Both the devices have been in the news not because of their specifications but because these phones do not have a 3.5mm headphone socket. Instead, Leica’s CDLA feature is present.
Today we Le Max 2 will review it. Le Max ,Review) is an upgraded variant. Let’s find out how much better the new variant is than the old one? What’s inside it Xiaomi Mi 5 ,Review) And OnePlus 3 ,Review) is something that is challenging?
Look and design
The Le Max 2 looks similar to its predecessor from the front, but the rest of the body design is slightly different. It feels more polished. The rose gold version may not be to everyone’s liking, but you can make up for this by using a cover. The phone gives the feel of a bezel-less display, while it has a very thin black border. This is visible when the screen is on.
The metal unibody of the phone slips in the hands. Due to this, it is difficult to use the phone with one hand. This time Leica has used a 5.7-inch Quad HD display. Gorilla Glass protection is also present on it. We have no complaints about it. Color reproduction is good. The same can be said about the brightness level as well. There is no problem in reading the screen of the handset in sunlight. Backlit capacitive buttons are present for navigation. You will also get an LED notification above the display.
There is a slot for two nano SIM cards on the left side while the volume and power buttons are on the right side. The phone’s storage cannot be expanded as it does not have a microSD card slot.
The camera module on the handset has a raised bump on the back of the phone. This makes the edges more prone to wear and tear. This issue was also faced by our test unit. The fingerprint sensor is present below the camera. The good thing is that the sensor is bigger and better designed than the one on Le Max. The Le Max 2 uses Qualcomm’s Sense ID ultrasonic fingerprint technology. As the name suggests, this sensor uses ultrasonic sound technology to map your fingerprint. It takes a second or sometimes more to unlock the phone. We spoke to LeEco about this and the company said that this issue is with our tests. The company’s claim is not necessarily true.
In the retail box, you get a power adapter, headphone adapter, a case, a SIM ejector tool and a quick start guide. LeEco’s Type-C headset is sold separately. Users who bought Le Max 2 in the first flash got it for free. In terms of design and appearance, Le Max 2 is much better than its older variant. Despite the smaller screen size, it feels bigger and weighs 185 grams.
Specifications and software
Like most flagship smartphones launched this year, the Le Max 2 uses a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset. It comes with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The cheaper variant has 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Other features include Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, USB-OTG and GPS. The phone does not support FM radio and NFC.
The biggest change in the hardware is the USB Type-C audio standard which LeEco calls CDLA. The phone has EUI 5.6 based on Android Marshmallow. All the useful features of Android have been retained in Le Max 2 and the company has done some spicing up of it. This is a layered interface. Swiping to the right will take you to LeView where you will find a YouTube playlist. You can also disable this page. You can also customize the theme and wallpaper of the phone, but by default you do not have many options.
The ‘Live’ onscreen button takes you to the LeLive service, where you can stream a number of popular TV channels. All these services are part of the LeEco SuperEntertainment ecosystem. To use them, you need to sign up for a Le Cloud account.
The interface is not very user friendly. The position of most of the things has been changed. The existing shortcuts for launching apps have been moved to the app switcher screen. The notification shade has been reserved solely for notifications. Music player, infrared remote control, video player, Yahoo weather and sound recorder are pre-installed. Google apps are also present. The software needs more polishing.
Performance
Le Max 2 handles daily tasks with ease, thanks to its powerful CPU and huge RAM. There were some complaints of the handset heating up while playing games and recording videos in 4K resolution. On average, you have 3.5GB of RAM left over, so you will never face any lag issues. The interface runs fine but it doesn’t have the same Nexus feel. The earpieces are loud enough for phone calls. There was no problem in using the phone on 4G networks. Le Max 2 gave excellent results in benchmark tests.
The video player plays 4K videos smoothly. Apart from this, it also gives the option of pop-out window. Leica has also provided the necessary video and audio codecs to support popular formats. The phone supports Dolby Atmos.
We liked the camera on the Le Max and the new variant did not disappoint. The 21-megapixel sensor has optical image stabilization and PDAF features. The camera is quick to focus. The shutter sometimes did not work properly, as many photos came out a bit blurry. This sensor captures detailed landscape photos. Chroma noise is limited in low light or unnatural lighting. 4K and full-HD videos are good. The quality of slow motion videos is not that good.
The camera app could also use some changes. It is very simple and easy to understand. But due to the lack of professional shooting modes, it does not feel complete. The 8-megapixel front camera takes decent selfies but video recording is limited to 720 pixel resolution.
battery life
The phone has a 3100mAh battery. In our video loop test, it lasted for 11 hours and 53 minutes which is good. But we feel that Leica should have provided a more capacious battery. In normal use, the phone’s battery easily lasted a day. The phone also supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology, which works to speed up the charging process.
Our verdict
The biggest complaint we had with Le Max was its price, which the company has tried to address with Le Max 2. The price of Le Max 2 starts at Rs 22,999. This price is for the variant with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage. In this way, this handset is the cheapest smartphone available in the market equipped with Snapdragon 820 processor. In this respect, it is almost impossible to beat this phone. Remember that you will not be able to increase the phone’s storage.
The unit we reviewed is priced at Rs 29,999. In this you will get 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, that is, it competes directly with OnePlus 3. The display resolution of Le Max 2 is high. Camera, battery life, CDLA audio and streaming service go in favor of the phone. However, there is a lot of scope for improvement in the software. The phone is a bit heavy. It does not have NFC and to buy it, you will have to participate in flash sales. The fingerprint sensor also does not work very fast. However, the company says that this problem is only with our review unit.
We like what LeEco has done with the Le Max 2. But the price difference between the two variants is a bit concerning. If you are looking to buy in this budget, you can’t ignore the OnePlus 3. It is easily available and is a great smartphone.