LeEco 1s review: A unibody metal phone that’s raised the bar

Smartphones these days are all about balance of elements. Given a price point, manufacturers only have that much to play around with: the core specifications, camera, and the fabrication materials. And while most players experiment with a range of combinations in the first two areas, when it comes to build quality there is only a limited set of choices (plastic? Polymer?) in the lower price range.

Which is why when new smartphone entrant LeEco announced an all-metal aluminium unibody smartphone that was priced at under 11,00 bucks, it was undoubtedly intriguing.

Shortly after we got our hands on this phone, it was hard not to marvel at how it could be possible to pack so much into a midrange price tag: an ‘aircraft-grade’ aluminium unibody based on a 5.5-inch Full HD screen, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a 13MP main camera with ISOCELL sensor, integrated fingerprint scanner, a 3,000mAH battery and more. That reads distinctly like an upper-midrange phone other than one closer to the 10K price mark. Apparent bang for the buck notwithstanding, I was keen to find out whether it really delivered in the real world.

Starting with the unboxing, the device comes in an elegant white box and opens to reveal the phone nestled in. Package contents ar a simple affair, comprising the charger, USB Type C cable, quick start guide and SIM tray removal pin.

Pulling the phone out, its cold metal and 169gms heft immediately feels reassuringly solid in the hand. That all-metal unibody construction imparts an undeniably premium demeanour, and its bevelled edges and 7.5mm thickness make for a comfortable grip. Besides the 5.5-inch HD screen, it has the usual front camera and proximity sensor at the top, with physical (capacitive) buttons beneath the screen. These buttons are lit, though very dimly, and are not that clearly visible especially in bright environments.

The power and volume rocker buttons are on the right edge with the SIM tray on the left. Interestingly, even the SIM tray--which pops out to reveal the two SIM slots (one Micro, the second Nano,) is solid metal. Up top is the 3.5mm headphone socket and there’s an IR blaster as well. The phone uses  the increasingly popular USB Type-C standard, with the socket at the base of the phone between its two loudspeakers.

The phone runs Android 5.0.2 that is skinned--albeit lightly--with the company’s EUI 5.5 environment. The look and feel is quite close to stock Android. One difference in the interface is that the system shortcuts--the WiFi toggle, screen brightness etc--is accessed by tapping the left menu key instead of being conventionally in the pulldown notifications drawer. This screen provides access to the list of running apps.

Getting things done

With its unconventional-for-the-price 3GB of RAM, the phone sailed through even serious multitasking consisting of Facebooking, taking photos, accessing files on Google Drive, Whatsapping and the like. I also threw in a fair bit of gaming with Clash of Clans, Leo’s Fortune and Need For Speed No Limits. With its PowerVR G6200 GPU and 2.2GHz Helio X10 Turbo processor, there were no complaints in this department. The Helio X10 platform on this phone is based is comparable to the Snapdragon 801 platform, which generally finds its way into upper-midrange phones. To find this level of hardware in a midrange-priced device is interesting indeed.

The cameras are both straightforward, yet effective. There is the regular rake of photo filters and flash modes, with exposure, contrast and sharpness control, but excludes specific modes for night time, beach, party and the like. There is a panorama mode, but no HDR. Interestingly the main camera can shoot 4K video and also has slow-motion video where playback speed can be slowed to 2x or 4x. All of these camera features worked satisfactorily, although I didn’t really experience the advertised 0.01s focusing time for still shots--it appeared closer to about half a second in the real world.

Speaking of the integrated IR blaster in this phone, it pairs with an IR remote app that can be configured to emulate a variety of appliance remotes. The app is also able to ‘learn’ unconventional remotes, enabling you to use this phone as a universal remote for pretty much any device. Or to mess around with the television set at your favourite sports bar or coffee shop.

There are plenty of things to like about the LeEco 1s--it truly does tick the checkboxes on all the important fronts, at a price that’s bound to leave others scrambling to compete with on the bang-for-buck scale. What’s left to be seen is how the phone stands up to the rigors of use over time.

What we liked: All-metal unibody construction, 3GB RAM, a fast processor and GPU, integrated fingerprint scanner, 4k video recording, integrated IR blaster

What we didn’t: Lacklustre still camera features, lean package contents