Gionee's Christmas surprise: Elife E7 mini with a Mediatek octa-core chipset

Along with the Elife E7, Gionee also pulled the wraps off the mini variant of the smartphone at its most recent India event. The Elife E7 mini is priced at Rs 18,999, but there is no word of when the device will be made available for the Indian market.

The E7 mini does not come across as a toned down variant of the E7. Gionee may follow the Sony way, and bring the same functionalities but in a smaller screen. Sporting a 4.7-inch 720p display, the E7 mini is powered by a 1.7GHz octa-core Mediatek processor coupled with 1GB RAM.

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It runs on rather older Android 4.2 Jelly Bean mobile OS, but does get a layer of the company’s custom Amigo 2.0 UI layer. Gionee’s custom UI will ensure that the mini variant is almost similar to its elder sibling. Interesting, unlike the Elife E7, the mini variant comes with dual SIM support (GSM + GSM). Gionee has included a 13-megapixel rotating camera, just like the Oppo N1. The mini variant also gets a slew of connectivity options such as 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC.

Here’s a quick look at some of its highlights:

• 4.7-inch 720p display
• 3G, Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
• 13-megapixel swivel camera
• 16 GB onboard storage

All of this is fuelled by a 2,100mAh battery. The company has also launched the Gionee Elife E7 priced at Rs 26,999. Some of its specs include a larger 5.5-inch 1080p display with 401ppi, 16-megapixel rear camera, 8-megapixxel front-facing camera and 16/32GB storage options. You can check out our specs comparison of the Elife E7 and its biggest competition, the Nexus 5.