The LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) smartphone is a Chinese budget phone, the most affordable of the devices on the Snapdragon 820. Its price has now decreased compared to the 2016 release and does not exceed $150. At the same time, the Elite model (X720) with Snapdragon 821 is 50% more expensive. Those who don't need an NFC chip will undoubtedly like the Elite X722 more. Moreover, in appearance they are almost identical.
Contents of delivery
Most smartphones in this price segment do not deserve to have the boxes they come in left in sight for long - unpack and throw away. But not in the case of LeEco smartphones. This company knows how to present its product. LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) arrived for review in a solid black box, on which only the company logo is displayed - laconic and stylish. Complete order awaits us inside - a paradise for an esthete. The equipment, as often happens with Chinese would-be manufacturers, is not dumped in a box, but neatly laid out - each component has its own place.
The box contains a proprietary power adapter, a USB Type-C cable, a tool with the LeEco logo that will help you remove the SIM card tray, as well as a USB Type-C to 3.5 mm adapter. Also included in the package is a not the most expensive silicone bumper.
Fingerprint scanner
The ultrasonic fingerprint scanner is located quite conveniently - just under the index finger. In most cases, he recognizes the owner without any problems, even with traces of cream or water on his hands. The main guarantee of “mutual understanding” is to place your finger as close as possible to the position in which you underwent the first reading procedure. In winter, your hands are often very cold in the cold and the service is dull: it does not recognize you as a living person - warm up!
The scanner can be used not only to unlock, but also to take photos: finger on the sensor, the camera takes a photo. In addition, you can immediately set up access to the Camera application through unlocking from the sensor.
Design
All LeEco smartphones have a very modern and stylish appearance. And it’s almost the same for everyone. If you’ve already dealt with a company’s smartphone before, or even more than one, then getting to know the next model doesn’t bring any new feelings. Most recently, we reviewed LeEco Le S3 (X626) and LeEco Le Max 2 (X820), which, as you can see right away, are just like brothers.
Is it bad that the company doesn't change the design? Well, not to say. There is not much time between the release of these smartphones, and what user would buy several brand devices at once for personal use?! If we do not take into account its brothers, then LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) pleases with its design. Strict, neat, thin, monolithic and practical - almost ideal.
The body of the smartphone is made entirely of metal, with the exception of a couple of thin strips of plastic that cut up the back of the device, flowing onto the edges.
Please note that depending on the amount of memory, the texture of the back side also differs. The 4+32 GB solution has a matte finish, older models with a capacity of 6+64 GB (our version) or 6+128 GB received some kind of special treatment - horizontal stripes are clearly visible.
The assembly is at a high level, which can be said about other smartphones from the manufacturer that I have ever held in my hands. If we draw parallels with other companies, then in appearance LeEco smartphones are most similar to models from Xiaomi or early Huawei.
In terms of dimensions, LeEco Le Pro 3 (X722) is very compact. It's not too tall, although it has decent bezels at the top and bottom, and it's not very wide. And the thickness of 7.5 mm with a battery capacity of 4070 mAh cannot be anything pleasing. If you compare Le Pro 3 (X722), for example, with the iPhone 8 Plus with the same 5.5-inch screen, it turns out that the “Chinese” for $160 turns out to be more compact than one of the most expensive flagships - 151.4 x 73.9 x 7.5 mm vs. 158.4 x 78.1 x 7.5 mm. Not bad, LeEco.
But you can buy LeEco Le Pro 3 (X722) in only three colors, as stated by various sources - gold, rose gold and silver. In fact, almost everywhere there is only a gold version. And here we come to the main thing, as not only we believe, a flaw in the design of LeEco smartphones. The thick black stripe partially discourages the desire to rush to the online store to buy the Le Pro 3 (X722). It seems that all more or less famous companies have abandoned such frameworks, but not LeEco. The frame, apparently, is designed to add additional attractiveness to smartphones, but as soon as you press the power button, all this “splendor” catches your eye. And also if you installed white wallpaper.
However, the desire to call this shortcoming catastrophic does not arise. Just look at the price of LeEco Le Pro 3 (X722) and its other characteristics! You can forgive these frames, but in the future, we hope the manufacturer will abandon them. If, of course, the company continues to exist, the head of LeEco faced serious problems in the summer.
What does a smartphone have besides a screen with thick frames? At the top of the front panel there is a front camera lens, a slot for the earpiece and a window behind which the sensors are hidden. There are three touch-sensitive navigation keys at the bottom, but you won't see them until you touch them. The company, we think, has implemented buttons in a rather original and correct way, which with their backlighting will not spoil the design of the LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722).
On the back we find the peephole of the main camera, not far from which there is an LED flash. A little lower there is a fingerprint scanner with a mirror coating. Controversial decision. It looks stylish, but it was constantly stained while we reviewed the LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722). Constantly wiping will definitely not bring pleasure.
