GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL When A Good Device Is Made Better

GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL When A Good Device Is Made Better

Content is one of the major plays for LeEco in its home country China. After the successful launch of the Le 1s smartphone a few months ago, it's only natural that the company will look to ways of delivering that content to its users. This variant of the Le 1s, called the Le 1s Eco, comes with one-year, free and unlimited content subscription to LeEco's services.

There are two dedicated apps preloaded on this device -Levidi for video content and Live for live TV channels. Levidi requires you to select genres of interest in the beginning and it then shows you relevant videos. Typically , it has content that is about 6 months old (referring to DVDs that get an official release). The issue is that you do not get control over the video quality. Apart from this quibble, the streaming works seamless over WiFi, 3G and 4G.

Live TV streaming is in association with Yupp TV , so you get access to over 100 channels across genres (news, sports, soap operas, movies and so on) in various languages. Again, as long as you have good data speeds, the streaming works great. Since you are getting a one-year subscription, all these services work without any pesky advertisements. The yearly subscription costs `4,900 and you get it included in the price when you buy the Le 1s Eco.

Apart from the included content subscription, the only other difference between the Le 1s and Le 1s Eco is the processor. While the first Le 1s was powered by a 2Ghz Helio X 10 Turbo processor, the Le 1s Eco runs a 1.8Ghz Helio X10 processor.However, users will not see any difference in day-to-day as well as gaming performance on the Le 1s Eco. One issue with the new processor is that the phone does tend to heat up a lot more. Other specs remainsunchanged: 3GB RAM, 32GB non expandable storage and a 3,000mAh battery that manages to last from 9 am to 6pm.

Camera performance from the rear and front cameras remains fantastic in daylight and indoors. In low light, images tend to skip a lot of detail. It continues to be one of the cheapest smartphones that offers 4k video recording . We were impressed by the fast focus and shutter speed of the camera.

Other impressive features on the phone are the same as the Le 1s you get a fast fingerprint scanner, sturdy and stylish all metal unibody design, USB Type-C port with fast charging support, high quality full HD display with slim bezels and a feature-rich user interface.

Overall, the Le 1s Eco proves to be the same impressive phone with a content subscription plan as an added bonus. If you want to view content beyond the first year, you will have to pay `4,900. The content ecosystem is also being added on older Le Eco devices via a software update.Existing users can choose to try out the service for free and then pay the full price to continue using it for one year.

Karan.Bajaj@timesgroup.com