Chinese smartphone company LeEco is all set to refresh its smartphone line-up in India and the biggest attraction is the successor to the budget Android smartphone LeEco Le 1s. Priced at Rs.11,999, LeEco Le2 comes across as a definite upgrade over the LeEco Le 1s and the Le 1s Eco phones, at least as far as the basic specs are concerned. The Le 1s was launched in February and is currently retailing on Amazon.in at Rs.10,999 while the Le 1s Eco arrived in India in May, with free access to premium content from Yupp TV and Eros Now for Rs. 9,999.
We take a look at some of the key areas of improvement over its predecessor
Faster processor
One of the key highlights of the LeEco Le2 smartphone is that it runs on a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor, compared with the Helio X10 its predecessor had, and a slightly older Power VR G6200 graphics card. LeEco has paired the new processor with 3GB RAM while internals storage stands at 32GB with no expandable slot, just like its predecessor.
Latest Android
One of the limitations across almost all phones being sold in India by Chinese smartphone brands is that you have to put up with a dated version of Android. Most Chinese phone makers treat their custom UIs as an OS in itself and often ignore Google’s updates or launch devices on older versions of Android. This happened with the Le1s that came with Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and is still running on it. The Le2 is more future-proof in this regard. It runs Android Marshmallow (6.0) out of the box. This means users will potentially be able to use the new features of Android M such as app permissions, Now on Tap search and the better battery optimisation feature.
No 3.5mm audio jack
While we have been hearing about a few smartphone makers doing away with the 3.5mm audio jack for some time, Le2 is the first device in India which will not have a universal 3.5mm jack. LeEco has clubbed the audio port with the USB Type-C standard which means the USB Type C port will serve as the audio port too. Its advantage is that users will have to carry one cord less. The disadvantage is that you won’t be able to use your conventional 3.5m headsets without a USB Type C to 3.5mm adapter. The Le 1s has a separate USB type C and a 3.5mm jack.
Higher resolution camera
LeEco has used a 16-megapixel camera with phase detection auto focus feature in the new smartphone which is a significant improvement from the 13-megapixel camera of the Le 1s on paper. Whether it brings any tangible difference to the picture quality of the two smartphones can be said only after testing it in real-life scenarios. A lot will depend on the image processing algorithms, and how they tweak a photo before saving it.
Weight
In terms of design, the LeEco Le2 looks similar to the Le 1s. It has a very similar metallic exterior, yet it weighs 153g which is slightly less than the Le 1s’ 169g. The notable difference is that the new phone now has the redesigned LeEco logo at the back. The predecessor still carries the older LeTv branding.
