Chinese electronics and digital content major Leeco (Formerly LeTV) is now only a year and few months after its mega launch in India in serious financial problems. The brand which propelled ahead launching product after product and spending large sums of money for marketing and rebranding has a serious cash crunch.
Co-founder Jia Yueting told employees through a letter
We blindly sped ahead, and our cash demand ballooned. We got over-extended in our global strategy. At the same time, our capital and resources were in fact limited.
Reuters claims that LeEco is setup to sell the site which was previously supposed to be the company’s Silicon Valley HQ to Chinese developer Genzon Group for $260 million. LeEco had purchased this specific land for $ 250 Million. The Genzon Group has confirmed that the site’s sale is currently under negotiation.
The HQ was to be named EcoCity and was being designed to house 12000 employees. However, the fate of the chinese brand seems to be the same globally. In India the company seems to have died out as quickly as it launched. In a year and few months post launch, LeEco products are no where to be found. A company that held massive launches and big events to announce the smallest of products has recently launched the 4th gen televisions on Amazon without even an official announcement.
LeEco ventured into too many things too quickly and has simply been hurt because of the lack of a clear direction. Co-founder Jia, who has an estimated net worth of around $6 billion, has reduced his yearly salary to one yuan (15 cents/ About Rs. 10). However, last year the company went on a spending spree Aquiring US TV Company Vizio and allocating a large sum for a new EV factory to produce their Tesla competing electric vehicles Pledging a whopping $ 3.8 billion to the cause.
The company’s product portfolio contains, Smartphones, VR headsets, televisions, Content, Smart Bikes, numerous Accessories, and cars.
The Chinese brand famous for its TV products and content has rebranded itself to reflect its entry into a wider range of businesses like smart cycles, internet-linked electric cars, and smartphones. LeEco has done exceptionally well in China and wants to bring the same magic to the Indian market with its budget handset the Le1s
With its significant branding and marketing, LeEco created quite the hype around the launches of the Le1s and the LeMax early this month. However after two flash sales and a lot of hype, does the Le1s make sense for you? And should you get in line to own one today? Let’s Find out!
Overview
The Le1s is an excellent purchase handset but does have a few let downs. It is possibly right there in the top region for the best handset around the 10k price bracket, and there is a good reason. The company, however, is so new that they launched themselves at the launch of the phone. A new name, a new product and with that a whole lot of new promises of delivering service without suffering to the consumer.
Build Quality and Design
From a build perspective, the Le1s is probably something that truly looks its part. All metal shell is brilliant; it was only a few months ago when an all-metal design was highly coveted. Today it seems to be easily available in the set price bracket. More than that the front glass also gets Gorilla Glass 3 for strength. The sides are polished and chamfered to give it that additional premium look that the phone deserves and gets. The buttons are tactile and also made of metal which gives this phone a re-assuring feel and finish.
The design is very modern and taken from the likes of Samsung flagships and the Apple iPhone. You will see hints of similar design in the handset throughout. it’s a little harder in the hand, and it does not feel nimble or soft. Despite sporting a larger display than the iPhone, the Le1s is slightly shorter and has more display to mass ratio, which seemed to have been a big selling point for the company at launch. The phone is available now in a silver color along with the gold variant you see in the pictures.
Hardware
The Le1s is spec’d out, with a list of hardware on paper that stumps any and many in this price bracket. The phone runs on a MediaTek Helio X10 Turbo clocked at 2.2 GHz on eight cores along with a VR6200 GPU, 3GB RAM with 32GB storage.
Specification
LeEco 1s
Display
5.5-Inch Full HD Bezel-less floating glass display
Resolution
1080 x 1920 pixels (~403 ppi pixel density)
Chipset
2.2 GHz MediaTek X10 Turbo
CPU
Octa-Core Helio X10
GPU
VR 6200
RAM
3GB DDR3
Front Camera
5 MP
Rear Camera
13 MP with F 2.0 aperture
Storage
32 GB ROM
Expandability
NA
Battery
3000 mAh (Embedded)
Connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / Bluetooth 4.2 / NFC / Type-C USB
Operating System
Android OS 5.1 Lolipop with EUI Skin
Price
Rs 10,999
Display and Multimedia
The display on the Le1s is a 5.5 inch LCD with a full HD resolution, which is not such a great deal and now is more of a standard practice. But, what is different is the floating glass nature of the display along with an almost bezel-less design. which not only looks fantastic but also helps reduce wastage on the front of the device.
