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  • hans_ober - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    Something about Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint too?
  • zeeBomb - Thursday, April 21, 2016 - link

    Whoa...is this the first look of the iHTC 7?
  • damianrobertjones - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    "Everyone already has headphones..."
    "We'll remove the headphone port, eventually, moving everyone to Type C"
    "Cha-ching!"
  • jjj - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    They do include an adapter.
  • damianrobertjones - Thursday, April 28, 2016 - link

    ...Which is a cool thing. I recently purchased a HP tablet, that featured USB c and... it was a complete pain knowing that I had to buy all new cables. Guuhh.

    But, of course, you have to make the jump at one point.
  • name99 - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    Shorter @damianrobertjones:
    No tech should EVER improve if that obsoletes (or just inconveniences) even the slightest minor gadget that I already own.
  • Samus - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    You do realize backwards compatibility often holds technology back by increasing costs, complexity, and often reducing the performance of subsequent technologies.

    Headphone jacks are incredibly stupid on a cell phone. It's a huge orifice that lets dirt and water in (which is why is generally no longer on the top of devices) and now that everything is thinner we are seeing the headphone jack on mobile devices and USB type A on notebooks start to disappear.

    And no, there is no such thing as too thin. We have flexible displays and batteries that are nearly paper thin. That's where we are headed. A phone/phablet you can roll/fold up and put in your shirt pocket.

    The natural progression of technology is to ax the oldest component first, and in this case there is nothing older than a 3.5mm headphone jack, which has been replaced by aptX Bluetooth and various adapters. As phones start to use wireless charging, we won't need any ports at all.
  • inighthawki - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    "And no, there is no such thing as too thin. We have flexible displays and batteries that are nearly paper thin. That's where we are headed. A phone/phablet you can roll/fold up and put in your shirt pocket."
    Seriously? Other than for a proof of concept to say "oh cool, it's possible," who on Earth would actually want a paper-thin phone that can "roll up in your pocket?" Ignoring the issues surrounding durability of such a device, it would be a pain in the *ss to hold and use. It might look cool in those "technology of the future" videos that designers make with their imagination, but in reality such a device would very likely be an awful experience.
  • BurntMyBacon - Thursday, April 21, 2016 - link

    Also, what happens to batter life with such small batteries? Doesn't seem like it would work long enough to film the commercial to advertise it before needing to recharge. Even if battery tech improves to where it can match today's phones, I'd still rather have the thicker, rigid form factor with a normal size battery that can last a couple of weeks between recharge.
  • JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, April 21, 2016 - link

    Nah. I disagree, and I'm not the only one.
  • RishiGuru - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    My thoughts about CDLA tech which pumps out digital audio out of the Type-C port:

    What LeEco have basically done with Le 2, Le 2 Pro & Le Max 2 is to disable the internal crappy audio codec pack (performs digital to analog conversion) that comes with all Snapdragon & MediaTek chipsets and route that digital audio signal through USB Type-C. But as headphone/ earphone speakers are analog in nature there is a definite need for digital to analog signal conversion somewhere within the audio chain. Generally audiophile centric phones have digital to analog conversion hardware embedded inside their phone, using quality DACs + op-amps + headphone amplifiers. Finally analog audio signal is available through 3.5mm female audio jack of the phone on which speakers operate. This gives the user complete freedom to use any headphone he/she wants.

    LeEco's intention is to built an ecosystem around its phones. You buy there phone so now you are bound to buy their headphones. More sell more profit, just like Apple Inc. So none of their current trio of phones can be labeled as audio centric as their is no discrete audio hardware inside their phones. Rather LeEco had made the DACs + op-amps + headphone amplifiers available outside their phones and inside their headphones which is strange as no audiophile headphone manufacturer follows this route.

    There is a big question mark regarding the audio quality LeEco headphones have on offer? Any audiophile will first ask what are the DACs + op-amps + headphone amplifiers used inside their headphones? How the power to these hardware are regulated from phone? What are the materials used inside the headphone speakers? LeEco have not provided any information regarding this other than stating they have "solid bass".

