LeTV Rebrands As 'LeEco,' Debuts New Smartphones As It Tackles Global Market
LeEco, previously named Letv, is a fast-growing Chinese company making anything from smart TVs and smart bikes to TV content, music, and even electric vehicles. The company recently entered the smartphone market as well, and it demoed four of its devices at Mobile World Congress: the Le Max, Le Max Pro, Le 1s and Le 1 Pro.
Le 1s (1st gen)
The Le 1s is one of the first-generation smartphones from LeEco, and it launched in China in October last year for only $169 (CNY 1,099). That price gets you a device with a 5.5” Full HD display, a MediaTek Helio X10 SoC with an eight-core 2.2 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU, 3 GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 32 GB of storage, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front-camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and a 3,000mAh battery. It runs Android 5.0 with the company’s own EUI 5.5 customizations and content on top.
Le Max (1st gen)
The Le Max also launched last year for around $460 (CNY 2,999), making it the company’s premium offering. It came with higher-end features such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC with four Cortex-A57 cores (up to 2.0 GHz) and four Cortex-A53 cores; a large 6.3” 2560x1440 display; 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM; 64 GB internal storage; a 21MP rear camera with PDAF, OIS and dual-LED flash; a 4MP front-camera with large 2.0μm pixels (better for low-light); Hi-Fi audio; a USB Type-C connector; dual-SIM support; and a 3,400mAh battery. The device came with the same EUI 5.5-skinned Android 5.0 operating system.
Le 1 Pro (1st gen)
The Le 1 Pro is also part of LeEco’s second-generation smartphones. Compared to the first generation, the new Le 1 Pro comes with a higher 2560x1440 resolution display that’s also 5.5” in size, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip, and 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM (just like the Le Max). It also sports 32 GB or 64GB of storage, a 13MP rear camera with OIS and dual-LED flash, a 4MP front-camera with 2.0μm pixels, Hi-Fi sound, USB Type-C connector, and a 3,000 mAh battery.
Le Max Pro (2nd gen)
The Le Max Pro is LeEco’s highest-end smartphone this year, as well as one of the most cutting-edge smartphones on the market. It brings many "firsts", including a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4 GB of fast LPDDR4 RAM (1866 MHz), ultrasonic Sense ID fingerprint reader, fast UFS 2.0 flash storage, and 802.11ad Wi-Fi.
It will also have a 21MP rear camera with OIS and PDAF, a 4MP front-camera with 2.0μm pixels (just like the others), Bluetooth 4.2, and a 3,400mAh battery. The device will be the company’s first to run an Android 6.0-based operating system with the its own customizations on top.
