Luxury smartphones aren’t about practicality, or efficiency, or any other trait we might otherwise associate with the utilitarian world of modern consumer electronics. Instead, these devices — like the new Gionee M2017 — are about excess, style, and raw power. The M2017, which is limited to the Chinese market as of now, comes with a 7,000 mAh battery at a time when most phones can barely break 3,000 mAh. (The phone actually just uses two 3,500 mAh batteries placed next to one another.) The device also comes with a top-of-the-line octa-core Snapdragon 653 processor and 6GB of RAM. For that kind of power, you’ll be forking over the Chinese Yuan equivalent of about $1,000.

But the specs are just one half of the luxury phone picture. The…

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