At the top end there is an infrared port, which allows you to control household appliances via a smartphone, as well as an additional microphone. At the bottom is a USB Type-C port, surrounded by a pair of symmetrical grilles, one of which hides the main speaker, and the other a microphone. On the right side of LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722), as standard, there are power / volume control buttons. On the left we have a regular slot for 2 SIM cards - microSD cannot be installed.
In general, the appearance of LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) is very modern and pleasant. The unpleasant thing, as you might understand, is that we only have wide frames around the screen. Well, you can still find fault with the mirror fingerprint scanner. Among the design flaws we come to the lack of a 3.5 mm audio jack, but more on that below.
Display
A solid, pleasing to the eye 5.5-inch IPS matrix with FullHD resolution. In principle, there is nothing more to say about the LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) screen. In terms of quality, it is at the same level or higher than that of Chinese analogues in this price segment. The stated characteristics provide a density of 401 pixels per inch, which gives a clear picture. Sufficient, but not record-breaking maximum brightness, decent, but not ideal viewing angles. The screen is covered with tempered Gorilla Glass 3 with a good oleophobic layer. The glass has a slight rounding at the edges - previously LeEco used regular flat glass in most smartphones.
If you start to find fault, you may notice that the color rendition is not the most correct - if you look closely, you will notice that the white color is not naturally white, but slightly turns into a pinkish tint. But again, if you look closely. You can slightly adjust the display of colors on the LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) display in the smartphone settings. What is more striking is the same black frame. The first few hours are especially uncomfortable if you have previously used a smartphone with a thinner edge. Then, it seems, you get used to it, and it’s normal.
For those interested, the area occupied by the screen is about 75%. This is almost the same as some budget Chinese frameless models.
Performance
The LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) still has plenty of agility today, despite the fact that the smartphone is already a year old. The model received a Snapdragon 820 processor, which, at the time of the smartphone’s release, was only better than the Snapdragon 821, which was only slightly superior to its predecessor. The processor is 4-core, operates at a frequency of up to 2.15 GHz (2 cores, another 2 cores operate at a frequency of 1.6 GHz), made using a 14-nm process technology, which ensures good energy efficiency.
There is quite a bit of confusion regarding the memory capacity of the LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) versions. The youngest version is 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. There is a slightly more expensive version, but with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. Not so much because of the RAM, but because of the built-in memory, the second version looks more attractive, which it was decided to give preference to. There is also a modification of LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) with 6+128 GB – the maximum. But I couldn’t find the latter in online stores. As noted above, models, depending on the amount of memory, differ in the type of processing of the rear side.
Whichever modification you choose, you will not have any performance problems. Any games run at maximum graphics settings, the interface works quickly, and you can keep a dozen programs running in the background. All in all, still a powerful guy. And next year its performance will be more than enough for most users.
In AnTuTu, Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) scores a lot - about 150,000 points (+-10,000, depending on the amount of memory and other conditions).
Note! Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) does not support memory cards, and 32 GB will still not be enough for many today, so think carefully before ordering a smartphone.
Memory
Here again there is a “set-up” with memory. 32 GB without expandability is too little.
You will have to use cloud storage, and this option is not suitable for many users.
True, we are accustomed to the fact that after a maximum of a year of use, the phone’s memory, no matter how capacious it is, should be full.
In fact, if you use the allocated resources wisely, then this volume will be quite enough.
On the other hand, such a powerful phone will be bought for games and heavy programs that require a lot of internal memory.
So judge for yourself whether this is good or bad, but the lack of an expansion slot is not encouraging in any case.
Communication, navigation, sound, sensors, interfaces
The Le Pro 3 Elite has no problems with communication. The smartphone supports all popular networks, including 4G LTE with a bunch of bands. You can install two nano SIM cards; the tray is not hybrid, so you have to forget about memory cards (other LeEco smartphones also do not support microSD). Let's talk about the earpiece and microphone - they cope with their tasks well. If you set the volume to maximum, then even those around you will hear your interlocutor.
The main speaker is also not bad, but it does not pretend to be any kind of musical speaker. The sound is not annoying during a call, as is often the case with too cheap smartphones from the Middle Kingdom, and is also suitable for watching movies - for anything more, most users do not need a multimedia speaker. The manufacturer praised LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) for being good at playing music through headphones.
But they apparently forgot about the necessary connector for connecting these same headphones. You have to use an adapter to connect headphones (thank you, at least they included one), and the sound cannot be called anything special - ordinary, pleasant, the same as what most smartphones produce at a price of $150 or more. Maybe the quality will be higher if you use the appropriate headphones with USB Type-C, which you don’t really want to buy.
