LeEco Le 2 – the metal master (Review)

There are many mobile manufacturers who have come out of nowhere and managed to create a buzz. LeEco is probably a king among those buzz makers. Practically this company was never heard of, 3 months before and now they have managed to become a household name. Their first mobile in India the Le 1s was a huge success. Following the Le 1s, they announced the Le 1s Eco with their eco-system of entertainment package. Now LeEco has launched the second wave of Le phones in India. Let’s read about the Le 2 in this post.

Out of the box, the Le 2 has the Le 2 phone, USB C cable, SIM pin tool, a charger and a USB type C to 3.5mm headset jack converter. The Le 2 does not have a 3.5 mm jack and if you insist on using a headphone with 3.5 pin, then you can use this adapter. However I recommend you buy the CDLA earphones from LeEco.

Read about CDLA technology here.

Design

The Le 2 is a gorgeous metal mobile to hold in the hand, use and flaunt. It is not drastically different from its earlier generation mobiles. But the fine chamfering and finishing on the Le 2 makes it stand out in quality. The buttons on the right sides have good tactile feedback. As mentioned earlier, the mobile has done away with 3.5 mm jack. It has a IR port on the top. The USB-C port is on the bottom flanked by speaker grill. The speaker is mono and the sound output is average in quality.

The display is 5.5 inch and it has the front 8 MP camera and notification LED above it. The navigation keys are backlit, but they light up only when touched. The display has very thin bezels and that gives the mobile a very elegant look. The back has the 16 MP camera, noise cancelling mic, dual tone LED flash and super fast finger print sensor. In total, I would say that though LeEco could have experimented with a fresh design concept, they kept the sensible design intact and that has turned out to be an advantage for Le 2.

Display

Le 2 has a 5.5 inch full HD screen. It has good viewing angles and brightness. Direct sunlight readability is satisfactory. The saturation levels are a bit on the higher side and the contrast levels are above average. The ambient light sensor works fast enough to adjust the screen brightness based on the ambient light. The text displayed is crisp and the images are sharp and show good amount of details.

Creaky Display Gate

Many have already noticed that the Le 2 display creaks mildly when pressed hard. My review unit also had the same issue. I have checked with experts from mobile industry and they confirm that it is a manufacturing issue. But on using the mobile, it does not pose any major experience issues. The display is responsive and it is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. So I wouldn’t consider the mild defect to be a deal breaker. We have seen many devices in the past with such issues and this is a non-issue in my opinion.

Software

Le 2 runs with eUI 5.6 on top of Android 6.0. eUI has no major changes from its previous versions, but it has now got all the entertainment services on the home screen. The Live app watching live TV and LeVidi for movies are apps that are highlights of the eUI 5.6. Also the extreme left homescreen would have a list of curated video content. Hungama music app integration is yet to come and will be available soon via OTA. The control center is something that I got used to and now I cannot live without it. It gives me access to quick settings and on the same screen I can see all the running apps and a toggle to clear them from memory. The UI is fast and it shows no sign of stuttering.

Hardware and Performance

Unlike the Chinese variant which runs on Mediatek Helo X20, the Indian variant of Le 2 is powered by a Snapdragon 652 on Qualcomm MSM 8976 Chipset. It has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. It is a dual SIM device but LeEco did not bother to provide memory card expansion. Resource heavy games like Unkilled, Dead Trigger 2, Asphalt 2 had no issues with graphics rendering or frame lag. After 30 minutes of continuous gaming, the mobile temperature increase by just 2 degrees. Considering the price, the Le 2 is a good performer and it is definitely a good upgrade over Le 1s.

Camera

The Le 2 has a 16 MP primary shooter and a 8 MP front camera. The rear is assisted by a dual tone LED flash. The UI is simple and it has a few interesting filters for your snaps. On the face of it, the UI offers toggle between Photo, Video, Slo-Mo, and Panorama mode. The settings give you control over ISO, White balance exposure and other image settings. But the UI does not offer pro mode. There are a few scene modes like Landscape, Beach, Sports and Snow.

The camera app is very quick to snap shots and get ready for the next shot. The focusing is also fast and accurate, though it does not have any fancy laser focusing system. The image quality is decent. It captures a good amount of detail with fair amount of sharpness. Color reproduction is fairly accurate. HDR shots are not over dramatic and it serves the purpose. Low light shots are better compared to other mobiles in this category, but still the images have a lot of noise under challenging light conditions. The front camera on the Le 2 clicks good shots on daylight. It does get tricky to click selfies under low light, but then you are not going to print it or post a hoarding. It is good enough for social media shares..

Check out the camera sample below in full screen, high-resolution.

Battery

The Le 2 is powered by a 3000 mAh battery and it has USB Type C charging port. The USB C port and the 2A fast charger, charges the mobile in under 1:30 hours. Battery life was a point of worry in Le 1s, but now in Le 2 I get more than 24 hours of battery life on my normal usage. My normal usage would include about 30 min of calls, regularly checking the screens for whatsapp and Facebook notifications, clicking a few shots with the camera and a few hours spent on watching YouTube and video clips. 24 hours of battery life with more than 3 hours of screen on time, is really impressive on the Le 2.

Verdict

Le 2 is priced at Rs 11999 and it is worth every penny. You must consider 2 things before making the purchase. The mobile does not have 3.5 mm audio jack. In its place, you can buy the CDLA headphones from Lemall. It is priced at Rs 1990 and you can grab it for free as introductory offer. The CDLA headphone gives amazing sound quality and even if you had to pay for it, it is worth every penny. Second is the creaky display gate. As I mentioned, in my personal opinion it’s not an issue. But if you are concerned about it, you can check other options.

For Rs 11999 you get a beautifully crafted mobile, decent camera, amazing CDLA audio experience, fast UI and a decent display. Go for it!