    To any audiophile "solid bass" = "solid fail".
  • jjj - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    There are additional version.
    2 Pro with X20 at 1399CNY and Max 2 with 4GB RAM and 64GB NAND at 2299CNY.
    They are not the first with 6GB of RAM , Vivo is. http://www.vivo.com.cn/vivo/xplay5s/
    Also worth mentioning that the Max supports plenty of bands- listed on their site http://www.lemall.com/le_max2.html?alys_id=head
  • sandy105 - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    Thanks for pointing out the other models . I have a letv le 1 and i would be looking to buy another le 2 pro with x20 . I feel X20 will be more thermally obedient and with the excellent memory management of EUI 3gb ram should not be an issue .

    My gripe with the regular le 2 is the camera , i suspect it to be the samsung slim 16 1 µm sensor which was there on my redmi note 3 pro . It was terrible in low light and below avaerage in good light . I feel IMX 230 to be a known good performer at this point until they screw it up in software department , making the le 2 pro a better choice over le2 .
  • sandy105 - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    Correction : samsung S5K3P3 1.0μm-pixel-based 16 megapixel (Mp) CMOS image sensor
  • jjj - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    The 2 Pro should have 4GB of RAM even with the x20. The x25 version shouldn't be available for a few months anyway since Meizu is supposed to have exclusivity.
    How much x20/25 overheats no clue yet, hopefully it doesn't do it a lot.
    This Chinese site has some pic samples if you scroll way down ( i don't speak the language so can't help translate anything) anzhuo dot cn/review/p_11249
  • Le Geek - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    These phones have the word "FAIL" written all over them. I mean seriously? They think they are apple or something? Heck even apple might have to endure some serious bashing in case they drop the headphone jack in the upcoming iPhone 7.
    There might be a minority
    who wouldn't mind the removal of the headphone jack, I believe for the vast majority this move can be a deal breaker (unless of course the company the apple in which case the isheep wouldn't mind buying it).
    I personally was looking at the Le 2 as a prospective replacement for my first generation zenfone as I was going through the specs. But the lack of a headphone jack really killed this device as an option.
  • Le Geek - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    The company is apple*
  • jjj - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    They do offer an adapter so it's just annoying and a mistake not something that forces you to pay extra.No microSD either and black bands. So by no means perfect.
    But when you look at prices, they have the best value devices at this point so they'll sell well.

    @Andrei - The article doesn't mention that there is an IR blaster.
  • Le Geek - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    Using the adapter prevents users from listening to the headphones while charging, something which I am sure is a pretty common use case. Plus it's a hassle to carry around the adapter all the time.
    And if you talk about value for money, these phones are nothing new and there are already many phones in this price range with equivalent if not better value (for eg - redmi note 3 pro).
  • Le Geek - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    and = as*. Come on anandtech, we would all appreciate an edit button here :)
  • LuxZg - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    +10 for edit button... Just plain annoying, not having a feature that forums, comments and all sorts of in-betweens had for dozen years. Is it that hard?
  • jjj - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    I wasn't saying it is ok to get rid of the audio jack, it's annoying.
    As for value, they do lead right now, by quite a bit. The Note 3 Pro is much lower value than the Le 2. At 999CNY it has a lesser SoC, 2GB RAM and 16GB NAND but does have a microSD slot and audio jack. The 3GB RAM and 32GB NAND version is 1199CNY and ofc retains the lesser SoC. MIUI is also rather bloated and slow.
    Zuk has a launch tomorrow, maybe they do better in the high end but doubt it.
  • Le Geek - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    Well redmi note 3 does have a massive edge in battery capacity (4000mah vs 3000mah). This I believe should be more noticeable to the user than the extra gig of ram.
    That being said, you are absolutely correct in saying that MIUI is bloated and slow. Infact, the software is the only reason preventing me from getting one for myself. Probably I'll hold out a bit more and see what the moto g4 has in store.
  • jjj - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    The battery life will depend on what parts one uses, on software and usage profile not just battery size. The x20 does have a process advantage (and extra small cores that are actually utilized often). We'll see how the screens compare in power and how power consumption is in specific tasks (browsing, gaming, video).
    Battery life is also a somewhat overblown issue. As long as it lasts for the entire day, it doesn't really matter if it's a little bit more or not. If nothing went wrong with this device, 3000mAh should be ok .
    For me, no microSD is a deal breaker and i mind about a bunch of other things (audio jack, black borders) but they do offer great value. They aren't even 1 year old in phones yet , hard to be too harsh with them.
  • Murloc - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    the point of listening to music on the phone is portability, I don't think that's a common use case. Or at least it never happens to me.

