LeEco Le 2 review – the Redmi Note 3 Competitor?

LeEco launched the Le 2 smartphone in India for Rs. 11,999. I bought the handset from the first flash sale. Here is the LeEco Le 2 review that will give you can idea about the handset performance and if it really is a Redmi Note Competitor.

LeEco Le 2 review

Le 2 Unboxing

Inside the box : Handset, quick start guide, silicon case, SIM tray ejector pin, USB Type C port, fast travel charger 12V / 2A and CDLA adapter. SAR Value as mentioned on the box : 0.971 W/Kg head and 1.420 W/kg body.

Design, Display and OS

The LeEco Le 2 handset is using a metal body with a very good build and finishing. I got the rose gold color version that looks awesome. Handset is comfortable to hold, weight with battery is 155 grams and dimensions are 74.20 x 151.06 x 7.67 (mm).

Power and volume button is on the right side, SIM tray is on the left side, on the top there is IR port – you can use this handset as a remote to control other electronic devices and at the bottom there is primary mic, USB TYPE C port and speaker out vent. There are dual Mics for noise cancellation.

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack is missing as the Le 2 is using a new technology called CDLA that makes use of the USB Type C port – you do get a CDLA adapter (USB Type C to 3.5mm) inside the box in case you want to use a headset / earphone with 3.5mm pin. This CDLA adapter or CDLA headphone if you have one will not work on other smartphones with USB Type C port.

This is a dual SIM handset there are dual nano SIM slots and micro SD card slot is missing. Le 2 comes with LED notification and loaded with following sensors – accelerometer, light, proximity, gyro, hall and magnetic.

LeEco Le 2 sports a 5.5 inch screen with full HD resolution also comes with gorilla glass 3 protection. There is no issue with Le 2 screen if you understand the difference between touch and press (read this) or check the video review for more details.

Color reproduction, viewing angles and touch response are very good. The handset seems bezel less when screen is off or when you are using a dark theme, however there are borders on the screen, you will notice that once you use a white background.

Le 2 is running EUI 5.6 based on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1.

Memory and storage

Le 2 is loaded with 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM. You will get around 22 GB free space and about 1.6GB free RAM on first boot. I don’t have a USB Type C adapter to check OTG support, if anyone can confirm please leave a comment below. Also there is no micro SD card slot – 32GB is all you have.

Performance

This handset is using snapdragon 652 64 bit octa core processor clocked at 1.8GHz coupled with Adreno 510 GPU. This handset is really powerful, slightly more powerful than the Redmi Note 3 that houses the Snapdragon 650 hexa core processor. Le 2 performance is smooth, lag free and handset does not heat-up much, max temperature I encountered was 39 degrees.

Benchmark

• Quadrant – 40049
• Antutu (64 bit) – 80376 | 3D score – 18934
• Nenamark 2 – 60.1fps
• Internal storage Speed – Read (136MB/s), Write (144MB/s)
• Multi Touch – 10 Point

Gaming

I did not find any issues with Modern Combat 5 and Asphalt 8 (in high quality mode). Check video review.

Camera

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. There is slow motion option too. Camera quality is disappointing, it’s average. Do check the sample images and videos at the end of this review.

Others

Sound is loud and clear, in-call sound is also very good. This handset supports Dolby Atmos make sure to enable that in settings -> sound and vibrations.

CDLA stands for Continual Digital Lossless Audio, this handset supports CDLA. There is no 3.5mm audio jack and for using wired earphone / headphone you need to use the CDLA adapter. Audio chipset is built into the adapter – in fact when using CDLA the audio processing is not done from within the phone.

You can either use a CDLA headphone or the adapter to connect earphone / headphone with 3.5mm pin. I am still waiting for the CDLA headphone. The sound quality when using the CDLA adapter is awesome, it is important that you use a good quality earphone or headphone (with 3.5mm pin) and enable Dolby for better results.

The touch ID based finger print sensor on the back is accurate but not that fast. You can tap the finger print sensor and it will auto unlock.

Le 2 smartphones also comes packed with other LeEco entertainment apps.

4G, WiFi, GPS, IR and Bluetooth worked well without any issues. VoLTE is supported will be added in future updates. On SIM 2 I was getting 2G network only but after the update that I got today, now 4G works on both SIM 1 and SIM 2.

Battery

The 3000 mAh non-removable battery does a decent job. You can expect 3 to 4 hours of non-stop moderate to heavy usage on a single charge. For normal users it will last for over a day, moderate users one day and for heavy users it will hardly last for a day, however fast charging is supported so you can get the handset charged real quick.

LeEco Le 2 Battery Performance (time / battery % drop / estimated battery temperature).

• Running Benchmark app – 9 minutes / 4% / 37 degrees
• MC5 + Asphalt 8 game play – 22 minutes / 10% / 39 degrees
• 4K video playback with full brightness (WiFi /4G on) – 26 minutes / 11% / 37 degrees.

It took me 1 hour 23 minutes to charge the handset using wall charger from 21% to 100%. It usually takes 90 minutes for full 0 to 100 % charge. Do note that when using fast charger the handset may get really hot, temperature may go over 40 degrees up to 45 degrees, it is normal.

Verdict

The leEco Le 2 is a powerful handset that could have easily been the first choice when compared with the Redmi Note 3, however camera and battery performance is not at par compared to Redmi Note 3.

Rating :- 4 out of 5.

LeEco Le 2 is the 2^nd best option (for the price, plus considering the latest chipset) after Redmi Note 3 with a decent price of Rs. 11,999.

Image Gallery

LeEco Le 2 video review

Leeco Le 2 rear camera sample

Front camera sample

4K video shot using Le 2 handset