Gionee S6: $300, 8-core, AMOLED, yet nothing special


Gionee’s made some purchase-worthy phones in the past, but unfortunately the new Gionee S6 doesn’t look like one of them.

At 19,999 INR or $295, the phone doesn’t really have anything compelling about it… besides the trust that the brand has managed to gather in the offline Indian market in a rather short span of time.

Gionee S6

Gizchina News of the week


If you’re still interested, let me take a recap through the spec sheet of the phone; the Gionee S6 has a 1280 x 720p AMOLED display, a MediaTek MT6753 octa-core processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB on-board expandable ROM, 13 mega-pixel rear camera and a 5 mega-pixel front-facing camera. Interestingly, the S6 has a USB Type-C port.

What does work in the phone’s favour is its thickness, which at 6.9mm is in line with other ‘slim’ phones in the market. At it’s thinnest, the S6 measures a mere 4mm.

Gold, Rose Gold and Silver colours are the ones in which you’ll be able to purchase the phone, with Flipkart and IndiaTimes offering the phone for the aforementioned price.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

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53 Comments

  1. Jiraya Ziane
    February 5, 2016

    Always over priced.fuck you gionee

  2. Young
    February 5, 2016

    Not even a blind man will cough out 300 doll for this low end phone. Ulefone Paris is better than this phone.

    • balcobomber25
      February 5, 2016

      Or you could get a Redmi Note 2 for $130 which is better than both.

      • Tajwar
        February 5, 2016

        I order a the other day for just $300($23 of shipping included). So who is this Gionee s6 phone for? Just to show off?

        • balcobomber25
          February 5, 2016

          I am not really sure. I am a Gionee fan and this phone has me completely stumped. Normally I can look past their high prices, not this time.

        • MaxPower
          February 6, 2016

          Did you? So did I.
          Over a week ago, fake tracking number, and yesterday he finally shipped.
          I’m going to give him a bad feedback just for this. I have Aliexpress resellers.
          Unfortunately I didn’t see anybody else with this phone available.

          • balcobomber25
            February 6, 2016

            Yea that’s why I avoid Ali like the plague. But like you I have fallen into that trip of one of their sellers being the only one with stock. Tell me you used PayPal??

            • MaxPower
              February 6, 2016

              No PayPal. I don’t even know if you can pay with Paypal on Aliexpress.
              Unfortunately I couldn’t find anyone else with this phone.
              Anyway, I’m confident I’ll get it be next week, because it should be in Cincinnati by tonight.
              I’m just annoyed

            • Tajwar
              February 6, 2016

              Last time I checked (3 mins ago) they don’t have PayPal.
              Aliexpress to me is like a Super Last Resort.

            • MaxPower
              February 6, 2016

              I know, I buy other electronics there but I usually gets phones thru trusted resellers.
              I couldn’t find the phone anywhere else so I gave it a shot.

              Hopefully this is the last surprise and everything else goes well.

            • MaxPower
              February 8, 2016

              I received mine this morning.
              I was playing with it right now.

              I logged with my MI account and it restored everything from the cloud.
              Pretty nice!

              BTW I’ve got the dark grey version.

              Did you install Google play?
              I couldn’t find it into MI store anymore so I did it through the APK but I’m not happy about it.

              Now I’m trying to install the developer Rom so I can have root but I’m struggling a little.

            • Tajwar
              February 8, 2016

              I took it here here http://d-h.st/ztjI

            • Tajwar
              February 8, 2016

              And thus it shows how much Google made us dependent on their services.

            • MaxPower
              February 8, 2016

              I wouldn’t mind getting the apps from MI store of it wasn’t everything in Chinese.

              But you’re right, I use Gmail, Google Now, Google Maps, Play Music, YouTube, Hangouts, Google drive, Google Photos …Just to name a couple of them.

            • Tajwar
              February 9, 2016

              oh btw did you have to pay customs (I didn’t have to hehe)?

            • MaxPower
              February 9, 2016

              No custom fees.
              I’ve never paid customs here in the US (but I did many times in Italy)

              I’ve got the tempered glass, two cheap screen protectors, and one cheap transparent case.
              I’ve also got the original MI flip case (which I paid for it in the bundle).

