China’s LeEco, erstwhile known as Letv, has set its sights on India. From extensive social mediacampaigns to fan meets, the company seems to be fully prepared for its foray in the Indian market.Speaking of the Indian market, especially the smartphone segment, not only it is highly crowded and competitive, it is almost nearing a saturation point with most of the smartphones at certain price bracket coming with similar set of specifications. For a new entrant such as LeEco, making an impact in the Indian market is going to be a daunting task. With the Le 1s, priced at Rs 10, 999, let’s see whether LeEco can take on existing brands.
Right off the bat, I will assert I am very apprehensive about recommending a new brand to my friends and family. And the same holds true when I am reviewing a product. While new brands offer great hardware specifications at unbelievable prices to gain market share, there is no way to check how optimized the hardware and software experience is, or for that matter, even the after-sales support.
I started using LeEco’s Le 1s with similar skepticism. I have been using the phone for almost two weeks as my primary smartphone. Here’s my review of LeEco’s first smartphones in India.
Design
One of the first things that impresses about the Le 1sis its design. Featuring a metal unibody, the smartphone has rounded corners and metallic frame on the edges. It is quite slim at 7.5mm, considering that it is a 5.5-inch smartphone housing housing a 3, 000mAh battery. The overall design is sort of becoming quite common with most Chinese brands these days, but I would not take away the fact that it looks quite premium, especially for a smartphone that costs just Rs 10, 999.