The display is bright, and the colours are sharp, levels of black are deep. The bezel-less screen makes the display look big although there is a black frame around the screen which sits on the edges – hence making it a bezel, but you won’t be complaining about that when the screen is turned off.
As far as the audio is concerned, the speakers are good enough, and the output from the earphone jack is great. The balance of the sound when listening to music is a little off and can be easily tweaked using an amp application. However, a balanced sound would have been nicer. Especially if you have decent headphones to use the Le1s with.
Camera and Photography
The front camera on the Le1s is a 5 MP snapper; it has a wide angle lens but its nowhere near what you get on Galaxy S6 and sister handsets. The rear camera is a 13 MP shooter, for the tech junkies it includes a ‘Blue Glass Infrared Filter’ along with a wide F2.0 aperture for good low light pictures.
The camera is good in dim light. However, the best part about a phone camera has to be the response of the shutter which is okayish in the Le1s. The color on the images is accurate, and the exposure mostly comes out spot on. You do get some manual controls but nowhere near a pro mode seen on some smartphones. The UI is mostly like the iOS camera UI and you do get some filters. Images tend to be blurry if you are not perfectly stable throughout the image capture process.
auto
close
pre filter
original
front camera
The Le1s shoots 4k UHD video which is brilliant for the price it costs. The video is quite smooth and lag free. With video too colours are accurate and frames sharp.
Overall the Le1s has a fantastic set of cameras for the price that the phone is available at. See some samples below.
Performance and UI
The UI on the Le1s is fast and responsive, The use of proprietary user interfaces usually slows down the handsets, but for the LeEco Le1s, this is not the case. The UI remains quite snappy through usage and handles multitasking well. Designed again to look a lot like iOS or MiUi whichever you prefer. No app drawer and simple, minimal elements. The UI Looks clean and is functional, takes a little time getting used to it, though.
The control center at the bottom and notification panel at the top is also very reminiscent of an iOS strategy. However, Android regulars will not appreciate the complex mix it takes to find the settings icon.
The device does not have microSD card expandability, which is a disappointment. Running out of the 32GB internal storage is pretty easy with 4K video and high-resolution images.
Running games on the Le1s is great, the display is a great size, and the performance of the handset is good. The phone automatically switches modes and depending on applications entered a “High-performance mode” when needed. Graphics and animations are excellent and for the price you really cannot ask for more
The mirror-faced fingerprint scanner on the back is fast at unlocking the device. The company promises 99.3% accuracy and .15 seconds flash recognization. So far the response time has been snappy with almost no error in recognition.
Phone Networks and Battery
The network and call quality remained healthy throughout our tests, with little or no call drops. LTE network is not bad and works well on the Le1S with excellent data download speeds.
Call quality complaints arise from poor microphones which do not let the audio pass through properly to the receiver on the other side of the call which means that the Le1s at the moment is not good at its core job, which is making phone calls.
Battery life is good, with the bundled quick charger and USB type C you truly get a fast charge in 15 minutes, leading up to usage for many hours. However, we are not sure if the battery will manage to do this six months from now.
Type C
Overall the battery will easily last you a day, but if you are planning to buy this phone, make sure you have spare USB type-c cables. Because if you forget your charger, you won’t easily find folks with a USB type-c charger to spare, not as easily with micro USB at least.
Talk Time: 6 Hours
Internet: 8-10 Hours
Music: 18 hours
Video: 6 Hours.
Conclusion
In a time of day when a lot of handset manufacturers make half promises and fewer delivieries, LeEco seems to want to stand out. Setting up 500+ service centers before launch was an excellent show of force. But how well will this service fall into play, would only be known once the consumers start facing problems. With any new company LeEco deserves a fair chance, and with a product like the Le1s it seems they are off to a great start.
The Le1s deserves an expandable store especially since everything on the handset works well including the cameras. The phone also needs a better microphone, and hopefully, LeEco can fix the issue with a quick software patch, the problem, however, seems to be a design flaw. The OTG storage should solve the problem for storage mongers. However, inbuilt access is always better.
