LeTV) is the latest to join the long, long list of Chinese smartphone manufacturers trying their luck in India. The company doesn’t have any of the advantages of being an early mover, and no matter how shockingly low it can push prices, it won’t be the first to be doing so. Still, there’s a lot to like about the Le 1s, which is quite full of interesting features considering its budget price tag.
LeEco hasn’t gone only for impressive specifications; it’s clearly trying to achieve a level of desirability, as you can immediately see from the Le 1s’s metal body. While the much more expensive Le Max ( Review | Pictures) took on the might of mainstream flagships and came up looking just a little short, LeEco is hoping that the Le 1s will have much wider appeal.
There’s only so far you can go with specifications, and so LeEco has decided to bring premium materials and build quality to the budget smartphone space. The Le 1s is made almost entirely of metal, save for two plastic strips running along the top and bottom of the rear for the various antennas to work. The strips are certainly noticeable, but not as prominent as the plastic antenna lines on the iPhone 6 and 6s series, for example, so some might actually prefer this.
The front face is pretty slick, with black glass surrounding the screen and extending all the way to the two sides. The front camera and sensor window are arranged symmetrically on either side of the earpiece. There are the standard three capacitive Android navigation buttons below the screen, but they’re hidden until you tap one, at which point they all light up. The metal band running around the sides has chamfered edges, but the Le 1s manages to avoid looking like an iPhone 5 overall thanks to its proportions.