Specs battle of octa-core smartphones: Gionee Elife S5.5 vs Micromax Canvas Knight A350

Gionee has just launched the sleek Elife S5.5 in the Indian market priced at Rs 22,999. Gionee has named the device thoughtfully, highlighting the device’s unbelievably thin 5.5mm profile. Along with a slim form factor, the device is packed with a large 5-inch display and an octa-core processor.  Looking at the specs, it clearly competes with Micromax’s Canvas Knight. We’ve put both Elife S5.5 and Canvas Knight in the ring for a specs battle to see who emerges as the winner, on paper.   Gionee Elife S5.5 [caption id=“attachment_220751” align=“aligncenter” width=“691”]  Gionee launches the S5.5 in India today[/caption] The Gionee Elife S5.5, sportng a large 5-inch display, is claimed to be the slimmest smartphone in the world and boasts a thickness of just 5.5mm. Its full HD Super AMOLED display is one of the first to be featured on a non-Samsung phone. Performance should be top-notch considering the octa-core 1.7 GHz processor, in keeping with the octa-core trend of today. The chipset has not yet been specified, though it’s likely to be MediaTek’s MT6592, which is also seen in the Elife E7 Mini. On the camera front, the device gets a 13-megapixel rear snapper and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Just like all other Gionee phones, it runs on company’s Amigo OS, a heavily-skinned version of Android 4.2, which adds some interesting shortcuts and homescreens in addition to the standard Android screens. While we **didn't exactly enjoy the skin on the Elife E7** . The connectivity options include 3G, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth and GPS/A-GPS. All of this is fuelled by a  Li-Ion 2300 mAh battery.   Micromax Canvas Knight A350 [caption id=“attachment_220668” align=“aligncenter” width=“599”]  The Canvas Knight is packed to the gills with features[/caption] The Canvas Knight A350 is the first phone from Micromax to feature a MediaTek MT6592T 2GHz octa-core processor, Mali 450 GPU and 2GB of RAM. On the front is a 5-inch display with full HD resolution, manufactured by SHARP, and with a pixel density that goes all the way up to around 441ppi. Micromax has also made sure the camera specs are top-notch. There’s a 16MP rear camera paired with OmniVision’s CameraChip sensor and a new generation M8 Largan Lens. The device also gets an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Like most of Micromax’s recent releases, this one too runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, which is a shame given that it’s more than capable of running Android 4.4 KitKat. In terms of connectivity, one will find Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and 3G cellular data. The 32GB onboard storage does not come with support for expandable memory. All of this is fuelled by a 2,350mAh battery. To know more about its performance, read our  **Canvas Knight review** .   Take a look at the specs stable below:    The bottom line This is a tough one and boils down to the battery life, and price. the Canvas Knight has an early mover advantage and a lower price to begin with. It also has a higher-resolution camera on the back, which will no doubt be a big factor in this battle. Not much separates these two phones otherwise.   We have a big problem with the way Gionee’s custom UI works. While some may enjoy the iOS-like approach, widgets are an especially bad omission, as that sets Android apart from the competition. It remains to be seen what Gionee has changed in the UI, though we don’t expect too many revisions. This can be mitigated with a replacement launcher.   As we saw the octa-core processor had an adverse effect on the battery life of the Canvas Knight and also brought up some extreme heating issues. With the S5.5 being even thinner, heat dissipation might be an even bigger problem. So we are interested in finding out how the Elife S5.5 perfroms in terms of battery life. The Elife S5.5 has a marginally smaller battery, which would show in the final analysis. As we know Gionee packs in a power-management tool for its phones, so it could help in preserving battery life out of the box, but there are many apps in the Play Store which do the same. So again, there’s no clear advantage for either phone.   In terms of fit and polish, the Elife S5.5 definitely looks a wold apart from the Knight, which is essentially a re-badged smartphone, available under other brands as well. That’s not the case with Gionee, who has designed the phone. So you will be getting a more unique experience with the S5.5. But there’s still no clear winner in terms of battery life, yet.   So finally the price. And here Micromax has a clear advantage, having launched the Canvas Knight for well under Rs 20,000. The Elife S5.5 will take some time catching up to that, so we think Micromax has a better shot in this octa-core battle, for now. The final judgement can only be delivered once we have the new Gionee in our labs.