Yesterday, a Shenzhen court ruled that the manufacturer of smartphones Gionee be declared bankrupt and the company’s liquidation process begins. And although lawyers still hope that the liquidation can be turned into reorganization, this is very similar to the end of the company's history. Let's conduct a kind of civil memorial service for Gionee and recall the best devices that the company has produced in recent years. There is something to remember: engineers twice beat the world record for the thickness of smartphones, offered interesting affordable flagships, made hit models for the global market and anticipated innovations in the field of batteries.

Gionee Elife S5.5

[img]https://3.bp..com/-w2nAAdPfT9A/XBoenVGwC6I/AAAAAAAAB8o/SfKhf6gixWkF8Ew4cLaaw-6eVMLMGxuhgCLcBGAs/s320/Screenshot_1.jpg[/img]
[img]https://1.bp..com/-Iqj3zdSD2F0/XBoenacZkeI/AAAAAAAAB8k/8RTP6cTz8C4f5HoeMBfpHkeiYr_WpICkACLcBGAs/s320/Screenshot_2.jpg[/img]
At the beginning of 2014, Gionee for the first time made it loud to talk about itself, presenting the world's thinnest smartphone - Elife S5.5. Its thickness was only 5.55 mm, but the engineers managed to fit there is not the worst battery of 2300 mAh. And designers managed to create an interesting design with an unusual design of the camera and a number of interesting colors. Other features were worthy: 5 "Full HD-screen, eight-core MediaTek MT6592 chipset, 2 GB of operational and 16 GB of internal memory, 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel camera.

Gionee Elife S5.1

[img]https://1.bp..com/-Qsm89YlJe3c/XBoem4u84cI/AAAAAAAAB8g/hkOKU8K3OgEcWl8HpJLCxrQ38RFM6s33QCLcBGAs/s320/Gionee%2BElife%2BS5.jpeg[/img]
In the autumn of the same year, Gionee broke its own record, presenting an Elife S5.1 with a thickness of only 5.15 mm. According to the characteristics, the second generation of record holders turned out to be simpler: 4.8 "HD-screen, 8-MP and 5-MP cameras, Snapdragon 400, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal memory, 2100 mAh battery. , 5-mm jack for headphones, as well as completely drowning the camera into the case! Of course, there was no sense in further reducing the thickness, and the experiments with the thinnest Gionee smartphones stopped, starting the search for optimal ergonomics.

IUNI U2

[img]https://1.bp..com/-iZZ7NQnhxTc/XBogKjMqOdI/AAAAAAAAB88/CZEiSU4gi5oIyLELr0daeC0Vp5bGaxO0wCLcBGAs/s320/Screenshot_3.jpg[/img]
Another curious - but, unfortunately, quickly ended - Gionee experiment was a subbrand of IUNI, under which smartphones with steep iron and low price were sold. The brand’s firstborn with the “I am Unique” slogan was IUNI U2, also introduced in the spring of 2014. The device offered chips that were not found in many A-brands - a metal case, narrow side frames (smaller than the reference then Moto X), 16-megapixel main camera and front camera, similar to the main camera HTC One! The specifications were also on display: a 4.7 "LTPS screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, 2/3 GB of RAM, 16/32 GB of ROM and a top one at that time, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800. And IUNI U2 was sold in a triangular box.

IUNI U3

And in August 2014, the second and last model came out in the flagship IUNI series. The smartphone was equipped with a 5.5 "Quad HD-screen Sharp production with minimal frames, thanks to which the body was only 0.9 mm wider than the 5" Xperia Z1. Optical stabilization (!) Was delivered to the main 13-megapixel camera, and the front-facing camera was left ultra-pixel. The chipset was upgraded to Snapdragon 801, and the battery was pumped up to 3000 mAh. In general, the technical equipment of the flagship IUNI was hardly inferior to the flagships of the largest manufacturers - however, it cost only 2,000 yuan, three times cheaper than the famous competitors.

Gionee Elife E3
[img]https://3.bp..com/-qLDM2F0GAf8/XBoiRFdL-3I/AAAAAAAAB9I/xs-5jBDFyQo-tzqluFlmV5ZYaxgtikUOwCLcBGAs/s320/Screenshot_4.jpg[/img]
Before you begin to actively develop your own brand, without even having a normal site, Gionee created devices for many local brands. So, almost the whole “golden era” of Fly in Russia was an achievement of Gionee. One of the most prominent examples of cooperation was Fly Phoenix, aka Gionee Elife E3. In the summer of 2013, it was sold in Russia for about 11,000 rubles, offering a 4.7 "HD screen, 8-megapixel, and 2-megapixel cameras, a quad-core processor (of course, MT6589), 1 GB of RAM, two SIM slots and a battery on 1800 mAh. “I think that the Fly IQ4410 Phoenix will become a bestseller. <...> I couldn’t identify the obvious shortcomings, although, of course, I would like a more capacious battery, noble materials.

