LeEco Le 1S – Hands on: Best hardware in its price

LeEco (formerly LeTV) announced its two smartphones in India and one of them is the Le 1S which is a budget-oriented device. The Le 1S packs some interesting hardware with an affordable price. It features a fingerprint sensor, a 32 GB internal storage, a 2.2 GHz octa-core processor, FullHD display and a 3 GB RAM which seems to be a flagship specifications, however, the ₹10,990 price will drop your jaw off. Runs on the Android 5.0 Lollipop, it is available exclusively on Flipkart.

LeEco Le 1S Specifications

• Display: 5.5-inch FullHD LCD Display (403 ppi)
• Software: Android 5.0 (Lollipop) with EUI
• Fingerprint Sensor: Yes, on the back
• Processor: 2.2 GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 Turbo (MT6795)
• GPU: PowerVR 6200
• Memory: 3 GB RAM
• Storage: 32 GB eMMC internal storage, Not expandable
• Main Camera: 13 MP F2.0 with LED flash, 4k Video recording
• Front Camera: 5 MP
• Connectivity: USB Type-C, Bluetooth 4.1, 5 GHz Dual Band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• Network: 4G LTE dual-SIM (GSM + GSM), supports Micro-SIM and Nano-SIM
• Battery: 3000 mAh
• Dimensions: 151.1 mm x 74.2 mm x 7.5 mm
• Weight: 169 grams

The Le 1S has an elegant design with all the metal body, slim bezel and chamfered edges. Interestingly, we saw a fingerprint sensor at the back. What got our attention is the USB Type-C which you will not find on most of the smartphones, at least, the phones in its price range. It doesn’t look like a cheap Chinese phone, but quite premium and refined. The build quality is impressive, feels comfortable on the hands, however, it is slightly on the heavier side (169 grams).

The Le 1S has a unibody design and hence, the 3000 mAh battery is not removable. Moreover, the camera is a 13 MP F2.0 with an LED flash at the back while on the front it has a 5 MP. You can see a polished fingerprint sensor lying on the back.

The touch keys are positively backlit which many phones lacks in this price range. Finally, a budget smartphone with backlit keys, the Le 1S supports backlit touch buttons.

On the right side, it has a power button and volume rockers while on the left is the SIM tray that supports 4G LTE dual sim cards, one for micro SIM and one for nano SIM. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support MicroSD slot.

As you can see the top has a standard 3.5 mm audio jack and an IR Blaster. The bottom sports a USB Type-C and speaker grills. It seems like this is the only smartphone that supports the USB Type-C port.

So that was the quick look on the LeEco Le 1S. The aggressive hardware and a fingerprint sensor at the back along with its elegant design make it unique. We will cover more details soon in the Le 1S review after we play it for a longer period. Share us your thoughts about the new Le 1S in the comments.