LeEco Le Max 2 (LeTV X829) Review: The Power of The Cheap & The Highest Quality

LeEco Le Max 2 was introduced in April last year together with Le 2 Pro and Le 2 smartphones. In addition to the recognizable exterior, LeEco has equipped these devices with respectable hardware and quality design in the lead of the Le Max 2 model that is the subject of our review.

At the launch of LeEco Le Max 2 was one of the first smartphones to come up with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. If you did not know, the first device with this processor came from LeEco, which was the Le Max Pro model, and this is still in February last year. We have already made sure that LeEco is a company that likes to be the first in everything, So they were the first to offer the devices with the USB TYPE C port, among them the first smartphone with 6GB of RAM, the first with the SD820 processor, the first with the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and the first with the CDLA audio standard. From this, we can conclude that the company is trying to win the smartphone market and we have to admit that it is a good start for her now.

A month ago I was interested in LeEco’s Phablet Le Max 2. I am quite curious about the powerful specs and the price is fairly cheap. Finally, I decided to buy Le Max 2 6GB/128GB through Tomtop in Flash Sale at a price of $255.99 with free delivery.

Unboxing, Design & Build Quality

As usual, we will go with unboxing. LeEco Le Max 2 has come in a simple yet elegant black box that includes a USB Type C cable, a silicone mask, a charger, a SIM card opening needle and another detail that we have only had a chance to see In Le 2 models, and this is a USB Type C 3.5 mm audio connector.






As for the design of Le Max 2 smartphones, and so on the whole new series of devices of this company, we can say that they come with very recognizable minimalist and simple design that is very attractive and beautiful, but we do not like the fact that everyone looks almost identical. There are differences in design, but they are so minimal and inconceivable that if placed next to each other, it would be very difficult to distinguish them. We have already mentioned that the Le Max 2 in comparison to its predecessor comes in a slightly smaller dimension, but it has kept the best of it, a nice and high-quality metal case that makes it clear that this is a high-end device. In addition, there is a screen with very thin edges, but it is more widespread than the predecessor. A high-quality metal case that makes it clear that this is a high-end device. As for the screen, we will mention that as with all the devices of this company and also with the Le Max 2 model the screen when it is turned off gives the impression that it is stretched to the left and right edge of the device, but when it is triggered it can be seen that this illusion was achieved Black screen around the screen.



Below the 5.7-inch screen, there are three capacitive keys that are completely invisible when they are not illuminated, while on daylight almost or even completely invisible due to low light. Above the screen, from left to right, there is an RGB Notification LED light (visible only when it is working), Sensor Pack, Speaker Latch, and Selfie Camera.

On the underside of the device is a USB Type C port that is located between the speaker and microphone ports. With the new LeEco smartphones, the USB Type C port also serves as a new audio standard, which is why the USB Type C 3.5 mm audio connector inside the box encloses a standard 3.5 mm audio output. All the physical keys are located to the right of the device, the power keys, and the volume control buttons. The buttons are also made of metal, in a good ergonomic position and have excellent responsiveness. The left side of the smartphone is reserved for the two SIM card drawer, while the infrared port is located on the top of the box.



The biggest difference in design compared to the predecessor is visible from the back of the device, besides the new company logo, first notices the central position of the camera with a two-way LED flash, while the fingerprint sensor of square shape and mirror effect is located below the camera. Perhaps the main novelty we encountered at Le Max 2 phablets is just the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. it was about the new Qualcomm technology that the fingerprint recognition process itself should bring to a new level. Qualcomm’s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor of the new generation can theoretically easily penetrate through glass, aluminum, stainless steel and sapphire glass, and of course, it is waterproof. However, what we were able to convince was not so bad, we even got a little disappointed.

We can say that the speed and precision of this sensor are below average. A much faster and more accurate fingerprint sensor has a significantly cheaper mid-range smartphone – LeEco Le 2, which we recently tested. It should be noted that this is a new technology that has just emerged on smartphones so that some upcoming upgrade will surely improve the performance of this type of user authentication.

