LeEco (Formerly known as LeTv) introduced it’s two superphones on 8th June in India. One of which was it’s flagship device Le Max 2. Both of the LeEco smartphones are making the news all over the globe for ditching the traditional 3.5mm audio port. LeEco Le Max 2 and Le 2 supports CDLA technology.
Check our take on Le 2 HERE.
We will be reviewing Le Max 2 to such an extent that when you’re done reading you’ll be able to decide if it is worth your money or not. We will also be comparing other phones in this price segment.
The predecessor of Le Max 2, LeTv Le Max had a huge 6 inch+ display which was kind of troublesome to use with one hand. Moreover it was quite large, heavy and an unpleasant smartphone to use. But this time company came out with 5.7 inch display which is good for single hand use comparatively.
Le Max 2 feels kind of premium phone with it’s all metal unibody design. The power on/off button is placed right where the user’s thumb would be. Just above the power button are volume rocker keys, which sounds a little bit like chiclet keys. On top side where most of the devices have traditional 3.5mm audio port, Le Max 2 has only an IR blaster which has a dedicated application for use in the smartphone.
One of the most amazing hardware piece of this device is the rear camera, which is a 21 megapixel shooter. Although camera module protrudes outside, according to me it gives this device a unique stylish look in the back. It exposes the glass over the camera lens to scratches, which are bound to happen over the long term. There are antenna bands above the camera and also below the new LE branding logo. Bottom of the device showcases USB Type-C port and grilles for the microphone and a single speaker.
The Le Max 2 uses Qualcomm’s Sense ID ultrasonic fingerprint technology, which uses ultrasonic sound to map your fingerprint and authenticate you. It takes a full second for it to unlock the phone and sometimes even more than that.
New version of EUI (5.6) based on Android Marshmallow. The Le Max 2 has most of Android’s useful features including Now on Tap. Swiping right takes you to LeView which gives you a curated YouTube playlist based on the interests you select. As for customisation options, users get some themes and wallpapers.
The ‘Live’ button on homescreen takes user to LeLive service which lets user to stream some popular TV channels. LeVidi lets users to stream full-length movies from various publishers like Eros Now, Colours TV, Being Indian, etc. All these streaming services are part of LeEco’s Supertainment ecosystem that are available once the user sign up for a Le Cloud account. The company will also be giving users up to 5TB of free cloud storage and lossless audio streaming via Hungama, which will be available through an OTA update.
Shortcuts to launch apps and quick settings have been moved to the recents menu, while the notification tray is just for notifications. Some of the bundled apps include a custom music player, Infrared remote control, video player, Yahoo weather, and sound recorder.
Le Max 2 just like most of the devices in this range, comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, which is a quad core processor. It has a 4 GB RAM variant as well as a 6 GB RAM variant. 4 GB RAM variant comes with 32 GB non-expandable storage and 6 GB RAM variant comes with 64 GB storage. LeEco Le Max 2 supports 4G on both the sims as well.
The USB Type-C audio standard which LeEco calls CDLA (Continuous Digital Lossless Audio) is a major hardware development. The standard requires the Type-C port on the device that transmits and receives the digital audio signal, thereby avoiding any loss in quality.
LeEco’s CDLA earbuds retail at Rs. 1,999 and there isn’t any other option out there yet. We tried using LeEco’s headset with a OnePlus 3 and it worked fine, although the audio wasn’t as crisp as when we used it with the LeEco Le Max 2.
LeEco CDLA Earbuds can be purchased from HERE.
While in terms of single core and multi-core performance, the LeEco Le Max 2 is a good competitor. Although during our testing we found out that LeEco Le Max 2 gets warm soon as compared to other 820 SoC devices. (No heating issues were found) That’s were the result of heavy gaming and 4K video recording.
4GB RAM variant is quite satisfying smartphone for me as 6GB RAM is not what we ever gonna need in a smartphone. Like really, How many games are you going to play on it single time ? I did prefer the 4GB variant of LeEco Le Max 2 over 6GB variant. The interface runs smooth but unlike the lightning fast responsiveness that Nexus devices offer.
Under daylight and even well-lit indoors, the phone can take pretty good shots, and the dynamic range is quite good. The same can be said about colours as well, and details are satisfactory. Under low light, the LeEco Le Max 2 captures acceptable pictures. On whole, we find the image quality to be better than most of the devices in this range.
Although focusing speed lacks sometimes, making very hard to focus at a point. It’s rare in case of clicking images but continuous in case of video recording.
Having a powerful processor has it’s drawbacks. Snapdragon 820 being the fastest processor needs a lot of battery and on top of that QHD display, well they’re perfect battery leaches. Even after that we were able to get minimum of 11-12 hours of battery(approx.) with somewhat heavy gaming.
For this price range we can say that it’s among the top contenders. LeEco Le Max 2 is worth every penny. The hardware and software works just great and are very much stable. Just like every device, it also have some issues but each and every part of this device compensates to cover that up.