LeEco is now the flag-bearer of the disruptive approach to segment domination. They tasted success with the Le 1s and the Le Max in India. They have now come out with the second generation devices that are an iteration upward in terms of experience and performance. We spent time with the Le 2 handset. Here is our review of the same
Let’s list out the Key Features of LeEco Le 2 in terms of specifications
- 5.5 inch Full HD Screen with In-cell Display
- 3 GB RAM|32 GB ROM
- Camera: 16MP|8MP with Dual LED Flash
- Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 1.8 GHz Processor
- 3000 mAh Li-Ion Polymer Battery, Type-C with Quick Charge 2.0
- Android v6 (Marshmallow) with EUI OS
- 4G Dual Sim with Dual Standby
- Continual Digital Lossless Audio (CDLA) Technology
- Full Metal Unibody Design
- Le Touch Patented Fingerprint Technology for Security
- Seamless Integration of LeEco Content
As far as the design and build go, LeEco has not made any drastic departure from their trademark design that made the Le 1s such a big hit for them. It is made of a metal unibody and has a screw-less industrial design. There are a few changes in the Le 2 that are visibly a change from the Le 1s, the camera has changed position from the corner to the center of the rear side, right above the fingerprint scanner. The Flash is alongside the camera. In the front, the display takes up close to 75% of the available area and hence the form factor is preserved. This also makes the bezel very very thin. If you have a dark wallpaper, you will hardly notice it. The chipped metal edges make it sit well in your palm and gives it a comfortable grip. We thought that it was large enough for comfort yet not too large to be intimidating.
The chipped metal edges and the matte metal finish in the back make it feel very premium. LeEco has done away with the traditional 3.5 mm headset jack and instead given CDLA Headsets that connect into the USB Type – C Socket in the bottom that is flanked by the speaker grills on both sides. USB Type-C is the future and this move augurs well for the future. Before you start fretting that you don’t have a CDLA headset, let us tell you that the phone comes with a USB Type-C to 3.5 mm adaptor that can help you to plug in your existing headset to the Type-C port. But the CDLA headset is a very impressive one that delivers amazing quality music with nearly perfect clarity right into your ear. The design of these headsets is thoughtful, they go right into the ear and are a snug fit there.
Since all connections and stuff are now at the bottom side of the device, the top of the device has just the IR blaster housed in it and nothing else. The fingerprint sensor that sits right below the camera on the rear is pretty fast and accurate. It uses the company’s Le Touch Patented Fingerprint Technology for improved security and fast recognition. The unlock happens directly from the locked/dark screen so the power button is spared of constant use and hence will last longer.
To summarize the build and design, LeEco has scored by keeping things simple, subtle and fundamental. Having said that, the overall feel is superlative and premium to the core. The use of metal is very good. When you hold and feel the device, you will feel good and the gripping it won’t be a mess. A Big tick mark on design and build from us
The LeEco Le 2 comes with a very impressive Full HD, IPS LCD display panel. It supports resolution of 1080×1920 pixels on the 5.5-inch display. and the device impressed us a lot here when it came to the depth of colors. The default color Mode is set to ‘LeEco’, which keeps the color temperature a tad bit on the cooler side. Changing it to ‘Natural’ takes the color temperature to an overall warmer level that makes the colors look much better, a lot better actually.
The display gives very sharp contrast ratios, and there is an option of selecting Video Display Enhancement in the settings that will very gently spike up the saturation level which makes it very comfortable to watch videos on it. The sunlight brightness level is a tad bit on the con side of the display, but given the whole package and the price at which it is coming, we are not complaining . Hopefully the Le 2s or the Le 3 will address this minor issue with it. And if you are reading texts or emails you won’t even notice it.
The display panel is crafted to aid content consumption and that is very evident, this also augurs very well for the LeEco content offering that is very video heavy! The Corning Gorilla Glass 4 screen protection is very adept at protecting the display panel, the touch response is very fast and smooth, no issues seen there. Overall, the display is a hit! Given the pricing, we would say a mega hit!
LeEco’s eui is quite a radical departure from stock android in a good way. There is no bloatware issue, the UI is very light and smooth. Once you get used to the way of doing things with it, you will actually like it a lot. We felt a little different with the Le 1s, but now the eui is one of our favorite android skins. The change in the notification panel and the settings shortcuts are actually more easy to use once you get familiar. eui now also comes with the content apps that form the bridge between the user and LeEco’s Ecosystem. There’s LeVidi – the streaming video interface that brings you premium streaming content from many providers like ErosNow, LeView – the interface into youtube that selects videos based on your preferences and Live – a neat circular icon that sits where the app drawer sits on traditional android handsets, this one opens an interface into YuppTV that streams live TV content straight into your handset. It is worth remembering that a valid and signed in LeTv account is needed for all this to work. You get a years subscription free when you buy a device, this is worth INR 4900/-
Let us now talk about one of the best parts of the Le2 – The camera!
The LeEco Le 2 rear camera has Omnivision’s OV16880 image sensor. This 16-megapixel image sensor gives very vivid real like color renders with good and clear details, the sharpness and saturation levels in pictures taken in brightly light are very impressive and visibly ahead of the 13 MP shooter that the Le 1s had. The color detail is preserved for most part and if you are a trigger happy person who shoots a ton of pictures and shares them regularly on social media, this one is for you without a doubt. LeEco have actively listened to feedback about the camera on the Le 1s and worked on it in this one! It is very good to see that. Given the segment and price of INR 11999/- there really isn’t much to complain about in this department of the Le 2. The 8 MP front camera is pretty decent and churns out good selfies.
The camera app has been worked upon and made more intuitive, the updated eui has made finding various modes and controls easier and smoother. You can also use the fingerprint scanner to take the picture when you tap it, but that takes a bit of getting used to. It grows on you. We were able to catch even fleeting shots comfortably with it.
The phone is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 652 SoC, coupled with 3GB of RAM, it has the Adreno 510 GPU, X8 LTE modem, Hexagon 680 DSP and 32GB of storage all working very fluidly and efficiently together without any issues at all. We threw a lot of multi-tasking, videos and graphically heavy games at it and hardly noticed any sign of stutter or lag or any sort of frame drops. The performance is very good and on par or better than contemporaries in this segment.
The 3000 mAh Lithium Polymer Battery runs for roughly nine hours on a single charge with moderate social sharing, video and gaming use for us, the charging socket is Type-C and the device comes with support for Quick Charge 2.0 and has a large charger in the box. The Quick charge is indeed useful to juice up fast for the day and be up and running. There weren’t any significant heating issues that we noticed.
The call quality was good, the audio output in the speakers was very good. With the CDLA headset plugged in, it went to a new level of clarity. The best experience is when you play flac audio with CDLA on your ears. The phone comes with the usual bevy of 2G/3G/4G connectivity and all the bells and whistles like bluetooth etc.
Verdict
LeEco has come up with a phone that is hard to beat in terms of hardware, performance, camera, media consumption, design and build. At the price of INR 11,999/- where you get content worth INR 4900/- with it, there really is no need for us to say this, but please go buy it before it runs out and mind you, it will run out of stock very fast!