With those two cons aside, the Le1s truly has a fantastic set of specs on paper and translated well into the physical product. For the moment, it is possibly the best handset in the price bracket of 10K.
LeEco has clearly impressed the Indian consumers if we are to go by the company’s performance in its flash sales. Earlier today, LeEco held its second flash sale for the recently launched Le 1s, and performed even better than the previous sale.
According to LeEco, there were 95,000 orders for the Le 1s within the first twenty seconds of the sale. Additionally, the company also adds that there were 10.30 lakh registrations, a huge increase from the last sale’s 600,000 registrations, for the smartphone before the sale started.
With these numbers, the smartphone brand, has once again broken three records, same as the previous sale. These records are -largest number of phones sold in a single flash sale, shortest duration for the sale of so many devices, and the largest number of pre-sale registrations.
The device is marked at Rs 10,999 and packs some pretty impressive specs for the price-tag. The Le 1s comes equipped with a MediaTek X10 Turbo running at 2.2 GHz. It houses a VR6200 GPU, 3GB RAM with 32GB storage.
The ‘SuperPhone’ also supports Dual Sim 4G connectivity, backed by a 3000 mAh battery. It’s a slim device of 7.5 mm, and boasts of a 5.5-Inch Full HD display, with a clarity of 403 ppi.
LeTV rebranded itself as LeEco to reflect its new direction forward. The company held an event yesterday in India where it spoke about its new brand, which involves an open ‘ecosystem’ with a connected world. To do this, LeEco is diversifying itself. The company that started with television and content (hence the original name) has moved on to other venues like smart cycles, internet-linked electric cars, and smartphones.
LeEco’s Ecosystem
Yesterday, LeEco launched three new smartphones in India – Le Max, Le 1s and Le Max Sapphire. The first half of the event, however, was used to talk about the brand’s new ideology. The company’s move towards a comprehensive ecosystem incorporate’s four aspects – Culture, Technology, Internet, and Platform. The idea is to have a broad, connected reach. LeEco has already begun this by launching smart accessories, online content, TV, mobile, and electric vehicle by partnering with Faraday Future.
Flash Sale: Can it Deliver the Goods?
Indeed, LeEco wants to be everywhere. But the question is whether the company can deliver. In India, after launching the smartphones yesterday, the company stated that it will hold its first flash sale on Flipkart on the 2nd of February. There are some reasons why customers in India may feel a little hesitant in going with LeEco’s new offerings.
Firstly, one needs to give props to the company in terms of pricing, especially for the Le 1s which is priced at a very impressive Rs 10,999. The company could have easily priced it a few notches higher given the device’s specs and premium look. Now, the Le 1s looks to give devices like the Lenovo K4 Note a run for its money. But will it?
Lenovo has established a good base in India and is one of the more trusted names. The company also held a flash sale recently on Tuesday and Wednesday for the K4 Note. The company also stated that it sold 10,000 units in less than a second. Registrations, however, shot up to 4 lakh. The uncertainty is how much of its K4 Note units Lenovo managed to deliver. Certainly there must have been a lot of disappointed fans.
LeEco sold over 4 million smartphones last year making it the fastest selling newcomer in the market. It beat the likes of Xiaomi, Meizu and OnePlus on that front. For comparison sake, Xiaomi took a year to sell 400,000 units while Meizu sold 600,000 units.
LeEco’s flash sale will put to test just how well its ‘superphones’ will be received in India. The company’s refusal in providing a figure when asked how many units it plans on selling is not a good sign as it does lead one to question if the company is prepared for the Indian market at all.
No Physical Stores Will be a Hindrance
Moreover, without brick and mortar, it’s hard to imagine how LeEco will sustain in the Indian market. On that note as well the company refused to answer when asked when it plans to open up physical stores in India.
Even today, physical stores remain key to sales of smartphones. Companies cannot rely solely on e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Amazon for sustainment. Granted, LeEco is still early in its entry into a myriad of businesses, but the company does have enough financial backing for brick and mortar.
