LeEco – Tech Raman

LeEco Le 2, Le 2 Pro and Le Max 2 launched in China; Bids Adieu to 3.5 mm Audio Jack

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 18:18:50 +0000

LeEco Le 2 Specifications A follow up to the Le 1S , the Le 2 sports a 5.5-inch full HD display and is powered by MediaTek’s Helio X20 tri-cluster deca-core processor paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. On the camera side, it is equipped with a 16-megapixel rear camera of aperture f/2.0 with PDAF and LED flash, and an 8-megapixel camera up front. It packs a 3,000mAh battery with fast charging support. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11ac, 4G LTE and VoLTE among others. The Le 2 weighs 153 grams and measures 7.5mm in thickness.

LeEco Le 2 Pro Specifications

Very identical to the Le 2 in design and most features, it gets a bit of upgrade in terms of processing power and camera setup. It is powered by MediaTek’s Helio X25 deca-core chipset paired with 4GB of RAM and 32GB and 64GB internal storage variants. While the front camera is the similar 8MP, the rear gets more mega pixels with a 21-megapxiel camera and Sony IMX 230 sensor. Other specifications remains the same.

LeMax 2 Specifications

The Le Max 2 is the biggie of the three flaunting a 5.7 inch QHD display (2569 x 1440 pixels) . It is powered by the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor coupled with a whooping 6GB of RAM and has a 64GB of onboard storage. It packs a 3,100mAh battery with Quick charge 3.0 The camera set up include a 21MP rear camera with Sony IMX 230 sensor, PDAF and OIS and a 8MP front camera. The phone measures 7.9mm in thickness and weighs 185 grams. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11ac, 4G LTE, VoLTE and GPS among others. In China, LeEco Le 2 is priced at Rs 1099 Yuan (which is approximately Rs 11,300), Le 2 Pro at 1499 Yuan (which is approximately Rs 15,400), and the Le Max 2 at 2099 Yuan (which is approximately Rs 21,500). All three smartphones will go on pre-order in China starting today, and will be available starting from April 26. While there is no official word on when the devices will be launched in India, it is likely to be in May. ]]>

LeEco Le1S Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 14:27:51 +0000

When I took my son to his hair saloon other day, the hair dresser asked “Sir, what is this new company L-E something… is it good?” He knew I review phones, so I showed him the phone which I was testing then. What that incident reflected was in short duration LeTv, now globally rebranded as LeEco has caught the attention of the people with its blitzkrieg promotional campaigns. Of course any good pre-sale promotional campaigns can give the initial leverage for the company but it can only be sustained if the product was equally good. In this LeEco Le1s review, I share my thoughts on the phone that the company now claims to have sold 70,000 units in 2 seconds in their first flash sale in India. A very impressive number indeed. Prior to Le1S, I was using the gigantic LeMax, the other Smartphone from the company they are launching in India, it has a 6.33-inch display and when I started using the Le1S, it felt smaller, even though it has a 5.5-inch display. The Le1S is priced competitively at Rs 10,999 in India, a price band that is witnessing the most action here.

Design and Build Quality

Aluminum unibody
151.1 x 74.2 x 7.6mm
169 grams

Cast in an all-metal aluminum body, the Le1S is a solid phone to get hold on. At 169 grams, it balances the metal body and the weight fairly well, the 7.6mm thickness makes it pleasant to hold, a right waistline that is not skinny nor hefty. The rose gold works well and is the flavor of the season with many manufacturers following suit after Apple bite the color in its iPhone. It is a refreshing shade considering we have seen lots of traditional blacks, whites and metallic shades of silver gray and gold of late. The right side has the traditional positioning of the power button and the volume rocker. The edges of the sides are chamfered giving it a clean looks and smooth handling. The left side has the ejectable SIM tray. It can accommodate one nano sim and another micro sim, with no provision for microSD card. The bottom has the USB Type-C port with two speaker grille flanking it. But it is still a mono speaker with only the right grille acting as the speaker and the other for visual balance and also fits in a microphone. There are antenna cutouts too. The top has the audio jack and IR. and antenna strips. LeEco claims its mirror-surfaced finger print scanner is a first of a kind, while it is smooth when you touch it, it doesn’t translate into high accuracy or quick responsiveness compared to the regular sensors. The rear houses the 13-megapixel rear camera and the right top corner with the LED flash next to it. A microphone is also positioned on the top. A darker shade panel on the top and bottom half adds to the visual appeal. In nutshell, the rear looks neat. The front has a black bezel which feels a bit prominent due to the rose gold panel on top and bottom. The front chin has three touch buttons and are backlit, which is very rare to find these days in even mid segment devices, when not lit, there are no visible markings for the buttons. The front also has notification light on the top.

