Ever since phone manufacturers decided to fit a camera to the front of a device, self-obsession and selfie obsession have grown hand in hand. As smartphone cameras have improved so has the quality of the selfie, to the point where the front camera is occasionally given a higher billing than its rear-facing sibling. We saw a couple of selfie-focused phones from Sony, and Oppo made a swiveling camera on the N1 and recently launched the selfie specialised F1s. Now Gionee has joined the party with the S6s, which rocks an 8 MP front camera with a flash to give it company.
But first we need to talk design, and the S6s has decent fashion sense. It is long, with squared-off edges that are Xperia like, though the fingerprint sensor is rear-mounted, placed between a shiny Gionee sticker and the 13 MP rear camera. The phone is made of metal, giving it a premium feel, though it comes with a transparent case in case you feel the need for extra protection. The display is a 5.5 inch IPS affair, and it is quite impressive. Colours are punchy and brightness levels high. The phone also has dual-SIM capability, which is now standard in its segment. The SIM tray features a micro-SIM slot and a secondary slot that can hold either a nano-SIM or a memory card.
The S6s is powered by an octa-core 1.3 Ghz Mediatek processor with a Mali T720MP3 GPU. It comes with a healthy 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of inbuilt storage, which can be expanded to 128 GB by sacrifcing dual SIM functionality. The phone is a 4G and VoLTE capable, meaning it is ready to go if you are in the market for VoLTE calling from the likes of Reliance Jio. The 3,150 mAh battery still uses microUSB 2.0 to charge. This is a negative in terms of future-proofing, but the battery does charge quickly and the S6s lasts ridiculously long on standby so moderate users will love the endurance offered by the device. The fingerprint sensor can unlock the device straight from sleep, and while it does take a second, it is among the faster implementations we have tested.
The S6s runs the company's Amigo OS based on Android 6.0, and comes with a bunch of pre-installed apps, from file-sharing tools like Xender and productivity assistants such as Truecaller and Swiftkey to a bunch of games like Asphalt Nitro and Bubble Dash. Thankfully, these can be uninstalled, though the same cannot be said for Gionee's own apps like User Feedback. The lack of an app drawer means everything you download clutters up the home screen, though Gionee have included options to align available icons to top or bottom of the screen, and added a desktop management tool called 'Smart Arrange', which automatically groups apps into category-wise folders. It works reasonably well and cleans up the home screen, which is a small comfort.
The S6s isn't much for keeping stock Android's clean approach. A swipe up on the homescreen reveals some desktop management options and a useful universal search tool, while a swipe up from the very bottom edge reveals a control center with quick toggles.
All this added functionality is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the Super Screenshot, which allows regular, multi-page or partial page screenshots is a handy tool, the Fake Call (which is one of the default toggles available in the Control Center, and gives you a fake call from an unknown number to fool people and get away from unwanted conversations) is borderline hilarious.
The camera on the S6s is one of the better ones in the segment. The 13 MP sensor produces slightly soft images with some noise in anything but bright environments, but the camera app is loaded with features. HDR and manual mode (dubbed professional mode here) are present, as are a variety of filters, text recognition, and barcode scanning facilities. The front camera does not let down all the branding, and produces very detailed, natural-looking shots, with a beauty mode thrown in to even out the imperfections of your face and make it social media ready.
The Gionee S6s is hard to slot into a particular bracket. This is not a phone for the purists, who want stock Android, a familiar layout and rapid updates. It is not quite for the power user who wants a ton of additional software features, and the latest in silicon muscle, though some of Gionee's addons are rather useful. It is however, a great match for the growing user base of people who don't want to spend a bomb but want a great-looking, well-built phone that can handle their daily tasks. The added selfie-power definitely does not hurt.
The Gionee S6s is available in Mocha Gold and Latte Gold at Rs. 17,999 at brick and mortar stores and on Amazon.
Pros:
Solid build
Great screen and front camera
Feature-rich camera app
Cons:
UI not the best in class
No USB Type-C
