LeEco came to India earlier this year, and they have got huge success with their first smartphone LeEco 1S. Last month they launched their second smartphone Le 2 which has captured the eyes of the Indian people. They have made a record-breaking sale on the first day. Well on the paper Le 2 looks great and have excellent specs. Now let’s check out how the device performs in real life.
LeEco Le 2 Key Specs
- 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display
- Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 1.8 GHz Processor
- 3GB LPDDR3 RAM
- Adreno 510 GPU
- 32GB internal memory
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow with EUI 5.8
- Dual SIM
- 16-megapixel primary camera with dual-tone LED flash, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF
- 8-megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.2 aperture
- Fingerprint sensor, infrared sensor
- Dolby Atmos, CDLA loss-less audio
- 3,000mAh battery with fast charging support
Hardware & Build Quality
At first look, Le 2 looks very impressive and most of the times when I went out of the home people were looking at it, and even some of them asked me about the device. Le 2 has a unique and impressive design. The device has a full metal unibody design with 5.5-inch Display. On the back, it has a Camera on the top and just on the right side of that the dual-tone LED flash is placed. Underneath the Camera, it has a fingerprint sensor. Rest of the things are branding, and details written on it.
On the right side of the device, the power button and the volume rocker buttons are placed. On the left side, it has a Dual SIM port. Underneath the device the USB Type-C port and speakers are placed. The display is 5.5-inch, but the single-hand use feels secure. Le 2 has 74.4% screen-to-body ratio which helped to shrink the display size and make it more compact.
Display
Le 2 has a Full HD Display which is pretty standard for midrange smartphones these days. The display is a IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 401 ppi pixel density which offers very good viewing angles. The contrast and brightness are also fine. But we found some difficulty while using in the sunshine as the Display is too reflective. The Display might have some protective glass, but the company didn’t name it officially. Flipkart specs sheet says it has Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Overall the Display is just like we see in other midrange smartphones.
Performance & Gaming
LeEco Le 2 is powered by Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 1.8 GHz Processor along with 3GB of RAM and Adreno 510 GPU. 3GB RAM ensures excellent multitasking. The Custom UI from Le, eUI 5.8 performs very well. It doesn’t have so many customising options but for moderate users, the UI is excellent. The device performs very well while browsing the Internet, watching videos and calling.
So far we have tested out some very heavy games as well as small games too. The combination of 3GB RAM and Snapdragon 652 worked really well and handled all games perfectly. We played Asphalt 8 Airborne, Modern Combat 5 and most of the part it was very smooth. Sometimes we found small frame drops which are not a big issue, though. The device heats up after playing more than 30 minutes. We have noticed over Wi-Fi the device doesn’t heat up that much but while playing games over cellular network it actually heats up a lot.
Camera
Le 2 has a 16-megapixel shooter at the back with Dual-tone LED Flash, PDAF, f/2.0 aperture and an 8MP camera on the front with wide angle lens. We have tested the Camera in different situations. The rear camera we will say is average. In sunlight, the Rear works fine but in low light struggled a lot and the pictures are coming out a bit grainy. The front camera I would say works very well. We have taken a lot of selfies both in lighting condition and low light. The pictures are very good with good amount of details. The colour depth, saturation is also good on the front camera while the rear camera we would say not that good. The Camera UI is pretty simple, and it takes pictures at very fast rate. So far, Le 2 Camera is just average, but software update can fix a lot of bugs. So there’s always room for improvement.
Rear Camera Samples
Front Camera Samples
OS and Software
LeEco Le 2 is powered by Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with EUI 5.8 on the top of it. EUI is pretty simple UI just like MIUI but having fewer customization options. There were a lot of bugs at first, but the company gave some OTA updates to fix those bugs. Now it works very fine. The multitasking is very easy to do. You can quickly lock apps which you want to run in the background. So far I haven’t experienced any lag in this device. Unlike other smartphones, Le 2 doesn’t eat so much RAM. We have to say the RAM management of this device is excellent. The internal storage is 32GB, and you can’t upgrade memory using microSD card. If you are looking for a smartphone with external storage options, then this device is not for you.
Battery
LeEco Le 2 is equipped with a 3,000mAh battery with fast charging technology. The device can be charged up to 60% in just 30 minutes and 100% within an hour. Regarding battery life, the device really impressed me. It can up to a full day of simple usage. With heavy usage, it can easily run up to 11-12 hrs.
Fingerprint Sensor
The fingerprint sensor is a standard feature these days. Le 2 fingerprint sensor is really fast and can unlock the device within a sec. So far I have good experience with Le 2 fingerprint sensor, but it doesn’t work with sweaty or wet fingers.
Sound
LeEco has removed the traditional 3.5mm Headphone port and instead of that now you can use USB Type-C port to enjoy music. But for that, you need to buy the USB Type-C headphones or USB-C to 3.5mm headphone port converter. Le 2 is one of the first Android smartphones to integrate USB Type-C audio with Continual Digital Lossless Audio (CDLA). The audio sounds better than regular headphones but while using it through the converter the 3.5mm headphones sound same. The device doesn’t come with USB Type-C headphones, but you can buy them for Rs. 1,999 from the official website.
The stereo speakers sound really loud and clear. The call quality is excellent, and there are no noisy sounds. I have to say in Audio department; Le has done a great job and for a Rs 12000 smartphone, it is more than enough.
Final Verdict
Le 2 has all the features anyone wants in a smartphone, but it has some drawbacks too like no microSD slot, average Camera. But the pricing of this device makes it a perfect smartphone. For Rs. 12,000 it is a great deal, and you can obviously give it a try.
Buy LeEco Le 2 from Flipkart.
