Today’s smartphone manufacturers are just crazy about thin phones, especially in Asia. Gionee Elife S 5.1 was the thinnest smartphone in the world for quite some time, and then Oppo released their R5 handset in November 2014. The R5 is only 4.85mm thick, but it wasn’t the thinnest smartphone in the world for long though, Vivo released their X5 Max handset in December last year, which is only 4.75mm thick. Having a phone that thin is… well, you can brag about it, but you do have to make a lot of compromises. First and foremost, battery life, this aspect is poor with most smartphones as it is, no need to push it any further down. Such thin phones are also quite awkward to hold, so I really don’t understand it, on the other hand though, it’s a great marketing point I guess.
Either way, another Vivo device got certified by TENAA (China’s equivalent to the FCC), the X5 Max L. This will be a more affordable version of the X5 Max which is not as thin as its older brother, but is still extremely thin at 5.1mm. This handset will sport a 64-bit MediaTek SoC, instead of the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 processor (also 64-bit). The phone still offers a 5.5-inch 1080p (1920 x 1080) display though, same goes for 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 128GB). The same 13-megapixel sensor is available on the back of this thing and 4G LTE connectivity will also be available as part of this package. Android 4.4.4 KitKat will come pre-installed on this device and the handset will be available in white only it seems. Vivo X5 Max L will measure 153.9 — 78 — 5.1mm and will weight 153 grams according to this listing.
There you have it, this phone is still extremely thin and it’s the same height and width as the X5 Max. We still don’t have any information on when will Vivo launch this thing, nor how much will it cost, but as I already said, you can expect a rather affordable price tag attached to this device. The device will launch in China first for sure, and then it might spread in other parts of Asia, I doubt it will leave that continent though.
