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Gionee Elife S5.5 available in the U.S. under a different name

• Egon Kilin
• September 26th, 2014

The Gionee Elife S5.1 has just been approved by Guiness World Records as the world’s thinnest phone ever made, but we shouldn’t forget about its older brother, the Gionee Elife S5.5, the runner-up in the thinnest phones top. While the Gionee Elife S5.1 is 5.1 mm thick, it’s brother, as the name suggests is just 0.4 mm thicker, still making it one of the thinnest devices on the market.

The Gionee Elife S5.5 was released in March, 2014 and at the time of its release, it was the thinnest phone ever made, until the Elife S5.1 was launched. The handset was supposed to be exclusive to China, but it seems the device has popped up at a U.S. based OEM. Blu is actually carrying the Gionee Elife S5.5, just under a different name. The Blu Vivo IV looks exactly like the Gionee Elife S5.5 and has the same specifications upon research.

Blu is an OEM that aims to offer cheaper phones to the U.S. market and has picked up the Gionee Elife S5.5 in May, 2014. The Blu Vivo IV has an updated Android 4.4 KitKat OS running on it since August, 2014. The specs are the same as the Gionee Elife S5.5, to the smallest detail, so there’s no doubt that the Vivo IV is a re-branded Elife S5.5.

The Gionee Elife S5.5 and Blu Vivo IV both have a 5 inch Super AMOLED screen with 1080*1920 resolution and 441 ppi pixel density. They are powered by an octa core MediaTek 6592, backed by 2 GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage with no microSD card support. Both devices sport a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5 MP front sensor. 2300 mAH battery is providing the juice on both of them, and features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G, no LTE.

You can buy the re-branded Gionee Elife S5.5 under the name Blu Vivo IV from Amazon, available in three colors, black, white and gold, and will set you back $300, off-contract. That’s a pretty nice price for a pretty powerful device that’t also the second thinnest smartphone in the world you can get your hands on. Would you buy such a thin phone or would you be worried about it bending in your pocket?