The camera is slightly elevated in relation to the back panel, which is not a detail that we love to see, but it is all within some acceptable limits. The edges are slightly rounded, making for a very comfortable lying in your hand for such a great device. LeEco Le Max 2 comes in dimensions of 156.8 × 77.6 × 7.99 mm and with a very reasonable weight of 185 grams for a full metal phablet of this size.

Screen

Top quality screens are all LeTV / LeEco devices, and we did not expect anything from a high-end phablet like Le Max 2. No wonder the emphasis this company attaches to the screens of its smartphones, as LeEco is extremely focused on video, TV and multimedia content. We think enough to say that the company has never introduced a smartphone with a screen smaller than 5.5 inches. So to watch high-quality video on a smartphone requires a great screen and that’s exactly what the company’s smart phones are offering.

This screen stretched to 73.6% of the front surface and is made in IPS In-Cell technology, which offers an excellent color display (95% NTSC) so that the images look very vivid and realistic, and the viewing angles are also at the highest level. It’s important to mention the brightness of this screen, which is very high, and the use of the Le Max 2 smartphone in daylight makes no problem. It is important to note that this is definitely the best screen we have seen on the smartphones of this company so far and one of the best ones that can be found in high-end devices.

LeEco Le Max 2 is equipped with a 5.7-inch diagonal screen, which is QHD resolution (2.560 x 1.440 pixels), meaning its density is 515ppi. As with most manufacturers, LeEco has offered several different color profiles in the display settings depending on the customer’s wishes, needs, and tastes. The company did not indicate whether this unit’s display had a Gorilla Glass or some other type of scratch-resistant, so it is certainly advisable to use some extra protection such as a case or a glass of glass.

Hardware

We will mention that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 model is a 64-bit quad-core processor made in a 14-nanometer production process with Kyron core with a maximum operating frequency of 2.15 GHz. You probably do not have to spend too many words about how this processor in combination with the rest of the hardware configuration is powerful enough to outperform all everyday and general user needs. In addition to this processor, Le Max 2 has retained mostly identical specifications as last year’s model, including 4 GB DDR3 RAM at 1866MHz and 32GB UFS2.0 internal memory, four times faster than the eMMC5.0 standard, It is not expandable with MicroSD cards (from which the user is available about 25 GB). With the top-of-the-line processor, top-of-the-line graphics, and in this case, the Adreno 530 works at 624MHz.

In addition to this performance, LeEco has also offered this model in the 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of memory, while the top of the offer is a model of 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal memory. You probably do not have to waste a lot of words on how the hardware configuration with which Le Max 2 comes to be the very top of the world’s smartphone offering and brings ultimate performance in all areas as well as gaming. The graphics-demanding games we’ve tested on this phablet like Modern Combat 5 Blackout, World of Tanks Blitz and Real Racing 3 are not just a problem with the QHD screen. Even after longer playing these games, the warming up of the device was at an acceptable level, and heat was generally generated on the back panel of the fingerprint sensor.

Benchmark Tests











LeEco Le Max 2 comes with the currently available hardware configuration, and accordingly the results of the benchmark tests we have done for all those who love the numbers of these synthetic tests. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and 6GB of RAM are quite enough to let Le Max 2 on these tests put themselves in the top of the benchmark list with other flagship smartphones.

This hardware configuration will provide every user with flagship performance and user experience that is at the moment the best flagship smartphone of last year, and it will not have to be too deep in the pocket for all of this. But what matters to us is that it is in real-world everyday use very fast and stable, which is to be expected from a flagship smartphone of this company.

