[REVIEW] LeEco Le 2 review - The New Budget Winner

LeEco launched the Le 2 smartphone in India for Rs 11,990. For the said price Le 2 is a very strong option for those budget smartphone seekers.

Design : Elegant and Well-built

The LeEco Le2 has a very similar design language as that of its predecessor Le1 and the more expensive Le Max2. The full metallic exterior feels really solid and lends it the look and feel of a premium flagship smartphone. It weighs 153g which is less than what an average 5.5-inch smartphone weighs. The camera module is placed at the back and is slightly protruded. This makes it vulnerable to scratches. The fingerprint is placed right underneath the camera. It allows users to unlock the phone instantly.

The speakers are placed at the base on either side of the USB Type-C. There is no 3.5mm jack as the audio out slot is integrated with the USB type C however LeEco will provide a USB type C to 3.5mm audio convertor, though which you can use regular headsets with it.

Display

The phone offers a 5.5-inch display with 1920x1080p resolution which is fairly bright and colors looks punchy. This time around LeEco has chosen a better display unlike Le 1s whose display looked very saturated. Text in web and e-books looks crisp, while photos and videos look really bright, putting it at par with most budget smartphone.

The only thing missing here is the Read Mode, we would love to see that in the future updates.

Software : India centric OS

Like most other Chinese OEM’s, LeEco uses its own custom UI over Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with its own set of themes and customisation options. LeEco has made slight changes in the user interface from the one we saw in its predecessor. 

This time around you get a more entertainment centric OS. LeEco’s own media app is embedded into the launcher, providing you a large variety of content.

Audio: Powerful lossless audio

One of the most talked about or perhaps the most interesting feature of this phone is the omission of 3.5mm audio jack. The new interface that LeEco came up with CDLA provides right and powerful audio. But the down point is that you only get good performance with company’s CDLA earphones only. 

Good news is that they are bundling it with the phone as a complementary gift.

If you are into watching Netflix or YouTube, the Le2 can deliver a lot better sound than any other phone in the same price range.

Performance : Surprisingly Good

Powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 hexa-core processor which is paired with 3GB RAM, the Le2 delivers a buttery smooth performance. Despite using a Heavily skinned OS we didn’t notice any lags while switching between apps. The GPU is powerful enough and runs any game thrown at it with breeze.

The phone offers 32GB of internal storage which is impressive but there is no microSD support, which can be an issue with heavy media consumption users.

The 3,000mAh battery is good for modest users as it delivers a day’s back-up. But if you want a longer battery go for Redmi Note 3. LeEco didn’t cut any corners in the Connectivity section, the phone comes with all necessary 4G bands and even comes with VoLTE support.

Camera: Average performer

There is a 16MP camera on the rear with dual tone LED flash support and 8MP camera on the front. Rear camera can record 4K videos. But the 16-megapixel camera is quite inconsistent. While it is good with colours in bright light, it struggles in low light conditions. Thought the camera captures good details in bright light conditions but low light shots have good amount of noise in them.

LeEco should provide a better camera app, the camera is capable but the app doesn’t do proper justice to it.

Verdict

LeEco Le2 is an impressive offering in this crowded Budget category and stands out with its premium design and top of the line hardware. The best feature according to us is the presence if CDLA, the area where the phone lacks is the camera department which we are sure can be fixed by LeEco in the future OTA updates.

Check out our Unboxing and First Impressions of Le 2 here : http://bit.ly/1UitV5n