Display

5.5-inch
IPS display
1920 x 1080 pixels
403 ppi
80% NTSC color gamut
1100 to 1 contrast

The Le1S comes with a 5.5-inch IPS display with a fullHD resolution. The display is pretty good, with good color vividness and depth. The blacks are deep and impressive. In the display settings, you can adjust to couple of presets – LeTv, vivid, natural, soft. The display settings options also include a scale view and font size adjustments. Soft is akin to the Blue light filter which we are recently seeing in many phones, if you are using the phone on a long usage for say browsing or reading e-books, you can shift to this color mode and it reduces the eye strain.

Software

Android 5.0
EUI

Stock Android is parked at Nexus and Motorola devices and most OEM’s stir up their own user interface. LeEco is no different and the have come up with EUI. It is based out of Android 5.0 but has a different feel to it, almost like iOS. There are no app drawers and all apps are housed on the home screen. The notable shift from the standard Android layout we are familiar with is the positioning of the quick access settings and toggles or what we call control centre. Usually in typical Android devices you access them at the notification shade but EUI plays it differently. The notification shade shows just the notification and also you can access the notification settings. The control centre is integrated to the mutlttasking screen. So pressing the multitasking button, opens the screen that shows all – the open apps and one click to clear apps occupy the bottom half while the quick access and toggles settings are at the above. This shift takes a bit of time to get adjusted to. The settings menu is divided into two toggles – system settings and app settings. There are areas to improve on the EUI but other wise, the UI looks clean with minimal pre-installed apps and bloatware. There are no theme store and it has a dozen themes to choose from. There are no fancy gesture options either, which in any case I always find to be waste of resources. The Le1S comes with a IR blaster and a Remote app, so you can use it as a remote. On the downside, the EUI faces lots of bugs and hopefully they will be squashed by some updates sooner, they better be aggressive about it, https://youtu.be/BbSBiKgDtQc

Performance

MediaTek Helio X10
2.2GHz Octa-core processor
ARM cortex- A53
64-bit
Power VR G6200 GPU
3GB RAM
32GB internal storage
3000mAh battery
Speakers: Dolby, DTS

Le1S engages MediaTek chipset with the Helio X10 extension, complimented with a 3GB of RAM and Power VR G6200 GPU. There is no provision for microSD card but a 32GB should keep most of us happy. The big question is performance? The Le1S handles the day to day tasks really well, the multi tasking is better and for those who are into gaming, it plays but a keen gamer can notice certain frame drops and slight low down in graphics. I reiterate, these are noticeable by avid gamer but for casual gamers, it still works. The call quality is good and even the audio leaves no room for complaint. What was impressive was the battery performance. The 3000mAh battery gave me 5 hours screen on time with the phone going past a day of use. It also features fast charge.

Camera

13MP rear camera
f/2.0 aperture
PDAF
5MP selfie camera

The day light pictures strikes a sweet spot and the color reproduction was decent but still with intense race in the entry level mid-segment, their are phones that outdo the Le1s in terms of photography, having said that the Le1s does take good pictures overall. The selfie camera was a bit of a let down. It messes up in the color algorithm and I think LeEco could fix it with a software update. Also strangely, there is no beauty filter and I feel by default there is a small degree of beautify applied. You can also use the finger print scanner to take a picture and it comes handy. [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="10655,10656,10657,10658,10659,10660,10661,10654"]

Conclusion

At Rs 10,999 (US$ 162), there no room for big complaints against the Le1S and we can cast aside the few drawbacks for the sheer value for money it brings.

The Positives

Amazing build
Good looks
Neat 1080 display
0verall good peformance
Finger print scanner
32GB storage on-board
Good audio
And the battery life

The negatives

Selfie camera could have been better
No expandable storage

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LeEco (LeTv) LeMax Review – The Big is Badass

