In fact, the frame is not the point. Is LeTV's super phone really super?

Accompanied by the huge controversy over "whether it has edges or not", LeTV Super Phone officially entered the battle of domestic smart phones, and launched three products at the beginning.

Challenging the iPhone, borderless ID, mobile ecology, the various concepts and slogans that LeTV has used to enter the mobile phone field make us full of expectations and doubts about the actual performance of the super phone.

Unboxing: This time Letv is not TV

The difficulty of purchasing LeTV Super Phone is comparable to that of Xiaomi, which is not open for purchase. This time we only got the most entry-level LeTV Super Phone 1 among the three super phones.

Although LeTV claims to subvert Apple, the packaging of LeTV Super Phone 1 is quite similar to the style of the latest iPhone 6. The bright red Letv lettering on the back of the packaging does not mean that there is a TV in the box.

The LeTV Super Phone 1 is placed directly in the box with its case, making the phone look quite different when it is first taken out. The word Letv is also printed on the side of this random plastic protective cover.

Mobile phone accessories have gradually become another aspect for domestic mobile phone brands to demonstrate their design skills at this stage. LeTV is no exception. Although it does not give away earphones, it packages the data cable in a similar way to the earphones. Perhaps the meaning behind this is to tell consumers that this USB Type-C data cable will be difficult to replace if it is lost.

Appearance: On the importance of black wallpaper

As a brand that is trying mobile phone products for the first time, even the LeTV Super Phone 1, which is priced at 1,499 yuan, can be considered a top-notch product in terms of craftsmanship.

The classic three-section design on the front, which has been successfully verified by HTC and Huawei, the finely carved metal frame, and the curved back that fits the palm have all become added points in the design of LeTV Super Phone 1. Of course, most people are more concerned about what the so-called ID borderless is.

The core part of the ID borderless proposed by LeTV is the glass covering the front. It is not difficult to see from the side of the phone that the glass covering the screen has extended to the edge of the front of the phone, so that we initially thought that the side frame of LeTV Super Phone 1 adopted double chamfering treatment. In fact, it is just an illusion caused by the reflection of light at the edge of the front glass. Even under some specific conditions, the white part of the front of the phone will produce light stripes caused by the refraction of the glass panel.

To be fair, the borderless ID created by a whole piece of glass without a frame on the front does make the phone look and feel more integrated, but it also brings negative effects such as cutting hands on the edges and increased risk of screen breakage. More importantly, it does not seem to bring a true borderless visual effect.

When the screen is turned on, especially when displaying light-colored content, the first impression given by LeTV Superphone 1 is not that it is borderless, but that there are borders on the top, bottom, left and right. Fortunately, the advantage of the narrow border still makes LeTV Superphone 1 smaller than the iPhone 6 Plus, which also has a 5.5-inch screen.

So, how to achieve borderless? Actually, you need to choose a black wallpaper, such as the default earth in the universe of LeTV Super Phone 1, or the picture of Jay Chou doing magic that we found later. If you don’t notice that Jay Chou is missing a part of his finger, then the black border of LeTV Super Phone 1 is almost invisible.

Is it really impossible to have a borderless phone? In fact, the previous Sharp and the recent Nubia Z9 have already achieved the borderless effect in terms of visual perception. However, if you think that the lowest version of Nubia Z9 is priced 2,000 yuan higher than LeTV Super Phone 1, perhaps LeTV's "borderless" effect created by using black wallpaper is acceptable.

Hardware: basically no shortcomings

LeTV Superphone 1 is equipped with a 64-bit MediaTek Helio X10 processor and a 64-bit Android 5.0 operating system, bringing users a complete 64-bit operating experience. It is supplemented by 3GB of running memory, and its overall specifications are in the first echelon of the industry.

Although the PowerVR G6200 GPU, the same model as the Meizu MX4, makes the graphics processing capability of the LeTV Superphone 1 look a little insufficient in terms of data, the smoothness of the operation is still satisfactory even when running large games such as "GTA: SA", and it can fully meet the entertainment needs of general users as a whole.

In terms of battery, although LeTV claims that it uses battery stacking technology to increase the battery capacity of LeTV Superphone 1 to 3000mAh, which is already a considerable level, in comparison, the previous LG G2 used a similar method to achieve the same battery level in a body with a thickness of 8.9mm. The LeTV Superphone 1, which is 9.4mm thick and larger in size, can only be considered to have performed mediocrely.

