Today we have a phone that is super slim, compact and made of metal – Cubot X17. Find out more in our full review.

Thanks to Cubot Official for sending Cubot X17 for a review. 

Cubot X17 Review: Video

Cubot X17 Review: Specs

Cubot X17 Review: UNBOXING

The phone comes with a charging brick and USB cable, SIM ejector pin, instruction manuals, screen protector and a a nice soft plastic case, which is always a nice addition to have.

Cubot X17 Review: DESIGN

As far as design, we are looking at a very thin device as its thickness measures at just 6.1mm. The Cubot X17 has a nice metal frame and it is a compact phone due to its 5” display.

Besides the usual stuff you would expect, on the front there is LED light, 8MP shooter for selfies and 3 capacitive buttons, which are, however, not backlit.

The back is made of metal expect for the top and bottom parts, which sport plastic material. As far as optics, we have a 13MP snapper, which is interpolated to 16MP and it is supplemented with a dual LED flash.

On the bottom, there is a speaker grill.

On the right, there is a conveniently placed and tactile volume rocker and a power key, on the left there is  a SIM card tray, which can take either 2 SIM cards or a combo of 1 SIM card and the microSD card.

On the top we have a headset jack and on the bottom there is a micro USB port.

Overall, the phone feels solid, it is well build and it uses some quality materials in its construction.

Cubot X17 design gallery:

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Cubot X17 Review: DISPLAY

When it comes to the display, a 5” 1080p panel is not bad at all as it bright enough, colours look natural and it has good viewing angles as it is an LCD panel after all.

Cubot X17 Review: UI

Cubot X17 comes with almost stock looking Android 5.1 out of the box. We don’t have any bloatware and the UI is running smoothly.

Some of the notable features would be gesture controls we’ve seen on a lot of phones. All of them working okay but could be a bit faster and more responsive at times.

Also, if you don’t like the pre-installed gestures, you can assign them to the tasks you want.

Overall, the UI performance is snappy and I didn’t have any hiccups during my review period.

Cubot X17 Review: BENCHMARKS

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Cubot X17 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Cubot X17 has an MTK6735 chip with the clock speeds of 1.3GHz, generous 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

The result of it is… meh.. 3D games do not work well as there is a lot of stutter and lag, and I simply cannot recommend this device for serious gamers out there.

Cubot X17 Review: MULTIMEDIA

When it comes to the multimedia, I wasn’t really impressed by the loudspeaker. Well, usually you do not get anything spectacular from a budget phone like this and Cubot X17 is no exception. The sound is tinny and it lacks depth. As far as sound via earphones, it’s okay and it is on par with many other budget phones.

Cubot X17 Review: CAMERA and IMAGE QUALITY

Cubot X17 has a 13MP camera sensor that is interpolated to 16MP.

The images that are produced by the camera are just mediocre and the results are inconsistent. Sometimes you can take some great looking images but more often than not, the pictures have softer focus on the corners or even on a huge part of the image. Also, there is a significant amount of noise even in the daylight shots. While the level of details is good, the colour reproduction is a hit or miss.

Cubot X17 Review: VIDEO QUALITY

When it comes to video recording, the footage is just average. See a video review or download a video sample from the link below.

Cubot X17 Review: CONNECTIVITY

As far as connectivity, I have no complaints. Call quality is okay, Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity are stable and GPS is accurate.

Cubot X17 Review: BATTERY LIFE

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As far as battery life, 2500mAh unit is not really impressive but it’s not terrible either given the 5” 1080p display. I could get just over 3 hours of screen-on time on average use. You may get around 4 hours if you reduce the brightness significantly.

Cubot X17 Review: CONCLUSIONS

If you are looking for a phone that it is very slim, has a decent design and good build quality, Cubot X17 is a decent choice. Also, this phone is compact and the 5” display is pretty good, and the UI performance is great.

However, you have to keep in mind that the loudspeaker is not really impressive, image as well as video quality could see a some improvements, and the battery life is not that great due to a slim profile of the device.

All in all, Cubot X17 is a beautifully crafted and super slim phone with good day to day performance but you have to consider some shortcomings as on any other phone.

The post Cubot X17 Review – Super Slim and Metal appeared first on Gizmochina.

With the revolution of the Manufacturing Technology of cell phones, smartphones are becoming thinner and thinner. There are several super slim smartphones emerging on the market nowadays. But Gionee Elife S5.1, with a super-slim 5.1mm profile, smashing the world record of the thickness of the smartphones.

The Gionee Elife S5.1 is powered by Qualcomm MSM8926 quad-core processor for lag-free performance in web browsing, gaming, and general usage, along with 1GB of RAM 16GB of non-expandable storage.

The Elife S5.1 comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash for high-quality imaging, and a 5-megapixel shooter on the front for sharp selfies and video calls. It features a 4.8-inch display with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels; The display’s Super AMOLED technology means you can enjoy any type of content with vivid and lively colours for an immersive viewing experience.

Priced 1999RMB, it is taking preorders now. A 2100 mAh battery provides long usage times, and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with Gionee’s Amigo 2.0 UX offers an intuitive software experience, with access to popular Google services and thousands of third-party apps.Produced using metal and Gorilla Glass, the S5.1 has curvier edges for a more comfortable grip, its back also covers with 0.4mm Gorilla Glass, which makes it look more eye catching.

Appearance

What is thickness of 5.15mm look like? As below pictures shown, it equaled the thickness of 6 pieces of SIM cards. It has been recognised by Guinness Book of World Records as the slimmest smartphone in the world. ELIFE S5.1 offers Black, White, Pink and Mint Green colors for customers.

Mirco SIM card slot is layout on the right of the model. Along with LTE connectivity, it boasts 100Mbps high speed Internet access.Its volume rokers and power button are on the left, which using same materials with its well designed body, it looks really appealing and excellent.

ELIFE S5.1 still remains 3.5mm ear phone jack .

It features a customized Super AMOLED screen with advantages of bright color, low power consumption, high contrast, ultra slim panel etc. In fact, Super AMOLED is fit for ELIFE S5.1 perfectly.

Amigo OS

Amigo OS is based on Android4.3, it runs more smoothly than the older Amigo OS.  Simple style, flat icon design, all the apps are shown in the desktop.

Camera

Because of restriction of this thickness, ELIFE S5.1 features moderate specs with 800MP rear camera and 500MP front facing camera. The default shortcuts are front/rear camera switch, selective focus, HDR mode and the menu.  You can also change the order of items within the settings menu. Here you’ve got access to ISO, video mode or other parameters.

Performance

It is powered by a Qualcomm quad-core 1.2 GHz MSM8926 processor and 1GB of RAM. Images can be stored on 16 GB of internal memory. Though the model is very slim but its hardware specs are still very outstanding.

Summary

ELIFE S5.1, with the thickness of 5.15mm, is the slimmest smartphone in the world, is also a challenge for Gionee to make a breakthrough for such a super slim device. In addition, Amigo OS has been optimized, it will run smoothly with more user friendly experience.

The post Gionee ELIFE S5.1 Review appeared first on Gizmochina.