The flagship LeEco Le Max 2 is the cheapest Snapdragon 820-powered smartphone in India right now, and there's a lot more to it.
At Digit, we try to quantify each and every thing we say about a smartphone. Our ratings are the quantified results of what a phone is, against the entire market. Think of it as a GPA. The rating quantifies where a phone stands against the rest of the market. But, every few years, we get a phone that breaks all our tests, making us raise the bar as to what a smartphone should be for its relevant price. From the looks of it, the Le Max 2 will be that phone this year.
A Snapdragon 820 SoC is almost a sure sell today, but when one sells it cheaper than Xiaomi, heads are turned. Needless to say, the Le Max 2 feels snappy, and eUI now, in India, is more like what I saw in China a year ago. If you’ve read our earlier stories, you’d know why eUI is formidable.
But that’s not why I liked the Le Max 2. That goes to the design. LeEco’s Le Max was, to me, a disappointment. It was too big and didn’t feel premium enough. Also, it was priced too high. The Le Max 2 feels like a premium device, and one that big phone lovers will enjoy.
I can’t say for certain yet, but the Le Max 2’s camera seems better than the Xiaomi Mi 5, in some ways. It is certainly better than the Le Max. At Rs. 22,999, I doubt there’ll be much to complain about.
When you throw in a year-long content package with all this, the value proposition suddenly goes through the roof. The Le Max 2 is a new age smartphone for the new age consumer. To me, it seems to be the right way to sell a smartphone. With the smartphone poised to be at the centre of all your activities, you shouldn’t just pay for hardware anymore. Sure, I loved Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge, but will I be as willing to pay for Netflix, etc. after spending over 55k on a phone?
LeEco may be just another heartless corporation, but I can’t deny that it’s giving me more bang for my buck. I almost don’t see this as a phone. I see it as a screen, the way LeEco wants it to be perceived. It’s like buying a cooker, and getting rice and other ingredients free with it. In future, I’ll pay subsidised prices for the ingredients.
I’m not a big fan of the rose gold colour, but that’s just my personal opinion. The billboards in this auditorium do a good job of displaying the Le Max 2 as Apple does with its iPhones.
You could call this shameless copying, but having heard, and seen, everything LeEco has to offer, it seems more like ambition. When LeEco said there’ll be 50+ exclusive concerts on its phones this year, my first reaction was, “I want this!” I was almost willing to overlook any hardware flaws that it may have. After all, the specs do suggest at least satisfactory performance.
There are things I don’t like, though. For one, the Le Max 2’s display seems a tad dim. Its camera is better than before, but still may not be what you expect. Lastly, I’m not completely sold on Type-C audio, yet. You have to buy one of LeEco’s specially-built headphones for this, and many may not want that. What if I don’t like the bass, highs or trebles of those headphones?
The Le Max 2 begs testing, but it also encourages confidence, at least on first look. The geek in me says the Galaxy S7 Edge is better, but as a value conscious consumer with limited spending power, I can’t deny that I get more here.
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Prasid Banerjee
Trying to explain technology to my parents. Failing miserably. View Full Profile