    You're right about the hassle of having to bring around one more thing.
  • zanto - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    IR blaster is a must have for me. Until IoT really catches on, being able to control my tv, ac, home theater etc using my phone does add a ton of utility value since my phone is usually just an arm's reach away.
  • RaichuPls - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    Woah LPDDR4-3733? That's twice the speed of the RAM in the S7, which was LPDDR4-1800. I wonder what the impact on GPU performance would be, since they access the same memory. Also surprised LPDDR4 can actually clock that high, given it's supposed to be low voltage and power.
  • menting - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    yes, LPDDR44-3733 is a valid spec and is mass produced already. There's no LPDDR4-1800 on the datasheet anywhere, not even at Samsung's own website..so I'm guessing it's really LPDDR4-3600. http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/products/dram...
  • RaichuPls - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link


    Wasn't the LPDDR4 spec for up to LPDDR4-3200? It's such a difference compared to desktop DDR4, unless it's actually quad pumped instead of dual pumped?
  • nightbringer57 - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    Hmmm...
    And if I want to listen to music while my phone is charging?
  • zanto - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    @nightbringer57

    bluetooth over the ear headphones are pretty decent. Phillips have a bunch of them that are really quite good in terms of quality. I actually prefer these to the wired headphones that came with my phone.
  • name99 - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    I'd say the generalized answer to this is not to pine for the audio jack (which is obsolete and limited in functionality) but to ask for phones that provide two multi-function (ie USB-C) jacks.
    It is a shame that USB-C is noticeably larger than Lightning (and I assume the "in phone" part of the connector is likewise larger; even so, it would seem that most phones have scope for something like two jacks, one at the bottom and one at the top of the phone, allowing for a whole lot of flexibility in usage models.

    (Another way this could play out, and this might be Apple's long term plan) would be wireless charging that doesn't suck and one multi-function jack. That's not quite as flexible as what I described, but still covers most use cases adequately.
  • Anonymous Blowhard - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    > LeEco
    > Le 2
    > Le 2 Pro
    > LeMax 2

    I wasn't aware Reddit was making phones.
  • jjj - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    One more thing (lol), the X20's GPU is at 780MHz, it got a bump in March too.
  • fanofanand - Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - link

    That is an amazing price, this phone has everything I would want and at the price I am looking to pay! People are moaning about the headphone jack, but with the $500 you save from choosing this over the equivalent Samsung/Apple phone, go ahead and buy yourself a nice pair of Bluetooth headphones. Once upon a time people laughed at Sony, LG, etc., but with pricing like this, and with the listed spec sheet they would have to really do something dumb for this to not be a winner. I can't wait for this to come to the US!
  • RishiGuru - Thursday, April 21, 2016 - link

    Congratulations to LeEco for producing such a wonderful trio of smartphones. In Indian context LeEco Le 2 will kill the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 straight away along with many other Chinese branded phones from Vivo, Oppo and Gionee which retails at twice its price!!! Also Le 2 Pro and Le Max 2 with prices so low, it's like someone is trying to disrupt the market. The pricing kills everything. While heaping all the praise to the recent LeEco devices with stellar hardware and built quality, I for one will be the first to stay away from this trio. The main reason is the absence of the iconic 3.5 mm headphone audio jack and second being the lack of a memory expansion slot.

