Xiaomi’s phones are very well known to be very good and at a very good price. Redmi Note 3 has been so far ahead of the competition till now, that was very difficult not to recommend it. The enter of LeEco, gave things a different perspective, as a main competitor of Xiaomi entered the scene now. Xiaomi and LeEco are similar companies. They both sell their smartphones at low costs. While Xiaomi claims that its phones are sold almost at cost, LeEco apparently charges you less than the bill of materials of its devices. The LeEco Le 2 costs as much as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, but performs better, making it the best phone to buy under the 170€ limit at this moment, specially when there is a special offer running at eFox.com for the International Version of LeEco LETV LE 2 ! LEt us see why I’m saying this…
Design
Whether you like a smartphone how it looks is relative. One might love it, the other will hate it. Both mobiles have metal, but the unibody metal design on the Le 2 feels much stronger, and more premium many will say. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 does have a metallic finish to it, but it doesn’t stand a chance against the LeEco LeTV LE 2 outlook.
Both mobiles are with a 5.5 inch display and with 1920 x 1080 resolution. It is worth noting, though, that out-of-the-box, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has a bluish tint on its display, which is what makes it slightly biased towards the white colour tests. You can remove this effect by turning on the Reading Mode and lowering its intensity, at which point, both the Le 2 and Redmi Note 3’s displays are equal, at least in terms of colour. The Redmi Note 3’s display seems slightly brighter, though.
Antutu
Antutu is used in order to see how fast is working a mobile. Running the test in both models, we see that the LeEco LETV LE 2 runs faster than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, and that wins it this comparison. The octa core Snapdragon 652 has four Cortex A72 cores and four Cortex A53 cores. This makes the Snapdragon 652 quite fast, and even though the Snapdragon 650 is fast enough, we’d have to choose the former. On multi-core performance tests, the four extra cores give the LeEco LETV LE 2 the edge, while single core performance is aided by the presence of extra Cortex A72 cores.
Of course in real life it is hard to understand this difference. Only in heavy games, there the difference can be noticed, as for sec LeEco LETV LE 2 is faster in processing.
Camera
Both phones have a 16MP as main camera. Xiaomi uses a Samsung’s ISOCELL sensor for the Redmi Note 3, while the Le 2 is equipped with a Omnivision OV16880 sensor. In terms of focusing speed, shutter delay and processing time, both mobiles are almost the same. They both are slightly slow when shooting in low light, and are fast enough in all other light conditions. But image quality differs.
The LeEco Le 2 has a higher dynamic range with better details and colors as well. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 slightly softens images, and the white balance is quite off in indoor and low light conditions. Under low light, the LeEco Le 2 brightens the frame better than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. The details and overall quality still remains better on the Le 2, though.
Battery
The Redmi Note 3 is equipped with a 4000mAh battery, so here RN3 is the winner, no doubt about that. On regular usage, you can expect about 20% better battery life from the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. To be clear, the Le 2’s battery life is not bad, it’s just not the best.
On a regular day, and with a normal usage, you can reach up to 16 hours of battery life for the LeEco Le 2. On the other hand, Redmi Note 3 can easily cross a full day. With the screen brightness turned down, and utilizing power saver modes when required, both phones can last much longer. If battery is of paramount importance, then the Redmi Note 3 is the phone to go for. In fact, the Redmi Note 3 has a 4000 mAh battery, which is 25% bigger than the 3000 mAh you get on the Le 2. A 20% boost in battery life is not always the case, but in this case, the specs do reflect the performance.
Conclusion
The LeEco Le 2 is the better performer according to Antutu, and has a slightly better camera from Redmi Note 3. If we accept the fact that looks and more premium, the Le 2 is easily the best budget smartphone to buy right now. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is no bad of course, but is not as good as Le 2. Of course if you don’t care about these and your only concern is the battery, then Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is the winner.
The LeEco Le 2 is the best budget smartphone in terms of overall performance, and it also gives you access to lots of online content, that you otherwise may not have had. The LeEco Le 2 is the most value for money budget smartphone to buy. And you can gain more if you buy the International version of LeEco LETV LE 2 from eFox, that is on an offer for less than 3 more days!