MWC 2015 | Gionee to unveil new ultra-slim smartphone on March 2

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Gionee is best known as the company that makes the ultra-thin Elife S5.1, a smartphone that measures just 5.1 mm across its waist. At the time of its launch, the Gionee Elife S5.1 entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world's thinnest smartphone, and the ultra-thin design was since used by vendors such as Allview (with the X2 Soul mini) and Kazam (with the Tornado 348).

As it's often the case when it comes to record-setting technology, it was not long before competing smartphone manufacturers managed to steal the title from the Gionee Elife S5.1. At the moment, the Vivo X5 Max is the world's thinnest smartphone, at a thickness of just 4.75 mm, but there have been others who passed below the 5mm barrier. With regards to competing ultra-thin smartphone designs, Oliver Sha, Gionee's Chief of Global Marketing, commented "The race to make the slimmest smartphone was getting out of hand. Going so slim is actually not benefiting user experience without the performance to back it up".

Most likely, Sha is taking a few shots at other smartphone makers interested in creating thin smartphone designs, especially since the competition has been forced to take some extreme measures in the quest for extreme thinness. Some of these designs allow no place for a headphone jack, some include thin and easily bendable build materials, others feature a protruding camera, and most come with very poor battery life.

Gionee promises that the smartphone it will unveil at MWC 2015 will make no such compromises. We're really interested to see if the new Gionee smartphone can live up to the hype.

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