Letv, one of the fastest growing Internet companies in China, is expanding its business to smartphones. The first three devices, the Le 1, Le 1 Pro and Le Max, are Android-based phones, similar to many that we've seen from the likes of Xiaomi in the recent past. Letv's phones are a little different though, they feel more premium than what Xiaomi has brought till now and are yet, around the same price range.
Le 1 Pro
Letv's phones start at 5.5 inches and the Le 1 Pro is the mid-ranged offering. Priced at around 2,499 Yuan (around Rs. 25,000), the phone has 4GB of RAM coupled with the Snapdragon 810 SoC from Qualcomm and a QHD display. It has a 13MP rear camera and comes in 32 and 64GB storage options. It has a full metal unibody design, which takes cues from the HTC One M8 and the Huawei Ascend Mate 7.
Image: Le 1 Pro
Le Max
The flagship device from Letv offers a 21MP rear camera (with OIS) and has 4GB of RAM with the Snapdragon 810 SoC. It also has a heart-rate sensor on the back and a 6.33 inch Quad-HD display. All this is powered by a 3,000 mAh battery.
Image: Le Max
Le 1
The Le 1 is the cheapest of the three devices that Letv launched. Priced at 1,499 Yuan (around Rs. 15,000), the phone has 3GB of RAM and a 5.5 inch full-HD display. The company has gone with a plastic back on this smartphone in order to keep the price low and it runs on MediaTek's 64-bit Helio X10 2.2 GHz octa-core SoC.
Image: Le 1
USB Type-C
Apple and Google put it on laptops and Nokia put it on a tablet. Together, the Le 1, Le 1 Pro and Le Max are the world's first phones to sport a USB Type-C port, which means the phone's charger is reversible.
Image: Le 1 Pro
Camera
The Le Max and Le 1 Pro both have optical image stabilisation, but while the former boasts a 21MP camera, the latter comes with a 13MP module. Both the cameras look quite nice though, but the Sony IMX320 sensor of the Max does seem better.
The Le 1 also has a 13MP rear camera, similar to the Pro model.
Image: Le Max
Design
If you've seen the Huawei Ascend Mate 7, the Le Max will seem very familiar to you. Letv's phones take cues from the HTC One M8 and the Ascend Mate 7, and, as a result, look attractive. In fact, the metal bands at the back are also iPhone-esque.
While the Le 1 Pro and Le Max both sport a metal unibody design, the cheaper Le 1 understandably has the plastic on metal frame design. The overall design of the three phones is much better than any Xiaomi phone till date though.
Image: Le Max
Display
Like Xiaomi, the displays on these three phones are quite dim and reflective. The minimum size on offer is 5.5 inches accompanied by a minimum resolution of 1080p (on the Le 1), which means that with the right pricing, not many will complain about the dimness.
Image: Le 1 Pro
Battery
The 5.5 inch Le 1 and Pro versions have 3000 mAh batteries, while the larger Le Max, has a 3400 mAh battery. This is of course because of the more intensive larger QHD display on the Max and the extra space because of its size.
Image: Le Max
eUI
Like most smartphone companies today, Letv also has its own UI. The company has infact been using this UI for a while now. The three smartphones run on eUI 5, which Letv says is an amalgamation of Apple's vertical UI philosophy and Android's open-ness. The phones run on Android Lollipop, but you would be hard pressed to find any traces of Google's presence, especially in the Chinese versions.
Image: Le 1 Pro
Here are some more images of the three smartphones.
Image: Le 1
The metal frame of the Le 1 fits its price range and looks nicely.
Image: Le 1
The Le 1 Pro and Le Max have a full metal unibody design, which gives them a very HTC One type feel.
Image: Le 1 Pro
The plastic band antenna is very iPhone-esque, but a necessity in metallic unibody designs.
Image: Le 1 Pro
The front camera on the Le Max and Le 1 Pro has a 4 ultra-pixel sensor, while the Le 1 has a 5MP front sensor.
Image: Le 1 Pro
Letv will enter India by the end of the year, with these three phones. They will be followed by the company's Smart TV as well.
Image: Le Max