On a number of occasions at yesterday’s event, LeEco did not shy away from taking jabs at Apple. The company not only compared its Le Max to the iPhone 6s, but also criticised Apple’s closed ecosystem. However, one has to wonder that in naming Apple over and over again, isn’t LeEco establishing the Cupertino giant’s dominance?
When it comes to demand and supply, Apple has delivered on units in surplus. LeEco has a tough job ahead if it wants to entry the top three brand in the country as it claimed yesterday. Given its track record in China, LeEco has done exceedingly well. However, without a proper manufacturing base in India it may see some hiccups. While the company begins to establish itself in the country, it needs to be careful on how much it can deliver initially. A disappointing flash sale will in effect damage the company’s image before it even gets started.
Tin Mok, Asia Pacific CEO, took the stage at LeEco’s (formerly known as LeTV) official event today where the company launched Le Max with the tag-line”Go Big, Go Bold”, and Le 1s, along with revealing the new logo for the company. LeEco established over 1 million fans Facebook fans in barely 63 days. While the Le Max boasts of big specs inside a big frame, the Le 1s is aimed at the mid-range market.
LeEco Logo
LeMax:
The Le Max has dominant hand-settings which cater to the user’s preferred hand -left or right. The UI is faster, convenient and has one-step access. The Le Max features a 6.3-inch screen with 2K display and sports a metal body design with slim bezels. The device is powered by a Qualcomm 64-bit 2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 810 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM. It is available in 64GB and 128GB storage variants.
On the camera front, the Le Max comes with 21-megapixel and runs on Android 5.1 with custom EUI running on top. The device comes equipped with multiple desktops – Application Desktop, LeView Desktop, Live Desktop -different screens for the phone that makes different applications, live streaming of events and multimedia available to the user conveniently and smoothly.
LeEco has also tied up with Yupp TV, which offers over 250 channels across 12 languages that can be accessed through the smartphone. The company has further partnered with Eros International to make Bollywood films available to users. Users wouldn’t have to look for content or download multiple apps -the content would be simply available along with a year’s premium subscription of Eros to consumers.
With an AnTuTu score of 83851, Le Max beats Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One A9. World’s first bezel-less ID, full floating glass design,0.8mm display border and no heating issues are some of its other highlights.
Additionally, the Le Max includes Smart PA-SPK box speakers, full-metal unibody, and is available in two colours -Gold with 128 GB and Silver with 64 GB. The phone further has a Type-C USB port and a hypersensitive fingerprint sensor
Le 1s:
The Le 1s sports a 5.5-inch Full HD display and is powered by a MediaTek’s Helio X10 processor. It features a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera. The smartphone will run on Android 5.1 with custom EUI on top. It is a Dual-SIM device with an AnTuTu score of 55844, beating HTC One M9.It has a type-C USB port which ensures 3.5 hours of usage in 5 minutes of charging, along with a double chamber, symmetrical design, and super-slim, full-metal body with 7.5 mm of thickness. The finger-print scanner of the device called LeTouch, is mirror-surfaced with 99.3% accuracy and .15 seconds flash recognization.
Find below the specs of Le Max and Le 1s.
Specs
Le Max
Le 1S
Le Display
6.33-inch, Gorilla Glass 3, 2K Sharp display
5.5-inch Full HD display
Resolution
2560 x 1440 resolution (464ppi)
1920 X 1080 (403 ppi)
Processor
64 bit octa-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 810
2.2 GHz MediaTek’s Helio X10
GPU
Adreno 430
VR G6200
RAM
4 GB
3 GB
Storage
64GB/ 128GB
32 GB
Rear Camera
21 MP OIS, Sony Imx 230 sensor, 6P lens, 6 layers, 2K resolution, Dual 14 bit ISP image processor, HDR more vivid than standard HDR, Dual tone flash
13 MP, High-Definition, f2.0 aperture, ISOCELL technology, PDAF, 4K video
LeEco also launched what it calls its “ultimate flagship”, the Le Max Sapphire today. The device is pink in colour and has a sapphire crystal display. It’s priced at Rs. 69,999 for the 128 GB variant.
The devices will be available on Flipkart with 10% cash-back for Axis Bank users as part of the opening day deal. The registrations for the device start today, till 11 am on 2nd Feb with the first round of flash sales for Le 1s on 2n February, and for Le Max on 16th February. The company also offers free home pick-up and drop-off services should the consumer need any.
