Letv Le 1s: Smarter than genius. (Final Review)


You may all know that I received a Le 1s a few weeks back and have been using the phone as my daily driver since then. See what I think of the phone after a few weeks running this budget flagship in this Le 1s review.

Le 1s is priced in India at 10,999 Rs in which it packs very interesting specs:-

1.) It packs a 2.2 GHZ Octa-Core MediaTek Helio X10 processor coupled with 3GB RAM and PowerVR G6200 GPU for best gaming experience.

2.) It has 5.5-inch 1080p IPS HD screen which boasts a PPI of 403.

3.) A fingerprint sensor (which LeEco claims, it can unlock the phones in just 0.15 seconds)

4.) It packs a 3000mAh Li-Polymer battery with USB Type C connector for fast charging (and an give a talk time up-to 3.5 hours in just 5 min of charge).

5.) This smartphone is equipped by a high-definition 13 MP rear camera that features Samsung ISOCELL technology and a blue glass infrared filter. The camera has an F2.0 aperture and is capable of 0.09 seconds fast focus. It achieves 6x digital zoom and records 4K/1080p videos.
At front the phone has an 5MP camera which features a wide-angle (85 degrees) lens with an F2.0 aperture for great selfies.

6.) The Le 1s features a full-metal body made from aircraft-grade aluminum, a bezel-less ID and a screw-less design. The device is 7.5 mm thin and weighs 169 grams.


For full specifications check out the official flipkart page.

LeTV Le1s Review – Design



The aviation grade all metal UNI-Body design of the phone looks and feels great in hand, though the screen is 5.5 inches but he phone perfectly fits in the palm of the hand, thanks to its bezel-less design. The 1s looks like a shrunken down version of company's flagship phone Le Max.







LeTV Le1s Review –Hardware

Le 1s supports a  5.5-inch 1080p IPS HD screen which boasts a PPI of 403. The black bezels around the screen looks like the phone is bezel less. In the front we have a 5MP camera which features a wide-angle (85 degrees) lens with an F2.0 aperture, a proximity sensor, notification LED light and touch type capacitive backlit buttons.

TOP

1.) On the top we have a 3.5mm headphone jack, the audio from the headphones is good and is even better when the official Letv's headphones are plugged in.
2.) Then we have a IR blaster for controlling electrical devices like TVs, ACs, Projectors etc.


BOTTOM

1.) On bottom we have mono speaker, I must say the output from the speakers was loud and audible even outdoors.

2.) we have a USB-Type C port for fast charging a huge 3000mAh battery, and the time to fully charge the battery is around 60-90 mins according to me, thanks to the 3amps fast charger we get in the box.

BACK

1.) On the back we have a high-definition 13 MP rear camera with LED Flash. The camera has an F2.0 aperture and is capable of 0.09 seconds fast focus. It achieves 6x digital zoom and records 4K/1080p videos. The pictures shot with this camera are good in daylight, but in low lightning conditions the pictures clicked contains little bit of noise and seems shaky, but at the price of Rs10999 the camera performance is very good. For sample shots click here.

2.) Then we have the fingerprint scanner and the quality of the scanner is actually very good it unlocks the device really quick, and it also have worlds first mirrored surfaced scanner which LeEco claims is scratch resistant. We the scanner also functions as a shutter button when taking pictures.

LeTV Le1s Review –Performance

It packs a 2.2 GHZ Octa-Core MediaTek Helio X10 processor coupled with 3GB RAM and PowerVR G6200 GPU.

The processor handles the daily tasks an multitasking perfectly with the help of 3GB RAM. the gaming part of the phone the phone handles it well but sometimes I encountered lags and frame drops, sometimes especially after extended gaming around 30 min and more, the game suddenly hangs or it crashed unexpectedly.


NOTE: The crashing and lagging of games doesn't occur every time, the gaming experience is good on this device, the issue can be related to the software and can be fixed in the next update.

LeTV Le1s Review –EUI

The interface of the EUI is just like the other chienese OEMs like Xiaomi and oneplus's Hydrogen OS a app drawer less Custom Skinned UI in which installed apps stays on the home screen itself but on another page.


This was the default interface (shown in left) you'll get with the handset but I prefer Google now launcher over it and it works great and is easy to set as default, Letv also have theming option in which we can change the icon set in the whole UI.

There is no toggles in the notification drawer as other Custom UIs has, the EUI moved the toggles in the recent's screen (shown in right) which is a good move because those are easy to use but difficult to reach using one hand in a large 5.5 inch screen (should be more difficult in Le Max).

The UI is pretty neat and clean according to me but this new ROM lacks in some basic features that other UIs have, like the single handed mode, off screen gestures, as a OnePlus device user i really miss those off screen gesture and double tap screen to wake and double tap to sleep functionality. At the most part EUI performs good, but itll take some time to adapt the changes if you are coming from a Xiaomi or a OnePlus device.

The EUI runs on the android version 5.0.2 lollipop which is not good because android marshmallow is released and the other companies are updating there devices to the latest version of android and the EUI has not updated it to to the latest version of lollipop yet. Hope the Developer team should soon release the Update with changes and modification to the ROM.

LeTV Le1s Review –Verdict

The Le 1s is a great phone but there are some points I like about it and there are some points that I dont like about the handset. So, let me break it into pros and cons for this device:-

PROS:-

  1. Great design, with great screen.
  2. Fingerprint sensor is great.
  3. Camera quality of the rear and the front camera is good in outdoor lightning.
  4. The audio from the headphones is good and is even better when the official Letv's headphones are plugged in.
  5. Over all performance of the EUI is great and Lag Free.
  6. Videos made with the rear camera are good and steady.
  7. Call quality is great, the other parties also said that the voice is loud and clear.

CONS:-

  1. In indoor lightning or low lightning conditions the pictures taken are bit noisy.
  2. There is more room for improvements in the EUI, the EUI lacks off screen gesture or double tap to wake or lock the phone and other functionalities offered in other ROMs. 
  3. As it has a 3000mAh battery, but the battery life is not good, I was able to get nearly 4 hours of screen on time on normal usage with 10-15 mins of gaming, which I think is not good for a 3000mAh phone.
  4. Storage is the issue with the 1s as it has only 32GB of non-expandable storage, we get only 29.12 GB of usable storage, which in my case is pretty less (LeMax will have no such issues I think with its 64GB and 128GB versions).

So what you guys think about the Le 1s, tell us your opinions and views on Le 1s in comments below.
Buy Letv Le 1s on flipkart.

Amanpreet Singh

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