Xiaomi Redmi 3 vs LeEco 1S : the budget war is on

After the super hit Mi3 and Redmi 1S, Xiaomi kind of struggled to gain marketshare in India. To compound their problems, Lenovo and ASUS stole Xiaomi’s thunder and Lenovo went on to become the third largest smartphone seller in India and is ready to take #2 Micromax. But the biggest story of this year is LeEco Le 1S. This phone created a mini storm and 200,000 units were sold, shattering many records. Will the Redmi Note 3 be able to challenge the mighty budget king Le 1S? If you are looking for more straightforward comparison of specification, head to this page. Do note that this is comparison based on paper specifications of Redmi Note 3 as we are yet to get the review unit. We will have a more detailed comparison once we have the review unit in hand.

Design and Display

Both phones come with metal  unibody but the gentle curvature makes the Redmi Note 3 a better looking phone. Both the phones come with IPS FullHD 5.5” display panel and both come with Android 5.x operating system. But, Xiaomi’s MIUI interface creates a vibrant UI and makes colors pop and the UI animations are superb. Add to this the features like Mi Cloud, strong themes support. Xiaomi has also added features like IVR, phone as remote etc.  All these extra features over what would be vanilla Android gives Redmi Note 3 a strong edge.

Camera

Xiaomi’s phones are well known for strong camera performance. The Note 3 carries this trend. The rear camera has a 16mp sensor and takes very good looking photos. Le 1S also has similar camera and both the phones come with 5mp front facing camera. But the camera on the Redmi Note 3 is clearly superior to the Le 1s’s camera. Xiaomi’s also has strong HDR algorithm and so this one too goes to Xiaomi Redmi Note 3.

Under the Hood

Coming to the power, the Snapragon 650 inside Redmi Note 3 is not exactly a match to the Helio X10 inside Le 1S smartphone. Redmi Note 3 comes in 2GB/3GB variants, 2Gb variant comes with 16GB of onboard storage and 3GB variants comes with 32GB onboard storage. The Le 1S comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Redmi Note 3 has a microSD card slot and that is a big advantage for those who want to store more than 32GB. Lets call it even stevens as Le 1S is slightly more powerful but Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 comes with expandable storage.

Ports

The Le 1S comes with a USB Type-C port which is not only reversible but is faster too when compared to the microUSB port on Redmi Note 3. What Note 3 has is an IR blaster and  so you can use your Note 3 as remote to controller various devices. Lack of FM radio is one major drawback of Le 1S though as listening to music over radio is one of the best pastimes here in India.

Battery Life

Coming to battery life, the Redmi Note 3 comes with a 4050mAh battery while Le 1S has a 3000mAh battery. Clearly, the bigger battery would mean that the Redmi Note 3 has much longer battery life.

At the end of the day, we do lean towards the Redmi Note 3 as this phone gives better battery life, has better user interface, has strong cloud backup and has much better camera. But a small price cut and if we can buy the Le 1S right now without taking part in any flash sales, we can tilt the favor towards the 1S. After all, this has been selling like hot cakes and unlike the Redmi Note 3.