            • Tajwar
              February 9, 2016

              Nice.
              Where did you download the developer version from? I noticed the phone becoming strangely warm when playing games(not the usual level of heat) and there seems a lack of performance mode.

            • MaxPower
              February 9, 2016

              http://en.miui.com/extra.php?mod=rom/download&r=295&mobile=no

              The phone gets less warmer than MI4. You might feel the heat due to the metal build, but still average for a SD SoC.

            • MaxPower
              February 9, 2016

              Lack of performance mode is due to the new SoC.
              It’s big.Little SoC and the switch between balanced and performance goes automatically through the kernel using different cores (a72 and a53).

              While with the old 4 Krait cores you could manage the performance lowering or raising the frequency (with the voltage)

              I’m waiting for Lazar Papovic to come and yell at me for saying a lot of bullshit and we can get a detailed lesson from him.

            • Tajwar
              February 9, 2016

              Hahaha thanks anyways.
              The phone’s battery just doesn’t want to die which is awesome!! How’s battery for you? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b957277fd8e875bd448b885707faf77d8a8b8ea4931475ff44f555b89572f7fd.png

            • MaxPower
              February 9, 2016

              Battery is very nice, I can finally go through a full day without charging.
              I use the phone intensively and the 3000 mha were not enough for me.

            • Tajwar
              February 9, 2016

              So depending on the load it will switch from balanced or performance automatically, something like that.

            • MaxPower
              February 9, 2016

              Yes, no need to switch it manually like before.

            • Tajwar
              February 8, 2016

              Got the white/silver for a change
              And the phone is really light! At first I thought that it could be a fake!!

            • Tajwar
              February 8, 2016
            • balcobomber25
              February 6, 2016

              Let me know how it is, i think it might be my next phone.

            • MaxPower
              February 6, 2016

              I’m sure it’s a good phone for the money. I went for the SD650 version mostly for the improved camera (on paper).

              I’ll let you know about it as soon as I get it (hopefully soon)

            • MaxPower
              February 8, 2016

              I’ve just got the phone.
              First impressions are really good.
              The only downside is the build quality. It feels a little bulky, definitely a midranger quality and not flagship.
              The MI4 and OPO felt more premium, but I’m OK with it, I don’t really take good care of my things, I broke the screen of MI4 twice.

              The camera is excellent, I think it’s better than MI4, or at least as good as that one.

              The fingerprint scanner is ridiculously fast.

              I’ll keep you posted when I test it whole.

            • balcobomber25
              February 8, 2016

              Build quality is a bummer for me. I am very picky when it comes to that. I have pretty much convinced myself over the past 48 hours that the Mi5 is going to be my next phone, unless they screw it up somehow then it will be MX6 or One Plus 3.

            • MaxPower
              February 8, 2016

              Yeah, for me too.
              But I thought about it, and I realized that those 3 devices you mentioned weren’t coming soon enough and they were going to cost me much more. And still didn’t satisfy all my needs due to missing LTE and Android Pay (apparently it won’t work on skinned ROMs).

              I’ll keep it for now, and wait for MI5 OP3,MX6 and maybe LeTV.
              I’ll wait until resellers start pricing them honestly. In that case I might consider selling this one and get one of those

            • balcobomber25
              February 8, 2016

              Yea LTE would be the difference for me but I am not holding my breath. Actually considering keeping the Blu Pure XL I am testing out this month. The Blu rep said he would give it to me for a really good deal.

          • Tajwar
            February 6, 2016

            I used new.flosmall.com on the 4th and it already left Shenzen, China should arrive around Tuesday (with DHL) if not earlier.

            Should check ’em out I usually don’t get custom thorough them…

            And they only have Paypal

        • Karly Johnston
          February 7, 2016

          $300 is steep, i see it at $250.

          • Tajwar
            February 7, 2016

            Hmm… Could be the 2/16gb variant

            • Karly Johnston
              February 7, 2016

              GB is selling your 32GB model for $246. IBG is selling it for $248.

