Gionee is currently working towards setting up a fully-owned factory over a three-year horizon in the country as a part of its ‘Make in India’ plan. The report added that the company has already made an initial investment of around Rs 300 crore for the factory and has so far invested Rs 200 crore on its Indian operations. It has also employed about 70 employees towards the same.