Lakshmi Rajan — Sat, 30 Jan 2016 00:10:24 +0000

When I mentioned to a friend about the coming of LeTv into Indian market, he asked if it is primarily a television company who are making now a Smartphone. Thankfully, LeTv has re-branded themselves globally as LeEco to stress the fact they consider themselves a conglomerate of Ecosystems spanning content, big screen, mobile, sports, automobile, internet financing and internet and cloud ecosystem. In short, LeEco wants to build a unified content, hardware and cloud ecosystem and mobile is a big part of their larger vision. Though a new entrant to the chaotic, highly competitive mobile industry, they managed to make themselves noticed and claim to have sold 4 million smartphones last year. An impressive feat to achieve in less than a year. Now, jumping into the hot, smoking Indian mobile Industry which is seeing a huge upswing in sales, the company has launched two devices – the flagship LeMax and the mass killer, Le 1s. We have here the LeMax at our review desk and see if can max out the other flagship devices in the market. For starters, Le Max is available in three variants in India. A 64GB variant (silver) priced at Rs 32,999, a 128GB variant (Golden) at Rs 36,999 and then there is a super-premium LeMax Sapphire edition for a super premium price tag of Rs 69,999. We have the silver model with us here, though the innards, design and performance of all the devices are the same except for the storage and the super-tough Sapphire display for the Sapphire edition.

Design and Build

aircraft-grade aluminum body
uni-body
204 grams
167.1 x 83.5 x 8.95mm
Silver / Gold

B-I-G. For those who consider 5.5-inch a normal size and want a bigger phone, the LeMax is made for them. I for one prefer a bigger screen, since I consume media more on my phone, I watch my movies, YouTube videos on my phone and the bigger the phone display, the better for me. Also, the gaming is much better on a bigger display. Naturally, I was delighted by the bezel-less LeMax’s 6.33-inch display. On the other hand, I am a short guy and endowed with small palms, so a big rectangular slab with an industrial straight design for a bigger size could be a discomfort. LeMax with its curved rear and smooth edges manages to entice me ergonomically. The 8.95mm thickness is absolutely fine to deal with for this kingkong and the 204 grams seems to have spread out and did not felt noticeably heavy unless you shift from a really light weight small phone (even a 5-inch qualifies to be small these days!) to this super biggie. The most characteristic feature of the LeMax is the bezel-less display. The display feels like bleeding to the edges, just a black narrow strip marks the edge of the active display area. At the bottom, there are three capacitive buttons which are back-lit and the top has the selfie camera, earpiece and host of sensors. Talking of sensors, you have a long list here that includes gyroscope, compass, magnetometer, gravity sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor, hall sensor and of course the infrared and fingerprint sensor, which are more obvious to the eyes. I am fond of metallic phones these days and prefer them over cheap plastic (the poly-carbonates!) or fragile glass bodied Smartphones. The metal rubs on your skin nicely (and cools you down on cold season!) and you also don’t have to worry about slippery or finger magnets here with LeMax. The rear is slightly curved and the antenna strips on the top and bottom of the rear strikes a semblance with a fruit (!) that all companies compare themselves with these days. Though, I don’t care since it distracts the silver facade on the rear. The unit I received has the LeMax branding on the rear and I don’t know if the retails units outside China will continue to have the LeTv branding or LeEco branding henceforth. The camera module is slightly raised, thankfully the lens glass does not touch the surface when you keep it down and is secured by the marginally raised metal edge around it. It could have been better if the camera had a flushed design. Flanking the camera is a two-tone LED and a microphone on top. A fingerprint scanner is placed below the rear camera and is pitted in literally. LeEco says it is made of a 6H hardened material to withstand wear and tear and better durability. At the launch, they also quipped most rival models uses a 3H material. Frankly, I didn’t knew about the hardness of the scanner material till date. Nevertheless, the bottom-line, it is supposed to be using a good build material for longevity. The edges are chamfered which makes it more nicer to hold and the smooth corners gets another right tick for ergonomics, all this helps since this is a big phone to hold. On the bottom we have the alignment of dots for speaker on both the sides and the USB Type-C port in the middle. And the audio jack and the Infrared blaster on the top in case you want to control your TV. The power button is strategically placed almost on the midway of the right side and is finger-friendly to access. Above that is the ejectable SIM tray that can accommodate one nano SIM and another microSIM. Above that you find mentioned WiFi HD. Don’t try to pull it out, it won’t. Very few phones are available with WiFi HD technology, it helps to stream or cast your phone’s content to a bigger screen with absolutely no lag, it also mean you can seamlessly play your favourite game on your TV. A catch though is, you would need a WiFi HD adapter and you need to buy it separately. The left side features the volume rocker and a physical mute button. Did you ask why a mute button? Well, why not? Is what I can say. Though I would have hardly used it once in my weeks of using this phone. In a nutshell, LeMax has an amazing build quality and it charms with good looks.