    • Dante
      February 6, 2016

      There are no ulefone fans , ulephone paris has a rubbish camera , pretty bad software , bland design , eh display and a bad battery, so stop recomending bad phoned , you know i Fkin hate ulephone employees , your profile is full of hating on umi and elephone ( umi is crap just like hulifone , Elephone improved a bit )

      • Young
        February 7, 2016

        Elephone and UMI are same group of crap makers. Ulefone is better than the two.

        • Dante
          February 9, 2016

          Just stop – K ? You cant make better crap ? Crap is crap will you compare your own dump with someone elses dump saying its better? No ? STFU

      • Kennedy
        February 15, 2016

        You’re just a poor, no place to vent people. mouthful of bad language, I suspect you have been a bad education, or bad upbringing, you represent yourself, everyone has their own views, not you do not like something, it’s rubbish. Please remember that you represent yourself and your knowledge, and without a strong theoretical support, it is clear how much you used the phone is useless, is not a geek.

        • Dante
          February 15, 2016

          you can break another fking phone mate , im telling the truth , and the truth is this is another fake ulefone employee account giving in as an “aemrikan” With a john cena photo as ur profile pic and the most unoriginal “american name” ever , your not going to try to sell crap to anyone , if a product is sht , you must not hide it , I know also that youre the same dude that attacked me some time back with another acc , and also on youtube on that fake ass “tech entusiast ” channel which only has ulefone videos – also i know Ilya from the russian dept ( if your totally not retarded hes a manager), and next time ill visit china i might as well find you, and give you a nice talk about how poor YOU are , lets be serious you also wont reply to this comment because your warehouse will be full of piss by the time 3 of your translators read this , ulefone had some good-k phones but thats it – AND JUST TRY TO FKING MAKE FAKE REPLIES AGAIN AND ILL BECOME DEFENSIVE AND JUST do something… evil?

          • Kennedy
            February 15, 2016

            Poor child, you know too many things, but this is only your own imagination things, but you actually believe this is correct? Do not always think to laugh at others, in addition to express some anger and rude words on the network, you can not do anything, not even you can not make a phone evaluation are, you should use your actions to prove your suspicion, rather than on the network continue to publish boring text. Poor child, my dear poor children.

            • Dante
              February 16, 2016

              really , you fking copied my photo , indeed , You are pissed right now , and i am happy – tell me what this photo is or ill fking break your face , Now u cant change my opinion every single Be touch sucked ass , you released the 2nd version because you had no full hd display and , “made the battery cappacity larger ” which you clearly didnt because the screen on time was way smaller , you made be touch 3 with a weaker processor so u could update it , be X and pro were so bad i could literally use them as shovels in my garden , ill tell you a rhing i dont care if Future ( it actually looks pretty good) will be a good phone – untile this Point ulephone have been liers , and lies are the only thing you can say – Done 😉 thanks for making my day , i havent seen such a dumb person in a while

            • Dante
              February 16, 2016

              if this would be true – you wouldnt reply to my comment 🙂

        • Dante
          February 16, 2016

          apparently ive got no place to vent?! Thanks my ventilation system works fine – Indeed ulefone emps are a rare breed of … i dont even know anymore

  3. mf1gt3r
    February 5, 2016

    Gionee is crazy. Just glad their products in Nigeria aren’t so expensive.

  4. balcobomber25
    February 5, 2016

    Still no E8 review?

    • Joel Adames
      February 5, 2016

      Hahahaha you waiting for it too???

      I was told I’d grow roots jajaja

  5. careeste
    February 5, 2016

    The rebranded version in romania -Allview x3 soul it costs 371.49 $ at pre order.Funny price,boring phone

    • Karly Johnston
      February 7, 2016

      So is Gionee, they could get away with it if they sold at BLU prices, their whitebox is where they move all of the volume.

  6. David Košič
    February 5, 2016

    The plastic version of this phone in the U.S. sells for about 150 dollars. And for 3 days it was only 99$. So yeah it might be overpriced a bit.

    • balcobomber25
      February 6, 2016

      Blu always sells it for less.