Letv made its presence felt at CES 2016 today in a big way. The internet and technology conglomerate unveiled the world’s thinnest TV. Yes, it’s Letv who has done it this time with a Max65 Blade that actually lives up to its name.
Because the 65-inch TV was designed to set a new record for slimness, it comes with a separate speaker rather than a built in one.
But just when you thought Letv had managed to inspire awe in those present at the event with the TV, the company pulled another surprise by bringing out the world’s first smartphone with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset. Yes, it is Letv again that has beat the likes of Samsung to become the first company to use the Snapdragon 820 SoC for its new smartphone, Le Max Pro.
Along with this powerful new chipset under the hood of the device, the Le Max Pro will be featuring ultrasonic fingerprint technology made possible by the chipset and it will also support WiFi ad. Letv has indeed managed to steal the spotlight at CES 2016 with these two announcement.
Another interesting point to note is that it was confirmed that Samsung would have the exclusivity of the new Snapdragon 820 chipset for the first quarter. So, seeing that Letv has managed to sneak in its own device sporting the new SoC first could mean that other companies ready to release their Snapdragon-powered flagships might not need to wait until April to do so.
Letv has launched a 65-inch split TV with curved screen, called the Super 4 Max65 Curved, and claims it to be the first of its kind electronic. This was launched along with Super 4 Max70, the first smart TV in the world with a glass light guide plate (LGP). Both televisions sets were unveiled at a launch event in Beijing on December 22nd.
Letv has already brought 8-core 1.8 GHz 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor (APQ9084) to its TV sets, along with incorporating Samsung’s ultra-thin curve panel. Now Le 4 Max65 comes equipped with Adreno 430 GPU with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB/ 64 GB Flash, Novatek72324 motion processing chip. The TV also includes independent sub-woofer and an audio system by Harmon Kardon which seems to hold potential for a smooth audio experience as a home theatre.
On the other hand, Super 4 Max70 includes 10th generation 70-inch 4K panel by Sharp in its specs. The TV also marks the first time Corning’s Iris LGP glass has been adopted by a major Chinese TV brand.
In terms of sales, Letv reveals having sold 3 million smart TVs this year, and aims to double these sales to 6 million in 2016. The Super 4 Max70 will be available for sale starting 29th December on Lemall.com, While January 19th, 2016 is the date when sales of Super4 Max65 Curved Engineering Commemorative Edition begin.
The pricing is as follows – Super4 Max65 Curved Engineering Commemorative Edition is priced $1000 (about Rs. 66,000), while the Super4 Max70 costs $2000 (about Rs.1,33,200) and $2300 (about Rs.1,50,000) respectively for its 2D and 3D versions. The company aims to offer competitive prices for these smart-TVs by generating profits through advertisements and its content ecosystem, thereby bringing down the price.
Le has revealed it plans to hold an official event in New Delhi early in 2016, followed by other major cities in India. This could all be a follow-up to tentative plans of bringing its Le Superphones followed by Super TVs to the country. Let’s see what 2016 has in store for Le’s tryst with the Indian tech scenario.
Barely six months after the release of LeTV One series smartphones, leaks about LeTV Max 2 are already doing the rounds. The first set of three smartphones were a big success in the Chinese market and anticipation about their successor is only a natural reaction. Additionally, since Max 2 is a top-end model, some pretty amazing specs are expected of it.The device is expected to come equipped with Snapdragon 820 and 6 GB RAM. Needless to say, the latter is the highlight of the phone. In terms of display and resolution, Max 2 will probably have a 5.7-inch screen and 2K Quad HD.
While the Samsung 1.5Gb x 4 RAM modules (total 6GB RAM) are assumed to be part of it, Sony’s new IMX300 sensor with 23 MP is another specification we can hope to find in the device. Double sided glass design set in a slim body is what you can expect in terms of external design. Speculations about its release date place it somewhere around the end of this year.
LeEco has also tied up with Yupp TV, which offers over 250 channels across 12 languages that can be accessed through the smartphone. The company has further partnered with Eros International to make Bollywood films available to users. Users wouldn’t have to look for content or download multiple apps -the content would be simply available along with a year’s premium subscription of Eros to consumers.
