Gionee V183 spotted at the TENAA - another phone with a huge battery

Yesterday, we told you about the upcoming Gionee Marathon M3 – a modestly spec'd mid-ranger, with an impressive battery of 5,000 mAh. It seems that the M3 is not the only handset from Gionee to sport an unusually large juicebox, as another model has been spotted at the TENAA, with a slightly smaller – 4,000 mAh – battery.

The mystery handset goes by the moniker of V183 and is a lower mid-range device with a large screen. Its CPU is a quad-core one, clocked at 1.3 GHz, coupled with 1 GB of ram, and 8 GB of internal storage (expandable up to 32 GB). The display is a 4.5" TFT one, with a lowly resolution of 854x480 pixels (218 PPI). The cameras are also not made to impress, as the main snapper has a 5 MP sensor, while the face cam has only a 0.3 MP resolution. But, of course, where the device truly shines is the large 4,000 mAh battery, which should be able to last the handset around 3 days, before charging is required. Unfortunately, it also brings the handset's thickness up to 0.46" (11.6 mm) and weight to 6 oz. (170 g).

Gionee became famous earlier this year for manufacturing "the world's thinnest phone" – the Elife S5.5, which was 0.22" (5.55 mm) thick – then broke its own record, a few months later, by introducing the Elife S5.1, 0.2" (5.15 mm) thick. Gionee's svelte handsets have recently been dethroned by Oppo's R5, with a 0.19" (4.85 mm) body, which, in turn, was also beaten by Vivo's X5 Max (though, not yet released), with a slim profile of 0.187" (4.75 mm).

Had Gionee decided that a race for a super-thin handset is a ridiculous affair, when consumers crave more battery life? Maybe... we'll see if the rest of the OEMs follow.