LeEco, on Wednesday, launched two new smartphones – Le Max and Le 1s – in India, marking its long-rumoured debut in the competitive Indian market. Le 1s is the company's affordable handset that offers attractive metallic design and premium features for Rs 10,999.
LeEco, formerly known as Letv, hosted a grand event in India to showcase the new products, one of which is touted as a flagship killer that sold in millions in China and other markets. LeEco Le 1s was applauded for its effective pricing in India and here's our hands-on experience with the full-metal phone that goes on sale in India on 2 February.
Design
LeEco Le 1s brings a significant appeal to the affordable smartphone range with its screw-less design, smooth finish, bezel-less ID and Floating glass 2.0 technology. The handset is made of aircraft-grade aluminium and has a sealed unibody. Le 1s feels light, compact and premium. Le 1s has an extremely slim profile, measuring just 7.6mm and weighs 169 grams.
LeEco Le 1s doesn't have any physical button on the display, but the volume controls and the power button are placed along the right side of the handset. The sealed body has a dual SIM card tray on its left, a 3.5mm headphone and IR Blaster at the top. The speaker grille appears at the bottom of the handset with a USB Type-C port in the center.
The Le 1s has a minimalistic rear design with a camera module, flash and a fingerprint sensor just below it. Check out some photos below:
Display
LeEco Le 1s sports a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS In Cell display with 403ppi for better visuals. The ultra-slim bezels give Le 1s a larger real estate and an edge-to-edge screen look. There are capacitive touch buttons for Home, back and menu at the bottom of the display and response accurately.
Le 1s has 80 percent NTSC colour gamut and 500nit brightness adjustment that ensure non-reflective readability even in sunlight. For a brief time we used the handset, we found it visually appealing.
Camera
LeEco spoke highly about the Le 1s camera capabilities that deliver true-to-life picture quality. Le 1s sports a 13-megapixel rear-facing ISOCELL 5P Lens camera with Blue Glass IR filter, f/2.0 aperture, 0.09 second ultra-fast focus speed, PDAF and LED flash. On the front side of the device, there is a 5MP wide-angle lens with same f/2.0 aperture that determines how much light enters the camera for better low-light imaging.
LeEco shared some sample photos shot using Le 1s, which looked quite impressive. We are yet to test the camera's full capabilities to determine whether it justifies the impressive spec-sheet.
Performance
Mobile phones are no longer limited to calls and messages as smartphones have evolved along with users' habits to do almost everything, such as shopping, banking, gaming and browsing among other useful tasks. In order to multi-task, smartphones must be equipped with advanced and capable specs. LeEco seems to have understood that well as its Le 1s comes in a powerful package.
Le 1s is powered by a 2.2GHzv64-bit octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 processor with CorePilot 2.0 optimised for gaming. The handset features 3GB RAM and 32GB fixed storage without an option to add more storage using microSD card. LeEco Le 1s runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop based eUi OS, which offers a unique user experience.
It was hard to determine how well Le 1s performed under pressure for the brief time we spent but we will test its full potential in our product review.
Unlike other companies, LeEco shared the benchmarking results of Le 1s at the launch, scoring 55844 on AnTuTu. With such a score, Le 1s is expected to deliver promising results in terms of performance.
Battery
LeEco Le 1s sports a 3,000mAh battery equipped with fast charging technology. According to the company, Le 1s can last up to 3.5 hours on talk time with just 5 minutes of charge. It is quite an interesting claim and we are eager to test the feature and its runtime in real time.
Le 1s has a USB Type-C port for charging, a new standard currently seen in high-end devices.
Fingerprint scanner
LeEco Le 1s is one of the few affordable smartphones that come with a biometric security standard. The handset boasts world's first mirror-surfaced fingerprint scanner that can unlock the device from any angle in just 0.15seconds, LeEco claims. The company touts its fingerprint scanner as the world's fastest with 99.3 percent accuracy.
We could not set up and test the Le 1s fingerprint scanner. But since devices like Coolpad Note 3 and Lenovo K4 Note offer reliable security standard, we expect Le 1s to deliver similar results.
According to LeEco, the fingerprint sensor at the back of the device is not only used to unlock the device and add privacy, but it can also be used to take photos. The fingerprint scanner has 6H hardness scratch proof protection, which protects from any scratches from sharp objects in users' pockets.
Verdict
For Rs 10,999, LeEco Le 1s is probably going to be one of the bestselling budget devices in the market. It has the potential and the necessary specs to challenge some of the industry's leading choices. We will be receiving the Le 1s for review soon but our initial hands on experience on the device made a positive impact. We would like to reserve the final conclusion on whether Le 1s is worth the hype or not until we fully test the product.
