LeEco formerly Letv is pacing itself nicely in the Indian market. With the launch of Le 2, successor to the Le 1s (and the Le 1s Eco), LeEco has upped the competition level in the highly competitive Indian market. Head-to-head, the Le 2 competes directly with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and quite frankly, the phone is doing wonders for Xiaomi and proves that if you launch a phone with the right specs and at a perfect price, it surely will be grabbed by millions. On paper, Le 2 seems superior to the Redmi Note 3 at the same price tag but will it be able to spoil Xiaomi’s party? Let’s find out.
Design and Build
In terms of looks and design, the phone is pretty similar to Le 1s with edge-to-edge screen and capacitive buttons at the bottom. The phone is slightly on the heavier side with a mirror surfaced fingerprint scanner at the rear. Above the fingerprint scanner is the 16-megapixel camera with LED flash and mic. The left side of Le 2 hosts the hybrid slot that supports dual-SIM connectivity or single SIM when paired with a microSD card while the right side features the power and volume buttons.
The phone looks premium with a decent build quality and good feel when held in the hand. The biggest change we feel is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack. No, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able enjoy music through a wired headphone but instead LeEco has integrated the audio jack with the USB Type-C port. The Le 2 is powered by what LeEco calls ‘Continual Digital Lossless Audio’ (CDLA). This proprietary technology claims to improve the audio quality. The sound difference is audible enough when using these earphones. LeEco also bundles the extension to use regular 3.5mm earphones, that would offer you to use the phone with your preferred earphones. As an offer, LeEco offers the CDLA earphone free with the phone that is worth Rs. 1,990.
Display, Performance and Software
The 5.5-inch screen display with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels offers good viewing angles and readability in the sunlight. Le 2 is powered by Snapdragon 652 processor as compared to the Snapdragon 650 found in the Redmi Note 3. The Snapdragon 652 offers slightly better performance than the 650 as it features 8-core processor, while all other things remain the same. The phone is snappier to use and does not lag. With 3GB RAM and 32GB storage, and runs on Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) with its own skin EUI 5.6. So for most of the daily applications, gaming and other usage, the phone offers good multi-tasking capability. Interestingly, the control centre can be accessed by pressing the recent apps key, which can take some time for Android users to get used to it considering the menu is generally placed in the notifications bar for other Android devices.
Le 2 also features free access to live tv powered by Yupp Tv. This service is free to user only for a year. This can be accessed by pressing the Live on-screen button at the bottom centre. Another personalized feature is recommended content that is accessible when you swipe to the left from the home screen – this fires up the LeView. This aggregates content as per your liking from various genres and pushes the same from LeEco’s content partners. However, LeView needs work as the recommendation engine is totally borked and needs better curation.
The phone comes with 3000 mAh battery that lasts for a day with moderate usage like calls, 4G, using social media apps and games. The phone features fast charging, hence you can get around 40% of battery within 30 minutes of charging.
Camera
The phone features 16-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash and front selfie camera with 8-megapixel. There are various filters that you can apply to the photo before clicking, besides this, it also offers slow motion capture. You may also find various shooting modes like HDR, Night, Square, Beauty and Scene. The scene option offers preset like Landscape, Beach, Sports and Snow. Le 2 can also shoot videos in 4K and HD.
The camera offers a lot of features to enhance the photos but the pictures are of decent quality. captured are of good quality, however, at times we saw less colour saturation. Of course, we have no qualms as it would not matter much and you can post good selfies to your social media accounts.
Verdict
At a price point of Rs.11,999 with free CDLA earphones, fast charging, there is no doubt that LeEco Le 2 offers bang for the buck despite the heavy competition.
LeEco Le 2 is an amazing phone, using it from a while and found it cool.