Mid-range, affordable and high-end price segments are vague terms when it comes to smartphones. Whatever you decide to call it, but the competition in 10K – 15K price bracket has always been ruthless, which is after all a good thing for consumers.
This year, the Lenovo K4 Note (Full Review |FAQ), LeEco Le 1s (Full Review) and Honor 5X (FAQ) are sweating it out. While we pitched Lenovo K4 Note against Le 1s couple of weeks back, here we compare Honor 4X and Le 1s and detail there merits and demerits.
Also Read: Should you buy the Lenovo K4 Note or LeEco Le 1s?
Key Specifications and Features:
| Model | Honor 5X | Le 1S |
| Display | 5.5-inch full HD (1920x1080p) IPS TFT LCD display with 403ppi | 5.5-inch full HD (1920x1080p) IPS TFT LCD display with 401ppi |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 octa-core (MSM8939) (4×1.5GHz + 4×1.2GHz), 405 GPU | 64-bit class 2.2 GHz Mediatek Helio X10 Octa-Core CPU, Power VR G6200 GPU (700 MHz) |
| RAM | 2GB | 3GB |
| Internal Storage | 16GB (10.53GB Free), 128GB MicroSD support | 32GB, No MicroSD card support (25.53GB Free) |
| Software | Android Lollipop based EMUI 3.1 | Android Lollipop based EUI |
| Primary Camera | 13 MP sensor, LED Flash, PDAF, F2.0 aperture lens | 13 MP Isocell sensor, LED Flash, PDAF, F2.0 aperture lens |
| Secondary Camera | 5MP Front-Facing Camera, F2.4 aperture lens | 5MP Front-Facing Camera, F2.0 aperture lens |
| Dimensions and Weight | 151.3×76.3×8.15mm and 158 g | 151.1×74.2×7.5 mm and 169 g |
| Battery | 3000 mAh, fast charging | 3000 mAh, Fast charging |
| Others | Dual SIM, 4G LTE, Fingerprint sensor, USB OTG | Dual SIM (Nano + Micro), 4G LTE, Fingerprint sensor, USB OTG |
| Price | Rs. 12,999 | 10,999 INR |
Le 1s Advantages
- Snappy performance
- Better Audio quality
- Fast fingerprint sensor
- Rapid charging
- IR Blaster
Honor 5X Advantages
- Vibrant display with more accurate colors
- Impressive camera performance
- Gesture support
- Better battery backup
- MicroSD card support
Also Read: Freedom 251 is World’s Cheapest Smartphone At 251 INR or $3.65
Design and Build
Both the Le 1s and Honor 4X are ‘Metal unibody’ handsets (and both have plastic strips running on top and bottom). The metal used in the construction is very different though.
If you have an appetite or craving for a metal phone, Le 1s should definitely be more appealing. This in no way means that the Honor 5X is bad, but despite metal being used, it looks and feels more like a plastic phone (at least from the front).
The chamfered side edges don’t extend all the way to the front as they do on Le 1s, and the metal used on the rear stays warm on a chilly winter morning unlike what we would expect from a metal phone. Right? Out of the two, Le 1s is a bit more compact.
However, Design-wise, Honor 5X has more than a few things working in its favour. Its lighter, the brushed metal finish is quite resistant to scuff marks (and looks good on the white variant), plastic strips have been elegantly implemented (the perforated texture looks good) and the ergonomic curves on the back lend it a nice grip. Perhaps it would take a bit more to overshadow the charm those Chamfered side edges shining on Le 1s.
Here at Smartprix, I am coming across heavily polarized opinions regarding which one looks better of the two, and its hard to pick any of the two as a winner.
Performance
Here, by performance we mean raw code-crunching horse power. The Le 1s manages to deliver a very snappy performance under all circumstances and its entire credibility hinges on it fairing impressively on this crucial front. After all, no matter what software or hardware features you stack, your experience would be hardly satisfying if your phone fails to register your touches or stutters too often.
Honor 5X is secondary to Le 1s in terms of performance, but the difference shouldn’t matter if you are not much into gaming/ heavy apps and will be restricted to basic and moderate usage. Also after a week of usage, effects of only 2GB RAM have began to show up. EMUI is more frequently throwing apps out of RAM.
Display
The Honor 5X display is perhaps the most impressive smartphone display we have come across in this price segment. In our opinion, it is better than both Le 1s and Lenovo K4 Note for all general purposes. The color balance, temperature, viewing angles and brightness levels are all up to the mark. The UI also allows you to enable a sunlight mode for enhanced visibility outdoors.
The display however comes with a scratch guard pre-installed. It is a good quality scratch guard and thus we didn’t have to fight any pressing urge to replace it with a tempered glass or to just peel it off. But if for some reason you don’t want to compromise on that feel you get with fingers directly touching naked touch glass, Honor 5X isn’t an option. As without the scratch guard, the display is very prone to smudges.
The Le 1s on the other hand has a very crisp and sharp display (even crisper and sharper than Honor 5X) with high contrast levels, and an excellent touch glass with smudge-resistant oleophobic coating, but the display feels dim and colors are a bit more saturated than what we prefer.
Camera
Camera performance of Honor 5X is also better than both Lenovo K4 Note and Le 1s, for both indoor and outdoor shots. The camera reminds me of Honor 6 which we used for several months last year. Compared to other phones in this price bracket, low light camera performance on Honor 5X is better. Images captures show good amount of details and faithful color reporduction.
Le 1s on the other hand has a reasonable camera, but nothing that particular stands out. You can manage good shots most of the times, but in low light details aren’t very good when you zoom in. Take a look at camera samples below.
Camera Comparison for Honor 5X and Le 1s
Software and Fingerprint sensor
Both smartphones are running Android Lollipop based software with heavy customizations. Both UI are missing app drawer by default, have a learning curve and offer plenty of customization options. Which one you like more will be a matter of personal taste. I, for one, find EUI on Le 1s more palatable and intuitive.
Notabely, Huawei’s emotion UI has more features baked in, like one hand mode, screen gestures, etc.
The fingerprint sensor on Le 1s is faster than that on Honor 5X. The Honor 5X lets you program touches on fingerprint sensor as back, long press as home, swipe up as recent apps key, but that is more of an annoyance in practical usage. We often found ourselves unintentionally jumping out of apps and soon turned all fingerprint sensor related gestures off.
Battery Backup and Others
Out of the two Honor 5X has better battery backup, however not by a wide margin. The fast charging isn’t as fast as Le 1s, but still in almost one week with Honor 5X we were never scrambling to reach the end of our day, but a lot of credit for that also goes to EMUI, which doesn’t allow apps to exploit battery in the background. If battery backup is one of your top priorities, Honor 5X will suit you better.
Audio quality on Le 1s beats Honor 5X hands down. Of the two speaker grills at the bottom, only one houses a mono speaker on Honor 5X, resulting in mediocre loudness. Audio quality are much better on Le 1s even with headphones on.
We didn’t face any issue with call quality or heating on any of the two. Le 1s additionally offers IR blaster, which comes with universal remote that can be used to duplicate any other IR remote you have.
Le 1s also benefits from USB Type C port but we can’t count that as an advantage at this point of time. Both of these phones are not compatible with Google cardboard
Conclusion
Both phones come very close in terms of user experience they deliver, and it is for you to decide the best one suited to your needs. While Honor 5X has better display and capable camera as its prime advantages, Le 1s banks on snappy performance and audio prowess. If you are much into high end Android gaming, you can side with Le 1s, for everything else Honor 5X seems better.
For specific details like benchmark scores, Sensors used, etc. you can read our Le 1s FAQ and Honor 5X FAQ.