LeTV Superphone 1 uses a 5-megapixel front camera and a 13-megapixel optical image stabilization rear camera, which has obvious advantages at the price of 1,500 yuan. Support for 4K video shooting is the icing on the cake.

Actual sample photos show that LeTV Superphone 1 has good details in its shooting effect. Compared with iPhone 6, it has a certain tendency to be overexposed and the colors appear brighter.

The camera interface is almost copied from the iPhone, and is easy to use, but the slightly fancy focus icon does not significantly improve the camera's focusing speed.

Finally, it should be noted that of the 16GB of internal storage space of LeTV Superphone 1, only about 10GB is actually available, and the card tray only supports dual SIM cards, and the capacity cannot be expanded using a TF card. Actual use will be a bit cramped, especially if you want to shoot long 4K-level videos, remember to think twice before acting.

eUI: The most super feature of super phones

At the launch of the super phone, LeTV introduced the eUI operating system specially designed for the super phone in great detail. After actually experiencing it, I have to say that the new eUI is the real superness of the super phone.

First of all, as a mobile phone system, eUI has its own characteristics.

eUI places more setting functions under the multitasking interface, and completely returns the function of the sliding notification bar to notification push. This logic is somewhat similar to Apple's iOS. On the lock screen interface, you can indeed call out a control center that is almost the same as iOS through the multitasking button.

In terms of the style of application icons, eUI feels very close to Meizu's Flyme design language. It is flat and trendy but not a stereotyped rounded rectangle. The movement of APP icons across screens is also very thoughtful. The remote control APP can directly control LeTV Super TV terminal products on the same local area network.

Long press the HOME button to open the eUI voice interaction interface. The voice function on LeTV Super TV has already left a deep impression on people. This time the super phone also performs outstandingly, with accurate recognition, and the search for relevant information will be directly displayed in the form of web content, rather than simply giving a web link.

The settings menu of eUI separates application settings as a separate category. This is a practical idea for the current Android software usage environment. However, the current application settings are still limited to the basic applications of the phone itself. If the permission settings such as third-party application notification management in the system settings can be integrated, this design will become more meaningful.

Secondly, as an ecosystem, eUI demonstrates LeTV's advantages in content.

Whether it is Xiaomi's MIUI or the various UIs that followed, various third-party mobile phone systems developed based on Android are becoming more and more perfect. The result is that the homogeneity of different systems is becoming more and more serious. Until this time LeTV focused on content ecology on eUI, people saw a new product focus.

eUI itself does not have a secondary menu. A button called LIVE is placed in the original secondary menu button position. As the name suggests, LIVE means live broadcast. When the mobile phone is connected to the Internet, entering LIVE will directly start broadcasting the content of three channels: sports, variety shows, and entertainment at the same time, which can facilitate users to follow sports games or variety shows in real time at a specific time.

In addition, eUI has opened a separate LeJian page on the left side of the system main interface. At first glance, this seems to be no different from the services provided by the LeTV Video APP that comes with the system, but the intuitive sliding and clicking on the APP still gives people a different feeling in experience, especially for those users who use watching videos as the main function of their mobile phones, it will make people feel that the mobile phone system and video services are more integrated.

In addition to videos, the music application on eUI is definitely the one with the richest content among the music apps pre-installed on mobile phones. The three major sections of listening to music, watching music, and watching performances extend the music experience on the mobile phone from headphones to the screen. The in-depth cooperation with Xiami Music also provides a strong guarantee for the amount of content.

Now, most mobile phone manufacturers have begun to move from simple hardware manufacturing to the direction of mobile ecology, focusing on emphasizing the linkage between mobile phones and other smart hardware products. eUI takes the lead in laying out the content ecology, making LeTV super phone appear more down-to-earth.

Conclusion: Whether it is super or not is just a matter of thought

I believe that before the launch of LeTV Super Phone, most people had the expectation that their dreams would come true, but in the end, they may have to sigh at the gap between reality and dreams.

What is a super phone? If you are looking for super products in terms of ultra-lightness, ultra-thinness, borderless screen, etc., then LeTV's super phone cannot meet your expectations.

But the unique system experience and balanced hardware configuration make LeTV Superphone 1 a stable smartphone product. With its complete content system, it can be used to watch "Running Man" and follow football games. It has even become the model we have used for the longest time in our review.

Is LeEco's super phone really super? Anyway, the frame is definitely not the primary criterion for judging.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.