Gionee marathon m4

[img]https://2.bp..com/-eMLSyG_1HC8/XBoiRcN29RI/AAAAAAAAB9c/1ztBfmVdWFARzJF5YkSTCsjFChRYx0pGwCEwYBhgL/s320/Screenshot_6.jpg[/img]
The Chinese did some Power Five series smartphones, using in long-livers the skills of effectively locating components in the case and optimizing the power consumption of software obtained during the years of experiments with the thinnest devices in the world. As a result, Gionee Marathon M4, better known to us as the Highscreen Power Five, with a body just 10 mm thick, twisted the video on one charge for more than 20 hours! Otherwise, it was, of course, a rather simple smartphone: 5 "HD-screen, MediaTek MT6735, 1.5 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal memory, 8-megapixel and 5-megapixel cameras - but it still remains one of the best according to the balance of ergonomics and autonomy.

Gionee m2017
[img]https://3.bp..com/-qLDM2F0GAf8/XBoiRFdL-3I/AAAAAAAAB9I/xs-5jBDFyQo-tzqluFlmV5ZYaxgtikUOwCLcBGAs/s320/Screenshot_4.jpg[/img]
[img]https://3.bp..com/-jkK4V7RH_zg/XBoiRQ8mqwI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/xIEATG0nygk3Du-NFRvdBKvhsP4AIaKxgCEwYBhgL/s320/Screenshot_5.jpg[/img]
At the end of 2016, Gionee released the most expensive smartphone in its history, the M2017. It cost more than most flagships (61,300 rubles at the rate of the day of the announcement) but offered a unique design and an impressive 7,000 mAh battery. The smartphone also got a curved 5.7 "AMOLED-screen with Quad HD resolution, dual camera with optical zoom (12 + 13 megapixels), 6 GB of operational and 128 GB of internal memory, an NFC module and a USB Type-C port. The bewilderment in the M2017 stuffing is a chipset: instead of the top Snapdragon 821, for some reason, they put Snapdragon 653.

Gionee marathon m5
There have been moments in the history of Gionee when the company offered innovative solutions that were widely used only a few years later. One might say, anticipated some trends. So, in the summer of 2015, the company introduced the Marathon M5, which received two 3010 mAh batteries each. The two-cell system allowed Gionee to speed up the charging of a large battery. Nothing like? The same idea, albeit multiplied by the usual fast charge, three years later, OPPO tried to sell to the wide market as SuperVOOC. The characteristics of the Marathon M5 were simple: 5.5 "AMOLED-screen, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal memory, 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel camera, MediaTek MT6735 chipset.

Gionee s11s

[img]https://4.bp..com/-ouPgzpRnOCg/XBoiSftmIVI/AAAAAAAAB9Y/IsPDKCb_J1YqAAm0-QRVro7x6jO2o4IiwCEwYBhgL/s320/Screenshot_7.jpg[/img]
In recent years, Gionee has actively collaborated with MediaTek; in terms of the number of models on the Helio P10, the company can compete with Meizu. As a result, the company even received an exclusive on the Helio P30 chipset, which is installed in the S11S model. This is the last Gionee flagship, introduced just over a year ago. Continuing the tradition of the S-series, the smartphone relied on ergonomics, offering a 6.95 mm thick case without harming the battery (3600 mAh). The smartphone had four cameras (16 + 8 megapixels in the back, 20 + 8 megapixels in the front), 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory. Screen - 6.01 "SuperAMOLED panel.

Gionee m7 plus

[img]https://1.bp..com/-vgBQga2CEQU/XBoiS0DFwxI/AAAAAAAAB9U/cnqosPRINiU8ZUq2st3lhqfRcMB-r6ZkQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Screenshot_8.jpg[/img]
Until recently, Gionee flirted with the luxury segment. At the big November presentation, which was the last in the company's history, she presented the M7 Plus - a smartphone made of genuine leather and 21-carat gold with 6.43 "Full HD + screen and support for fast wireless charging. Traditionally, the M-series used a large battery (5000 mAh), the hardware was also quite good: 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of internal memory, Snapdragon 660, dual 16-megapixel main camera + 8 megapixel.

It would be possible to talk a lot more: about the series of luxury clamshells with two screens W9xx, about the very cheap flagship Gionee Elife E7, about its mini-version with a rotating camera, about Elife E8, which was the record holder of the camera resolution among Android- smartphones, and so on. For 16 years of history, the company has done a lot of interesting things. RIP, Gionee.

I blog @TechZuma