<div>Would a smartphone’s slimness weigh a lot in your decision to buy? I believed too much was being made of thinness until I had a look at the Gionee Elife S7 Android phone. <br /><br />This wafer of a phone is truly sleek and elegant, helped in looking so in no small measure by its double-steel rimmed sides. Two metal lines sandwich glass on both sides making the device look tall and pretty. I got the black version and decided it probably looked a whole lot nicer than white or any other colour.<br /><br />The S7 may be slim (only 5.5mm thin) but it still doesn't feel flimsy. Fragile perhaps, but not flimsy. It has a premium build and looks all glossy the way so many Sony phones do, except for the fact that it immediately shows up fingerprints. Safer to use the case thoughtfully provided in the box and also reduce the chances of the phone sliding smoothly out of your hand. <br /><br />It’s otherwise supposed to be made of pretty tough metal on the sides and feels good when you hold it because it’s ever so slightly rounded. At the same time, the buttons all on the right edge, stick out just enough to be easy to find — important on a slim phone. <br /><br />Two SIM slots, and the charging slot are all exceptionally neatly lined at the bottom of the phone. Amazingly, the 3.5mm jack also fits there as do the mic and speaker. This device can’t be opened up and is really neat and well crafted.<br /><br />The screen on this device is quite a pleasure. It’s bright and reproduces colours very well. But then that may be my weakness for SUPER AMOLED screens. It’s vivid and crisp and has a nice trick up its sleeve. It uses Chameleon, an app that lets you point the phone at something and pick up a mix of three colours as the theme for the device.<br /><br />In its brand new state, the S7 runs really fluidly. Navigating across screens and between different sections on the phone is especially smooth. Gionee has its own interface and like many Chinese takes on Android, does away with the separate app drawer. Apps are all in rows on the home screens. Then they add a few features here and there for differentiation. <br /><br />These interfaces are losing their distinctiveness today, especially as you can use launchers and apps to get those features. But the Amigo 3.0 interface on this device is at least light and does nothing to interfere with smooth functioning though it has a few oddities such as having to swipe from down to up to see settings and other buttons. <br /><br />Gionee has gone and put way too many little apps on this device. The company is actually very focused on smaller cities and towns and probably likes to give pre-loaded apps to a segment less aware about what’s out on the Play Store.<br /><br />The cameras on the S7 are not low-light specialists, but perform fast and well in proper daylight. The camera app is full of controls and features such as focusing on an object to blur the rest out, HDR, Panorama and a Professional mode so you can adjust basic parameters.<br /><br />The Gionee S7 is priced at Rs 24,999. There’s no image stabilisation, as is to be expected for a device of this price. There are tonnes of options today, especially from Xiaomi that throws in a game changer every couple of months with devices that offer both design and specs for a low price. But look at the S7 for its elegance and smoothness. <br /><br /><strong><img width="250" vspace="4" hspace="4" height="309" align="right" alt="" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=f01278f5-17f7-487f-a76f-6fcf817138c4&groupId=520986&t=1433844062263" />Creative Ultra Light Soundblaster Jam</strong><br />It’s nice to know there are affordable Bluetooth headphones coming out with some good sound to them. The new Creative Ultra Light SoundBlaster Jam didn’t look particularly impressive when I first ripped it out of its box. Neat enough, tough enough, but nothing in the looks department otherwise. A standard grey-black hard synthetic material with nothing fancy going on. The only accent and splash of colour happens to be its charging cable — a nice thick sturdy red wire with micro USB on one end and regular USB on the other. You plug it into a phone charger you may have handy, and then untether. It can also connect to a PC or Mac with that cable. But there’s nothing else in the box by way of a direct cable or adaptor. This is barebones. <br /><br />I expected the sound to be equally barebones but was surprised. It’s good rich sound and balanced with nothing sticking out like a sore thumb. The base (and that has a separate little button for boosting) was clean and not thumping or like a slap on the ear as is common with lower-end headphones. The treble doesn’t pierce through but sounds reined-in. It doesn’t sound like it could damage your eardrums and there are no distortions. You get warning beeps if you try to increase the volume beyond a point.<br /><br />The controls for volume, pairing via Bluetooth (though it does have NFC as well), and the base booster are all on the right earcup of these over-the-ear phones. They’re comfortable and yet strongly fitted. I’ve had several high-end headphones fall right off when I look down.<br />Some of the strong points, beyond pretty good sound, are 12-hour battery life, good comfort, and a great price of Rs 3,499 on Amazon, FlipKart and Snapdeal.<br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 29-06-2015)</div>
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
 (1)_20241001214828_original_image_25.webp)
