GTel, a Zimbabwean based smartphone manufacturer on Wednesday unveiled the narrowest 5.5″ phone which is 74.9mm wide, the Gtel SL 8, in a bid to offer its customers better smartphones.
The company called out the iPhone 6s Plus, Huawei’s Mates, as examples of wider phones.
The SL8 features a “loop” full-metal design. “Loop” here means that the antenna runs around the side of the phone. The SL8 has traditional antenna lines, but they are painted to perfectly match the rest of the body.
The AMOLED screen has 1080p resolution and is covered with 2.5D glass. It has 3D touch too, recognizing three levels – Touch (selects), Tap (previews) and Press (opens).
The camera comes fully loaded. It’s a 16MP shooter that’s geared towards low-light shooting. It has a bright f/1.8 aperture and a RWB sensor – that means the usual green pixels have been replaced with more sensitive white ones. GTel promises a 40% boost in sensitivity and an 80% reduction in noise. There’s also Laser focus and Phase Detection AF.
The phone records 1080p video with advanced audio capture. A 70dB high-sensitivity dual-mic system and an AKM4961 chip do the work. There’s “multi-dimensional” noise reduction and “3D recording.”
The SL8 is powered by a MediaTek Helio P10 chipset (octa-core CPU) with a healthy dose of memory – 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage. The 3,000mAh can be fast charged at 18W (9V, 2A).
The phone will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow at launch and has a fingerprint reader on its Home key. Initially, the custom Amigo 3.2 skin will be used (GTel’s own take on Android), but the 4.0 update will come out in June.
Also in terms of communications, the S8 is a dual-SIM phone with LTE and VoLTE.
The SL8 will be available beginning of June for $499.