Also check our LeMax Design review video

https://youtu.be/5GWriqsBJ0A

In case you wonder at the easiness of carrying around the big device, check this pocket demo video.

https://youtu.be/VLFI6yIIrco

Display

6.33 inches
WQHD 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution
464 ppi
Sharp LCD
90% NTSC color gamut
1300 to 1 contrasts

The above list says it all. With fullHD a common sight, 2K is what flagship devices has to talk and is what LeMax comes with. A 6.33-inch LCD display is sourced from Sharp. The screen is crisp, not over-saturated and offers good contrast and depth of color. Everything looks almost natural and display is soft on eyes. Dig into the settings and go to display, there you can shift the color modes to four available pre-sets – LeTv, Vivid, Natural and Soft. Soft is akin to the Blue light filter which we are recently seeing in many phones, if you are using the phone on a long usage for say browsing or reading e-books, you can shift to this color mode and it reduces the eye strain.

Software

Android 5.0 Lollipop
EUI

It’s Android but every mobile OEM’s like to add their own flavour to it, what we call it as UI (User Interface), and we have taste of eUI (Eco UI) in the LeEco devices. Every UI’s improve in time, when user feedback set in. The notable visible change lies in the notification shade. Usually the notification shade shows the notifications plus the control center, the story is different with eUI. The notification shade only shows the notifications here plus the notification management control. The control center is tucked in the multitasking menu. Pressing that, shows the open apps on the bottom half and the control center on the top complete with the quick access toggles. This new interface gets time to get used to after using the standard android layout all the while. There are other areas of improvements like lack of auto-arrange of apps, which could be fixed by software update. Other features like app management, app permissions are there. There are no fancy gesture and motion features and am fine with it, after all how many of us use it after exploring it on the first day of purchase. The settings menu is divided into two toggles – system settings and app settings.

Performance

Qualcomm Snapdragon 810
2GHz Octa-core, ARM Cortex-A57 and ARM Cortex A53
64-bit
4GB LPDDR4
64GB / 128GB
3400mAh

Now let’s talk about the big focus – the performance. Snapdragon 810 is notorious for being a hot iron. We have seen it heating up many flagship devices and at receiving end. So I was quiet skeptical initially but LeMax surprised me. Not sure, what the engineers at LeEco did but the phone does not heat up even after a long bout of gaming. My gaming test showed it shoot up in the range of 5-7 degrees, which is very much within the acceptable limit. May be the big real estate, helps in dispensing the heat but whatever the reason be, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 works brilliantly. Throw in any heavy, graphic intensive game and it handles it at ease. The big screen also makes it an ideal device for media consumption and gaming. LeEco’s LeHi-Fi audio technology delivers an great audio experience. The speaker output is sterling too. The LeMax also delivers well in other aspects like audio call, multi-tasking etc. In short, there is no room for complaint with LeMax when it comes to performance. The finger print scanner works neat. With a 2K display and high-scale specs, the phone is expected to be a battery strainer. With a big chasis, LeMax could have done a bit more than the 3500mAh on-board. With WiFi/data always on and synced with my social apps and mails, the phone sailed through around 17 hours with a bit of gaming thrown in and the screen-on time was around 4.5 hours. I think it’s a fairly decent result, considering the hardware muscle the phone sports. https://youtu.be/syPSR09ojZU

Camera

21MP rear camera
6P Lens
Sony IMX230 sensor
OIS
4K video recording
4MP ultra-pixel front camera with 2.0um pixel size
5P lens
F2.0 aperture

The LeMax is equipped with a 21-megapixel rear camera and the camera set up includes a 6-piece lens with Sony IMX230 sensor with a f/2.0 aperture. The camera is capable of 4K video recording and has Optical image stabilization. Having said that, bigger the mega pixels, doesn’t necessarily translate to better pictures. It all boils down to the sensors and other camera optimizations. Otherwise, it would be simple plugging of modules for great camera in all phones. Here are some of the sample images shot with the LeMax. While the rear camera did manage to bring some great clicks, what was notable was it also delivered decent pictures in low lights. Though I expected a still better performance with the 21MP on-board and also the camera app needs a bit of refinement. The Slo-mo works good especially at 4X. Where it lets down was at the front camera, the pics gets overexposed at most times. https://youtu.be/6C6G9OBvlxw

Conclusion

For someone who love big phones and when I say big phones, I mean the real big super-phones, the LeMax with a bezel-less frame and display would be a phone that would capture the attention. It has a great build quality, a good display and awesome firepower within, that can easily handle any heavy apps you throw in. LeMax is a perfect device for gaming and media consumption and the 64GB of base storage, can allow you stash away all the titles you got.]]>