Go ahead. Navigation. Everything is at a high level - we find satellites quickly, a lot, we work with both GLONASS and GPS, we even support the Chinese BaiDou. LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) has almost everything when it comes to wireless interfaces. Wi-Fi is available on site and operates at 5 GHz frequencies. Bluetooth is also here, version 4.2. There is an infrared port that allows you to control other equipment. The manufacturer integrates it into its smartphones for a reason - LeEco is known in its homeland as LeTV, one of the largest television broadcasting companies engaged in the production of televisions.
Of the physical connectors, we only have USB Type-C. As for sensors, LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) has a very wide range. There are primary proximity and light sensors, an accelerometer and a gyroscope, a Hall sensor and a compass.
⇡#Communications and wireless communications
The smartphone works with two nano-SIMs using the dual standby system - that is, there is only one radio module, and both cards cannot participate in any activity at the same time. Unfortunately, devices with two radio modules today are becoming almost museum rarities.
LeEco Le Pro3, SIM card slot
A full set of wireless modules is available: NFC, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 + 5 GHz), IR port. The smartphone works with LTE networks of the 12th category (with a maximum speed of up to 600 theoretical megabits per second). There are no problems with band coverage - all frequencies critical for Russia are available.
| LeEco Le Pro3, AndroiTS GPS Test results | ||
The navigation module works with GPS (including A-GPS), GLONASS, BeiDou. The smartphone starts up and picks up the signal quickly - it is oriented by 10 satellites with an accuracy of up to 20 meters within a couple of seconds after launching the application, and after 20-25 seconds an accuracy of up to 4 meters is available when oriented by 15-18 satellites.
operating system
Wide frames are not the most noticeable problem in LeEco smartphones. The majority of users who do not know what flashing, stock, or custom are may be put off by the LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) operating system, which is not “pure” Android. And the point is not even in the proprietary EUI shell covering Android Marsmallow, but in the fact that the manufacturer still cannot offer a normal translation and a fully working interface out of the box. Although, if you wish, you can live with the English interface. The shell itself, on the contrary, I even like - stylish, beautiful, quite functional. The impact on MIUI and iOS developers is noticeable.
In some cases, LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722), according to user reviews, comes with support only for Chinese and English, with a bunch of applications that are not particularly needed outside the Middle Kingdom. All this has to be reflashed with your own hands and brought into decent shape. Some sellers can install more or less passable firmware, which is partially in Russian. However, you often need to ask them about this yourself.
Flashing the firmware means that you will no longer receive operating system updates over the air. Although, given the latest news, they are not expected. I am glad that LeEco smartphones have an extensive community that will help with the choice of firmware and explain some of the nuances of the system’s operation.
The system works stably. It happens that from time to time you can observe a certain thoughtfulness of a smartphone, but even flagships from larger brands are not immune from minor lags.
In general, Le Pro 3 (X722) is not an iPhone that you took out of the box, turned on and can use. We can say that the clumsiness of the firmware is a side effect of the low price. However, the system alone cannot be considered a reason to refuse a purchase. To reflash you do not need to have the knowledge of a professor. You just need to visit the corresponding topic on the w3bsit3-dns.com forum, where, if necessary, ask for advice from other owners. As a last resort, you can reflash the Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) in almost every service center by hinting to the technician where you can get the firmware.
Cameras
“On paper,” the Le Pro 3 (X722) claims to have a very advanced main camera. A 16 megapixel Sony IMX298 sensor with f/2.0 aperture is used - it’s no longer a flagship, but in the past it was one. It is used in both Xiaomi Mi5 and OnePlus 3, which has earned praise for its photo quality. But for some reason the LeEco smartphone turned out to be not very good in terms of photography. No, it's pretty good for the money, as long as you're not looking for photo quality on par with the latest iPhone. That's just why the guest of our review has worse picture quality if the hardware is the same.
Probably the reason is the software part, which was never brought by the manufacturer to the level that would squeeze out its actual capabilities from the sensor. As is the case with other smartphones in this price segment, LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) takes very good photographs during the day, in good lighting. But again, it is far from the level of flagships even last year. If you feel the lack of light, the pictures don’t come out very well. There is no need to talk about night photography - there is an abundance of noise, detail drops.
For the price that LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) currently has, the camera is quite decent. If you have something to compare with, and have dealt with more advanced camera phones before, you may not be satisfied with the photo quality on the Le Pro 3 (X722).
Video can be recorded on a smartphone camera with a maximum resolution of 4K and a frequency of 30 frames per second. Supports shooting videos in slow motion (120 fps with HD quality). The videos are good, but nothing more. You can criticize Le Pro 3 (X722) for the quality of the recorded sound.