  • These are the test results:
    – AnTuTu 5 – 132.196 points
    – Ande Bench – 12.887 points
    – PCMark – 6.493 points
    – 3DMark – 1.672 points
    – GeekBench 3 – 2.343 points (single core) – 5.457 points (multi core)
    – Quadrant Standard – 7.028 points
    – Vellamo – 4.405 (Browser), 2.339 (Multicore), 2.730 (Metal)
    – CF Bench – 42.558, 38.212, 39.950 pts

Operating System, Additional Applications




LeEco Le Max 2 as well as all this company’s featured last comes with the Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system, which was part of the EUI 5.8 user interface. With this interface we already had the opportunity to meet the smart phones of this company we tested and we’re glad to see some progress. Although parts of Chinese characters can still be found in this interface, it is now negligible and mainly refers to those services that are only intended exclusively for Chinese users. Of course, as we could assume EUI has no support for the Croatian language but only for Chinese and English, but now it is possible to change the region in the settings. So if you change regions from China to, for example, the United States, it is no longer possible to use most LeEco services,










The EUI user interface also supports topics where users can choose between a few pre-installed and for whom it is not enough to download additional themes. It is also important to emphasize that this interface does not have an application tray, which is quite commonplace for Android smartphones coming from Chinese manufacturers, and all downloaded applications appear after installation on the home screen. But what’s most important to us is that the EUI at Le Max 2 works extremely quickly and smoothly, because apart from the fact that it’s a powerful hardware here, we can not get rid of the impression that everything is very well optimized.

What most users do not like is a large number of bloatware applications, of which only some can be uninstalled, while others are not the case, at least not rookie. In addition, LeEco has added its own application download service (similar to Google Play), where it is advisable to turn off automatic updates, which is not the simplest, as the interface of this application is still in Chinese characters. If this is not done, this service will automatically replace apps that are installed on Google Play with Chinese versions of the same applications from the company’s application service, and we do not believe you want to. Even when automatic update is turned off at this service, he will continue to keep up-to-date with available updates.

As for the Google Play service, LeEco Le Max 2, who came to the newsroom, did not have this service installed. This is not a rare case for customers of LeEco smartphones to come home address without Google services, but this is not a problem and can be easily solved.

Google’s services can be easily installed by opening the company’s service with downloading the application called LeStore. Just enter the word Google in the search engine within this app, and then this app offers a selection of various Google services and apps that can be installed on this device, but only one needs to be installed. This is a Google installer application to download, and all the necessary Google services are installed over it. It’s impossible to find her by searching for a name unless you know Chinese characters, and it’s easiest to recognize it by a square icon that has a Google Play logo in the middle, while the edges have something like half-circles.

It is not uncommon for smartphones designed for the Chinese market to be optimally optimized for working with Google services or applications, and there was not much difference between the previous smartphones from this company that we had a chance to test. For this reason, we were told that Le Max 2 all of Google’s services worked without any problems as well as their sync, and we can say for other social services we’ve installed on it like WhatsApp, Viber, Skype And others.

Camera

We can say that we can see progress in the LeEco Le Max 2 model in every respect except in the camera area, at least as far as the rear camera is concerned. It is a little strange how LeEco decided to install the Sony IMX230 21MP sensor in Le Max 2, a camera that was built in the last year’s Le Max model. Although this is not about this year’s high-end camera, we are very happy with its capabilities. The top of the IMX230 sensor consists of 6 elements with f / 2.0 aperture and comes in combination with super-high-speed autofocus and a very powerful Philips two-way LED flash, which gives you the highest precision in dark photography. This camera is capable of recording 4K video at 30 frames per second, 1080p video at 60fps and 720p video at 120fps. This camera module also supports optical image stabilization. Although we were very pleased with the capabilities of this camera, especially in the conditions of bright lighting, where it is all about detail and beautiful colors, as well as recording video clips when shooting slow-motion videos for this year’s high-end cameras.












Apart from the same rear camera, we can see progress with the front selfie camera, which now comes with a 8 MP sensor and aperture f / 2.2, and a 1.4 micron pixel that is definitely at the top of the current high-end smartphones and will satisfy all fans of popular selfies (remember These photos can also be triggered by using a fingerprint sensor).

The camera interface is very simple and intuitive, and is essentially unchanged compared to the previous LeEco smartphones that we have been able to test, with many additional shooting options like HDR, various filters, night mode, white balance, ISO, etc. Simple Sliding your finger over the interface can be selected between cameras, camcorders, panoramas, and slow motion videos.

