A few weeks back, LeEco (formerly known as LeTV) announced three new smartphones in its second generation Le family namely the Le 2, Le 2 Pro and the Le Max 2. Like most Chinese manufacturers, the company has used MediaTek chipsets to keep the price as low as possible on the first two models. The Le 2 comes with the Helio X20 chip while the slightly costlier model, the Le 2 Pro comes with a more powerful Helio X25 chipset. However, it looks like LeEco might have a Snapdragon powered variant as well for its fans, at least for the Le 2 budget model. The phone is said to come with an option of Snapdragon 652 inside. However, we are yet to receive an official confirmation from the company about such a version.

It was recently reported that the Le 2 model with Snapdragon 652 inside was listed and will soon go on sale. The phone was spotted with 32GB ROM inside and came in three colours, gold, silver and grey. Interestingly, the pricing was kept the same as the Helio X20 powered model, i.e. 1099 Yuan which comes to around $168.

This could easily make the Le 2, the cheapest Snapdragon 652 smartphone in the market. This is possible since this Chinese giant tends to resort to negative profit pricing for its phones. If you remember, the recently released Xiaomi Max phablet had a SD652 version, but that costs around $260. This would be way cheaper than that.

So, if LeEco did release a SD652 powered Le 2 model, would you choose that version or the one with Helio X20 inside?

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360 Mobiles unveiled the brand new 360 N4 mid-ranger earlier today at an amazing official price tag of $138. The phone beats most rivals in its segment and gives tough competition to the Le 2 smartphone that was announced last month. Since they both practically fall in the same mid-range segment and come with Helio X20 chip inside, we decided to compare these two value for money devices to see whether there are any significant differences between the two and whether we can pick out one of these two as the winner in this comparison.

Turns out, there are quite a number of differences between the two smartphones, despite nearly the same pricing. So, let us move to the 360 N4 vs Le 2 comparison.

360 N4 vs Le 2: Design

Like always, we start off with the design of the two smartphones. These two companies have used two different design philosophies on their devices. The Le 2 comes with an all metal design, continuing the tradition set by the first generation Le 1 products. On the other hand, 360 Mobiles have used a plastic body on the N4 which doesn’t look too bad either. While the N4 may not be as premium looking as the Le 2, its design is still simple and elegant and I am sure there would be many readers who like this design.

MEASUREMENTS:

360 N4: 149 x 75.7 x 8.3mm

Le 2: 151.1 x 74.2 x 7.5mm

Weight:

360 N4: 140 grams (plastic keeps the weight down)

Le 2: 153 grams

360 N4 vs Le 2: Specs

While we would have thought that these two devices have very similar specs, that is true only to a certain extent. Both the devices come with Helio X20 deca-core chipset on board, but their clock speeds are different. 360 N4 comes with a slightly underclocked X20 chip at 2GHz, on the other hand, the Le 2 features a 2.3GHz Helio X20 chip. Both have Mali-T880 GPU inside.

360 N4 comes with 4GB of RAM while the Le 2 has just 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM on board. Storages are same on both the devices — 32GB as standard. But only the 360 N4’s storage is expandable via MicroSD (hybrid slot) up to 128GB. Another thing to note here is that the storage on the 360 N4 is eMMC 5.0, while the one on the Le 2 is eMMC 5.1 standard. Both have 5.5-inch FHD 1080p screens with 400+ ppi pixel density.

Coming to the cameras, Le 2 seems to have a slight advantage here. It comes with a 16MP sensor with support for 4K recording and slo-mo videos at 720p @ 120 fps. Then there’s PDAF and dual tone LED flash. Up front, you will find a 8MP f/ 2.2 sensor. On the other hand, the 360 N4 comes with a 13MP sensor with 2K video recording support, f/ 2.0 aperture and single LED flash. On the front, the phone has a 5MP f/2.0 aperture camera.

As for the battery, both have almost similar specs. The 360 N4 comes with 3080mAh capacity battery inside with turbo flash charge which charges to 100% in just 1.5 hours. Even the Le 2 comes with a 3000 capacity battery with fast charge.

Both have fingerprint sensors located at the back. Connectivity features seem to be standard like Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, dual SIM cards etc. However, the Le 2 does have a small addition of an infrared port.

Now, coming to the biggest difference between the two devices, and also a deal breaker for many, the Le 2 does not feature a 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead, the phone uses the CDLA standard (Continuous Digital Lossless Audio) which works with the USB Type-C port at the bottom. On the other hand, the 360 N4 features the standard 3.5mm headphone jack and comes with MicroUSB.

Both run on the new android Marshmallow version with their own UI on top. N4 features the 360 OS while the Le 2 comes with the company’s EUI 5.6.

360 N4 vs Le 2: Pricing

If you read our launch article earlier today, you would know that the 360 N4 is much cheaper. The phone starts at just $138 (899 yuan) for the regular version while the full netcom version retails at $154 (999 Yuan). On the other hand, the Le 2 starts at $170 (1099 Yuan), a bit higher than the N4.

Conclusion:

Well, it looks like you get the exact value for the money you pay. For example, the Le 2 is priced higher, but it comes with a faster-clocked chip, better storage standard (eMMC 5.1) and for most, a better looking metal body. The camera also seems to be better on paper.

But to be honest, the 360 N4 does seem to be the better value for money device here. It comes with the same chip with slight underclocking, 4GB of RAM which is higher than Le 2’s 3GB, MicroSD expansion, and a regular 3.5mm headphone jack. All these for a good $30 cheaper price tag.

But there are many factors that affect a buyer’s decision. For example, 360 Mobiles isn’t as famous as LeEco and is yet to establish a strong presence in the international market. So, it really boils down to the individual buyer’s preference.

So, which one would you pick?

The post 360 N4 vs Le 2: Check Out Which Helio X20 Mid-Ranger Wins This Battle appeared first on Gizmochina.

Today was a busy day for Mediatek as it announced two chipsets in China, namely the Helio X20 and the Helio X25. The chipmaker had already announced the X20 a few months back, but this seems to be its release event. Anyways, we have seen Helio X20 perform, thanks to ZOPO’s first deca-core flagship, the ZOPO Speed 8. From the benchmark results, we came to know that the company was targeting the upper mid-range market with this chip, while the Helio X25 will be taking care of the top-end segment.

Now that these two chipsets have been released, we are waiting for phones with them inside. We already know that Meizu Pro 6 will be the exclusive smartphone with Helio X25 (at least for the next few months) and now LeEco executives have confirmed that the second generation Le 2 smartphones will feature the mid-range Helio X20.

Although ZOPO was the first manufacturer to release an Helio X20 powered device, it looks like LeEco will be the first true large-scale manufacturer to adopt the chip. What’s more, LeEco’s President of the Mobile department, Feng Xing said that the company will prepare a stock of more than 1 million units of Helio X20 powered products. That’s pretty impressive and shows the confidence of the company in the chip.

However, if you are not a big fan of Mediatek, don’t worry, it is said that there will be a Snapdragon 820 powered Le 2 version as well. And if the phone looks anything like the renders we have come across recently, fans are definitely going to love the overall package.

LeEco is expected to release the Le 2 flagship sometime before the end of March, which means we could see an announcement in the next couple of weeks. Apart from LeEco, manufacturers like OPPO and Qihoo 360 (smartphone division) are also expected to release Helio X20 powered smartphones.

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