LeTV (LeEco) Le 1s hands-on: First look

Design

For its price, the 1s is extremely well designed and premium feeling product. The phone's body is mostly made out of aluminum, with chamfered edges and smooth, matte finish back.

LeTV Le 1s

It's the little touches that make it stand out - such as the display that seemingly goes all the way to the edge or the symmetrical position of the camera lens and light sensor next to the earpiece. There are also the perfectly invisible but backlit keys below the display, the stealthily hidden antenna bands, the mirror finished fingerprint sensor on the back and the slotted grilles for the speaker and microphone. Except for some of its rough edges (quite literally), the phone is remarkably premium in both design and feel that makes it impossible to guess the low price.

LeTV LE 1s

Display

The Le 1s has a 5.5-inch, 1920x1080 IPS LCD with Gorilla Glass 3. When not lit, the design gives the feeling of the display stretching going all the way to the edges with zero bezels, but that's not quite the case. Still, the bezels aren't too thick, even when the display is lit up.

The screen is impressive, with vivid colors, relatively accurate white point, and good sharpness. You can change the color mode through the settings to one of the four available options. The display also has decent visibility under direct sunlight and good viewing angles. It also gets dim enough for use in the dark.

The display

Our only complaint regarding the display and this is becoming a common one, is the fluctuating brightness based upon content, generally referred to as dynamic contrast. The Le 1s display, in particular, makes sharp cuts to the brightness, especially noticeable while watching videos, as the display brightness goes up and down between scenes based on the screen content. Unfortunately, just like on the Lenovo Vibe X3, there is no option to disable this, and it's just something you have to live with.