The “explosion-proof” Elephone S7 looks kind of… familiar

What has happened to smartphone design lately, honestly? The problem of everyone copying everyone else has gotten so bad that now every phone looks basically the same. Is it a Huawei? Vivo? Samsung? Honor? OPPO? You know the design world has turned upside down when Xiaomi of all companies has the most unique design around (in the Mi MIX). Enter the familiar sounding and even more familiar looking Elephone S7…

See also: Best Chinese Android phones66

Notwithstanding the blatant ripoff of the Galaxy S7 design and name, the Elephone S7 does look pretty good on paper. With a starting price of just $139.99, you'd be hard pressed to find a better looking phone for the price, especially one with a curved display. Even the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 starts at around $400.

Specs and price

There are multiple specs options available for the Elephone S7: a 2 GB of RAM with 16 GB of storage base model for $139.99 (in gold only), a 3 GB/32 GB version with varying price points ($169.99 for gold, $189.99 for midnight blue, $199.99 for black and $209.99 for green) and a 4 GB/64 GB version ($199.99 for gold, $229.99 for blue, $239.99 for black and $249.99 for green).

For those prices, you'll get either a 5.2-inch or a 5.5-inch Full HD LCD with bezel-less 3D glass, deca-core Helio X20 chipset with ARM Mali T880 GPU and Android Marshmallow. The Elephone S7 also packs a 13 MP f/2.2 camera on the rear and a 5 MP front-facing camera. The Elephone S7 supports microSD expansion, dual-SIM, NFC and houses a 3,000 mAh battery.

"Explosion-proof" guarantee

The Elephone S7 has the same metal mid-frame and curves on both the front and back as the Galaxy S7 Edge. But you're probably dying to know what's going on with that "explosion-proof" claim, right? The S7 offers guaranteed three layers of explosion protection, because that's apparently a selling point these days.

There's an "explosion-proof membrane" inside the S7 to protect you from a battery that Elephone assures us is completely tested against explosions, all wrapped up in a tough outer "explosion-proof TPU shell". That's a lot of explosion proofing for a battery that's apparently guaranteed not to explode, but as they say, it's better to be safe than sorry.

If this wasn't a real phone already up for pre-order I'd think it was a particularly clever joke. But real it is and you can get one shipped to you worldwide. All jokes aside, the Elephone S7 is easily the best looking phone you'll find for as little as $139.99. I'm not going to vouch for the software, camera or… anything really, but if you're into quirky Chinese phones this might just be a bit of fun.

Do you think "explosion protection" will become a thing? How good do you think the Elephone S7 will be?

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