LeEco Max 2 [Hands On and First Impressions]: What's good and bad about it

Name: LeEco Max 2 [Hands On and First Impressions]: What's good and bad about it
Item: LeEco Max 2 [Hands On and First Impressions]: What's good and bad about it
Rating: 3.5
Author: Harshita

By Harshita

| Published: Thursday, June 9, 2016, 10:35 [IST]

Chinese tech company, LeEco today launched two new smartphones, including the Le Max 2 and the Le2 in India a few weeks after these were announced in China. The two smartphones are revised versions of the Le 1s and Le Max, which came to India earlier this year, and created a stir in the already fiercely competitive market.

LeEco Max 2 [First Impressions]: What's good and bad about it

LeEco Le Max 2 is the company new flagship smartphone that pack in high-end premium smartphone-level specifications, just like its ace competitor Xiaomi Mi5. However, what gives it an advantage over its competitors is a variety of content-based apps that are a part of LeEco's ecosystem in India.

Speaking of price and availability, the Le Max 2 is priced aggressively for Rs 22,999 for the 4GB RAM /32GB ROM variant and Rs 29,999 for the 6GB/64GB variant, which put the phone in competition with the likes of Xiaomi Mi5 and the upcoming OnePlus 3, which is also expected to be priced in the same category.

We were there at the launch event of the LeEco Le Max 2 and had our hands on the smartphone. During the brief hands on session, we liked some of the features, but also found some key specs missing from the phone. Read on to know about the good and bad about the Le Max 2.

GOOD POINTS:

Nice design:

The Le Max 2 is made of space grade aluminum metal, which gives the phone a premium look and feel. The company has brought about slight but noticeable changes in the design of the Le Max 2, when compared to the Le Max. It is smaller than before and has chamfered edges, and is ergonomically better. It is due to the smaller display that the phone sits comfortably on hand.

Front adorns a 5.7-inch display, secondary camera, and capacitive touch keys, and the rear has the primary camera with flash light, fingerprint scanner and the company's logo. A key change in the design is that the phone doesn't have a 3.5mm jack, instead it has a USB Type-C, which as per the company gets the proprietary technology for high-res audio quality. The company says that its new Continual Digital Lossless Audio (CDLA) audio standard helps in offering audio quality through USB Type-C. We are yet to test this feature, before we pass any comment.

Smaller but better display:

The key difference in the latest Max iteration and the original version is the display size. Le Max 2 has a 5.7-inch display, which is smaller than the Le Max that has a 6.3-inch display, but packs in same pixel resolution of QHD quality crammed in a smaller screen, meaning higher pixels per inch density. Also, the display comes with 95% NTSC color gamut, and is a visual delight. It is crisp, sharp, reproduces colors well, and offers good viewing angles.

Snapdragon 820 chipset with 6GB of RAM!

The most interesting part is that the Le Max 2 is powered by the latest Quad-Core Snapdragon 820 clocked at 2.15GHz along with Adreno 530 GPU, which should handle heavy apps and multitasking with ease, to ensure smooth performance to users. Moreover, the LeEco has launched a 6GB version of the phone, which is like a cherry on the cake. The 6GB RAM version is paired with 64GB of internal storage, and then there is a 4GB variant with 32GB internal storage.

High-res camera:

In the camera department, the Le Max 2 boasts a 21MP rear snapper, which is the same as the Le Max that adorn a 21MP Sony IMX214 Exmor RS CMOS sensor with 5344 x 4016 pixels resolution. It is paired with dual LED Flash, and has autofocus, f/2.0 aperture, 6-element lens, 4K video recording @30fps and slow motion video recording at 120fps. There is an 8MP front-facing camera to take care of your selfies and videos. During the brief session, we found the camera of the phone good but we will reserve our take on its performance for detailed review of the phone.

New software features:

LeEco Le Max 2 smartphone comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, topped with the company's own UI, which brings the company's new content service that it announced last month in India. It has pre-loaded content services and apps powered by Hungama, Eros Now and Yupp TV in India.

Rating:

3.5/5

BAD POINTS:

Lacks Glass Protection for display:

Considering that the company has not even once mention Corning Gorilla Glass or similar glass protection for the display of the phone, we feel this is one important feature that's missing from the Le Max 2. Lack of glass protection makes the phone vulnerable to display damages and scratches.

Non-removable back and battery!

This is a unibody smartphone which mean that you won't be able to remove the smartphone back panel to take out the battery. A removable battery is an advantage though it would have resulted in major design change.

Slightly heavy!

We like the design of the Le Max 2, however, we found it slightly heavy on hand, in comparison to its rival like Xiaomi Mi5 and Asus Zenfone 3. That said, it won't make much of a difference in the overall user experience.

The missing 3.5mm audio jack port:

LeEco Max 2 does not have a 3.5mm audio jack, which we think will cause inconvenience to users. If you are using a Bluetooth headset, then it is still fine. But for those who want to play music via a wired headset or speaker, a single connectivity port can be irritating, especially when the phone is running out of battery. Moreover, the missing 3.5mm jack also means that you will have to buy a USC Type C connector to make use of your old headsets or speakers.

Heating issue!

In the short session with the phone, we felt that the phone was heating up fast, especially on running videos. Again, we don't want to judge the phone on the basis of our brief hands on session. We will have our final take on this, once we review the phone.