    With this trio of recent LeEco devices following digital audio transmission over USB Type-C ports incorporating CDLA tech, the lowest priced model Le 2 will have equivalent audio quality to the highest priced model Le Max 2 over the same headphone. This is a good for us end consumers but the problem lies thereafter. No matter how much LeEco touts about lossless digital audio through USB Type-C ports, the headphone speakers are analog in nature so there is a definite need to convert this digitally transmitted signal to analog audio signal for us to hear.

    Audiophile oriented smartphones like Vivo X5Max with its HiFi 2.0 audio architecture uses superlative in-built audio hardware to produce stellar sound quality through headphones. I own one of them. At first it bypasses the inbuilt crappy audio codec (digital to analog conversion) that comes default with every Snapdragon or MediaTek chipsets. Then the lossless digital audio from CPU goes straight through its sublime ESS SABRE ES9018 discrete DAC for digital to analog conversion. Next in the audio path comes the exclusive use of ESS SABRE ES9601 operational amplifier to convert the analog current output from DAC to analog voltage output on which headphone speakers operate. And finally a high quality Texas Instruments OPA1612 headphone amplifier is used to pump up the volume, so as to simply plug in any audiophile grade in-ear headphones or ear buds and drive it to the maximum. But to drive audiophile headphones to maximum and then X5-Max's in-built audio hardware a lot power (watts) is required. It comes from the in-built battery of the phone through independent audio power supplies. Thus the output through 3.5mm female headphone jack of X5Max is analog in nature and you can plug in any headphones from Sennheiser, AKG, Audio-Technica, Shure, Grado, Sony, Koss with a 3.5m male audio jack. You do not have to worry about all the digital to analog conversion stuff as it is taken care inside the phone.

    For the new LeEco smartphones, they have opted to perform the digital to analog conversion and subsequent audio amplification outside their smartphones, which increases complications as adequate amounts of power needs to be channeled to the headphone along with the digital audio signal through USB Type-C port. Now the DAC and headphone amplifier needs to reside inside a special type of headphone. The additional hardware inside the headphones will gulp all the power in order to operate and then it will start converting the digital audio signal to analog audio on which headphone speakers operate and produce sound. And we have not yet touched topics like independent audio power supply of X5Max which will filter and distill the power from batteries and feed the hungry DACs and op-amps with stable, unadulterated and ripple free power to operate at maximum.

    Pick anyone of the LeEco devices and it will sound drastically different as the inbuilt DACs and operational amplifiers of each headphone brand will vary in quality and output. Which denotes the sound signature and tonality will also vary per headphone brand and type. On one hand you will get crappy sound with a compatible cheap headphone with Le Max 2 and then amazing sound quality if ever any audiophile headphone manufacturer in their wildest dreams thinks about making a LeEco compatible unit. In the end we are all drastically limited with the amount of headphones in offer from LeEco ecosystem and their availability. You can kiss goodbye to all your existing audiophile headphones. So as music lover current Le Eco devices are a no go for me.

    Next comes the topic of memory availability inside the phone. With tons of lossless audio FLAC files which are very big in size I need a minimum of 128 gigs to store my favorite songs. And the Le Max 2 only comes with 64 gigs internal (maybe around 55 gigs available) with no option from memory expansion. In the end even though I have my own share of regrets about the recent LeEco devices, I wish all the rest 90% of the smartphone buyers will be very happy with their products which have become icons for providing stellar quality smartphones at very aggressive prices in India. Cheers!!!
  • zodiacfml - Friday, April 22, 2016 - link

    Impressive specs for the price. I wonder why Android makers makes so little profit compared to Apple. Marketing expenses?

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