LeEco – formerly known as LeTV has been putting on quite a show since they entered the Indian market with their Le 1s and Le Max smartphones. The Le 1s broke records since the time it went on flash sale becoming one of the hottest selling phones in 10-15K price range – to be precise more than 500,000 devices were sold online within 100 days. LeEco then brought their online content to Indian market with the #Supertainment event where new partnerships were announced and new services started to roll out enabling the users to watch Tv channels, stream movies/tv shows etc. right from their devices. And recently, LeEco had their big launch event in Delhi with rumors pointing to new mobile devices – Le 2 and Le Max 2.
There were various teasers and leaks which pointed to new devices and a new audio technology to be unveiled at the event. The event started off with a welcome note from Mandira Bedi who was the host for the day followed by a musical performance from an international women’s band.
Then came Tin Mok – CEO, APAC & India Region to talk about LeEco’s vision and how the company is striving to provide a digitally better ecosystem with their devices. He also talked about how excited he was with launch of current second generation phones along with high quality audio technology.
“Today is an extremely important day for us in our India journey so far. It marks our entry into the thriving e-commerce industry with the launch of LeMall. Additionally, we are thrilled to bring our second generation Superphones with supertainment to India. Also, we’re happy to have achieved a significant milestone by pioneering digital lossless sound experiences.”
Tin Mok ended his note by ensuring that LeEco will continue bringing their cutting edge technologies and best-in-class devices to India and made way for Debashish Ghosh to take the stage.
Debashish Ghosh – COO, Indian Content Business for LeEco started off by talking about the current content available for the Indian users on LeEco devices and then moved on to the additional services and perks that will be rolling out to the users as part of the LeEco membership. The notable features include 2000+ movies collection from across world including the Indian regional cinemas, 3000+ hours of curated shows, 150+ live TV channels and 3.5 million songs which includes 1.9 million songs with lossless audio.
Users also get perks like 5TB cloud storage, live music and concerts with lossless audio. There are also giveaways and special offers, events with celebrities and many more rewards. Starting this month LeEco will also give members the access to 50 online international live concerts.
Now it was time for the main part of the event for which everyone was waiting from the start. Atul Jain – COO, Smart Electronics Business, LeEco India took the center stage and introduced the CDLA audio technology that was teased from few days.
The new LeEco phones have no 3.5mm headset jack like the traditional devices. There is only one USB Type-C port which will be used for charging, data transfer and also to connect the headphones. CDLA technology (Continual Digital Lossless Audio) enables end-to-end lossless digital music transmission right from the device to the earphones thus eliminating the need for a analog interface like the 3.5mm jack. By using the digital transmission, there is very negligible drop in the decibel of the transmitted audio when compared to the 3.5mm analog interface where the drop is more than 40% as per the statistics provided. CDLA is also supposed to be smart by providing recommendations and preferences to the user, seamlessly integrating with LeEco’s ecosystem. The CDLA earphones will cost Rs 1,999 and will be available on Lemall.com. These earphones will also work in the same way with Le 1s and Le Max since they have Type-C connector as well. The CDLA feature was demonstrated by playing the LeEco anthem which has been composed and produced by Pritam’s studio Jam8 and sung by Nakash Aziz who also performed live on the stage.
Atul then moved on to introduce the latest devices that are supposed to disrupt the Indian smartphone market.
Le 2:
Le 2 is an upgrade to LeEco’s best selling mobile in the country – Le 1s. LeEco has decided to go with the Octa-core Snapdragon 652 variant this time instead of the Helio X20 processor from MediaTek. This could well prove to be a good move given that there were complaints about heating with the Helio X10 in Le 1s. Also the Snapdragon 652 is more powerful than the SD808 processor and comparable with SD810 which were last year’s flagship processors from Qualcomm. Le 2 has a 5.5″ FHD display with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage coupled with 3,000mAh battery to keep the device running. There is a 16MP rear camera, 8MP front camera for taking selfies and a fingerprint scanner for security which can be used even with wet/greasy finger.
Le Max 2:
Le Max 2 is the latest flagship device from LeEco which replaces last year’s first generation device. Everything about Le Max 2 is premium and powerful! The device is powered by the new SD820 processor which is a quad core Kryo CPU with Adreno 530 GPU. There are 2 variants of the device – 4GB RAM/32GB storage and 6GB RAM/64GB storage. LeEco suggests that the phone is 40% faster than most competitors and also 17% faster than the Le Max. It features a 5.7″ 2K display, 21MP rear camera, 8MP front camera and a 3100 mAH battery which supports fast charging – 3.5 hours usage with just 5 mins charging. There is a fingerprint scanner and as on Le 2 we can use this with wet or greasy fingers too.
LeEco also announced the launch of LeMall in India. It is the company’s own e-commerce store where LeEco will sell it’s devices and accessories. LeMall will serve as the primary channel for customers to engage with LeEco.
Both Le 2 and Le Max 2 will be supporting all the bands world wide (2G/3G/4G/LTE) so you will be able to use any carrier around the world and they also support VoLTE. We will be soon uploading our hands-on videos of both Le 2 and Le Max 2 so stay tuned to the blog.
Le 2 will be available for Rs 11,999 and Le Max 2 will cost Rs 22,999 for the 4GB RAM variant and Rs 29,000 for the 6GB RAM variant. Both the devices will be sold on flipkart and Lemall.com and include a year’s LeEco membership. Le Max 2 will be sold starting June 28th in flash sales and Le 2 will be available for sale early July. Registration for sale of both devices opens on 20th June.
Finally there was a teaser for the next product launch which might happen sooner than expected 😉
Le 2 and Le Max 2 gallery