Connectivity

LeEco was one of the first smartphone manufacturers to initiate the trend of installing the USB Type-C port on their devices, and with the new generation of devices the company has taken a step down and has equipped its new devices with the Continual Digital Lossless Audio (CDLA) standard. Unfortunately, with this device, we did not get any matching headphones that support this standard, but are purchased separately and can be found here. It is also a pleasure for the company to provide a USB Type C 3.5 mm audio connector with this device, so it can also use standard headphones.

LeEco Le Max 2 is a Dual SIM (Dual Standby) device where two Nano SIM cards can be accommodated with support for 4G LTE networks. Unlike its predecessor, LeEco Le Max 2 comes with VoLTE support. VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is the standard for voice calls over the 4G / 4G + network that guarantees better voice quality when dialing. With this technology, conversations are performed over 4G / 4G + networks without the need for automatic switching to 2G or 3G networks. Regarding the signal reception and the sound quality, there was no problem, but as far as sound volume is concerned, it is still a bit quieter than its predecessor.

In addition to WiFi support, there is support for MIMO (multiple input multi output) technologies, which enables a significant increase in wireless connectivity speed, and combined with a stronger signal range and wider broadcasting, it is possible to access the Internet at a higher speed that would, in theory, Could amount to 866 Mbps.

Receiving WiFi signals was excellent; It is also worth mentioning the infrared port located on the top of the device, which can be used to control various home appliances such as television, air conditioning, etc. If you are interested in this, this is a detailed connectivity palette for which LeEco Le 2 has support:

  • 4G: FDD-LTE: B1 /
    2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20/25/26 TDD-LTE: B38 / 39/40/41
    3G: WCDMA: B1 / 8; TD-SCDMA: B34 / 39; EVDO: BC0 / BC1
    2G: GSM 850/900/1800 / 1900MHz, CDMA: BC0 / BC1
    WIFI: 802.11ac / a / b / g / n, Wi-Fi hot, Wi-Fi Display, Wi-Fi Direct
    GPS: GPS / AGPS / GLONASS / Beidou
    Bluetooth: V4.2

Battery

LeEco Le Max 2 comes with a non-Removable lithium-ion battery of 3.100 mAh, which in our humble opinion is the biggest shortage of this otherwise excellent device. Nowadays when smartphones with 5 or 5.2-inch screens come with batteries of the same or even greater capacity, it is difficult to justify the decision to install such a battery into such a phablet with a hungry 5.7-inch QHD screen. We would like the Le Max 2 battery to be somewhat bigger, but this will be enough to provide a one-day autonomy, which most users are quite comfortable with. We have some moderate use that includes synchronizing e-mails, social networks, surfing, petting and playing games at the end of the day, with an average of between 30 and 40% of the battery.

What this smart phone was really interested in was the charging speed of the battery because LeEco Le Max 2 supports Qualcomm Quick Charge quick charging in combination with Le SuperCharge technology. Thanks to this fast-charging LeEco Le Max 2 battery pack runs from 0 to 20% for about 13 minutes, up to 50% for 34 minutes, while charging from 0 to 100% takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Half an hour of playing more demanding games such as Real Racing 3 will spend about 20% of the battery, about the same battery will spend halfway through video content, while half an hour surfing the Internet will consume about 10% of the battery. There are advanced power-saving options that offer some additional features, and there is a possibility to exclude quick charging.

Conclusion

For the rest, we can only say that LeEco has been able to offer another “best buy” flagship smartphone that, with its features, design and quality, is at the very top of today’s smartphone offer. Given the LeEco Le Max 2 phablet price, which at the time of writing this test is $255.99, it’s not hard to conclude that it is a great opportunity to buy a phablet of excellent quality and high-end performance at a really good price. Compared to its already more than one year old predecessor comes at even more favorable prices, making it a more logical choice to buy.

We have purchased our LeEcE Le Max 2 (LeTV X829) at the popular Tomtop E-Commerce shop, where this top Chinese smartphone is sold at an extremely affordable price of $255.99. It is located in the China Warehouse – with free delivery.

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