The front selfie camera is also not impressive - the photos are average and nothing more. The sensor is 8 megapixels with an f/2.2 aperture, and video recording in FullHD resolution is claimed. And the characteristics look very good, but only “on paper”. At the start of sales of LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722), there were many competitors for about the same money, who had a more decent selfie camera. However, today, at a price of up to $200, it is not terrible.
Making a video
All LeEco smartphones can shoot 4K video. And our hero is no exception.
The picture turns out quite decent, but the same cannot be said about the sound track. Its quality is disgusting. There is metallic noise, poor detail, and it also feels like the mono sound has been stretched over two channels.
In addition, the smartphone shoots Slow Motion videos at a frequency of 120 fps and a resolution of 720p. There is nothing absolutely outstanding: poor detail, huge pixels. The function is here for the sake of simply being.
Autonomy
LeEco smartphones cannot be blamed for low-capacity batteries or absolutely terrible battery life. Le Pro 3 Elite (X722), which is equipped with a non-removable 4070 mAh battery, is no exception. During the review, LeEco Le Pro 3 (X722) lasted for a whole day with fairly active use (notifications turned on, the Wi-Fi interface, wireless networks, social networks, etc. are constantly active). In this case, the screen brightness is always turned up almost to maximum. The result is very worthy, and if you use the device’s battery even more sparingly, you can achieve 1.5-2 days of battery life.
In web surfing mode, Le Pro 3 lasts for about 7 hours of continuous operation; when playing videos on YouTube, you can forget about recharging for almost 9 hours. But with continuous gaming, the device will be discharged in 4 hours. The figures are not record-breaking, but very respectable, considering the large screen and powerful hardware.
Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) supports fast charging technology. In half an hour, you can recharge your smartphone’s battery by about 35%; a full charge takes about 2 hours.
⇡#Autonomous work
What LeEco Le Pro3 really managed to surprise was its autonomy. Yes, this could be expected by looking at the specifications table - it uses a 15.47 Wh battery (4070 mAh, 3.8 V). But just numbers are one thing, and quite a real one and a half to two days without recharging for a smartphone with a 5.5-inch display is another. And no tendency to overheat. We have not yet heard of explosions due to an excessively dense arrangement of elements. There is a sum of factors at work here: a combination of an energy-efficient platform (Snapdragon 821, despite its performance, is very good in this regard), a relatively low resolution display and a well-optimized shell. In particular, the device consumes virtually no energy in standby mode. One percent disappearing overnight is the norm here.
In our traditional test with HD video playback at maximum brightness with wireless modules turned on and active updates, the LeEco Le Pro3 lasted just over eight hours - also a very good result.
Of course, there is support for QuickCharge 3.0 fast charging, which allows you to charge a smartphone with a capacious battery in about an hour and a half. But for this you need to use only the original charger.
LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722): price, where to buy, analogues
LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) would not be so relevant today if not for its price tag. On all popular Internet sites, a smartphone in the 4+32 GB version is offered for no more than $180 (less than 11,000 rubles). On AliExpress, the most popular seller (also with the most affordable price) offers to buy LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) at a price of 179.99 dollars (11,000 rubles). The price of the smartphone on GearBest has completely dropped to $155 (about 9,500 rubles). For the same $155, LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) can be purchased on Banggood. You can now buy the 6+64 GB version of Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) very profitably - only $200 (12,000 rubles). But the option is only available on Banggood.
Please note that prices are valid at the time of publication. By the time you read the LeEco Le Pro 3 Elite (X722) review, they may become even lower (which is unlikely - they are already too cheap), or they may increase, which is possible.
AliExpress
GearBest
Banggood (discount coupon: 11BFX722SE )
Banggood (6+64 Gb)
Save on purchases with cashback from Letyshops
Do you know what helps us find reliable sellers with the lowest price? Browser extension from Letyshops. We advise you to try it too!
In fact, there are not so many analogues for the same +-200 bucks. Moreover, for $150 you won’t find another smartphone with a Snapdragon 820. What we recommend you take a closer look at:
- LeEco Le Max 2 (X820) (review). Smartphone from the same brand. It costs a little more (with coupon 7BGBFX820 you can grab it for $200 on Banggood ), but is immediately available in a 6+64 GB version.
The model has a huge 2K screen and a similar processor. The model is also very interesting, so we advise you to take a closer look. AliExpress - Lenovo ZUK Z2 (review).
A very interesting model, which was sold out like hot cakes this spring. ZUK Z2 is similar in technical characteristics to the guest of our review, but is strikingly different in terms of design. Glass, stylish, neat. It has a more compact screen, a scanner on the front and powerful hardware. Banggood - ZTE Axon 7 . A powerful smartphone with stereo speakers and a high-resolution AMOLED screen. It costs an order of magnitude more than the models mentioned above, but with the GBMBP on GearBest the smartphone is sold for only $245.
