Le Pro3

The LeEco Le Pro3 is so close to being great, but ultimately gets in its own way.
Look at the LeEco Le Pro3’s spec sheet and you will find a phone that rivals Google’s very own flagship Pixel lineup.

The latest and greatest Qualcomm processor? Check. Massive battery? Check. 64GB of storage? Check. 4GB of RAM? Unlocked and compatible with GSM carriers? An impressive design? Check, check, and check.
Then you look at its $399 price tag, and begin to question if it’s too good to be true. Heck, at one point the Le Pro3 was priced at $299 during a flash sale promotion to kick off its availability in the U.S. market.

How can a phone on paper look so good, while at the same time requiring you to hand over so little of your hard earned money?

The answer: LeEco. 

LeEco made a splash in October with an extravagant launch event here in the US. The Chinese company purchased popular TV manufacturer Vizio last year, and is now ready to take on the U.S. market. Or so it thought, with the company’s CEO stating just last week that it was growing too fast and running out of money.
Nonetheless, LeEco will continue to sell products in the U.S., starting with the Le Pro3 smartphone.
There’s no denying the LeEco Le Pro3 is one well-designed phone. Continuing the 2016 trend of a brushed metal housing with antenna lines at the top and bottom of the device, it looks familiar as well. The housing is a bit on the smooth side, almost to the point of being slippery, but ultimately feels good in the hand.
On the back of the phone you find a fingerprint reader just below the camera lens and two-tone flash. On the right side are volume and power buttons, which have loud click to them.

On the bottom is a USB-C port, used for charging, data transfer, and audio. That’s right, the Le Pro3 lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack. Fear not, included in the box is a set of USB-C headphones.
The display isn’t QHD, but I won’t complain. It’s bright and vivid, and offers good color reproduction even if it is only 1080p.
It’s worth the cost, but is it worth the headache?

I can say I wouldn’t want to use the Le Pro3 as my daily phone. It’s so close to being one of the best Android phones available at the $399 price point, but then you open another app for the first time and are reminded just how bad the software experience is.
My initial reaction after using the Le Pro3 for a few days was: Well, eventually custom ROMs will come out, right?
And that sums up the Le Pro3. It’s a good phone — superb, even — when it comes to performance and design. That’s why it’s getting a score of 3.5, and not lower.
Unfortunately, the software gets in its way and stops it from being one of the best phones on the market.


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