LeEco's Le Max Pro Goes on Sale as First Snapdragon 820 Smartphone

LeEco Le Max Pro, the world's first smartphone unveiled to sport Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC, has gone on sale in China - making it the world's first Snapdragon 820 smartphone in the market. The flagship smartphone from the Chinese technology conglomerate went on sale in limited quantities in China on Tuesday at rather low price of CNY 1999 (roughly $305 or Rs. 21,000).

It is reported that the Le Max Pro's first sale was limited to just 1,000 units, and that engineering models instead of commercial models were sold in the flash sale that began at 12pm on Tuesday. We can expect the company to bump up the price closer at the full retail launch.

Announced at CES trade show in January 2016, the Le Max Pro is the first smartphone to feature Qualcomm's newest flagship chipset model. At the time of the unveiling, LeTV (since rebranded to LeEco) had announced that it will begin shipping the Le Max Pro in the second half of 2016.

The company's decision to ship the Le Max Pro early - albeit only in its home country, could be because its phone's Snapdragon 820 exclusivity is no longer that unique. Since its announcement a number of smartphone companies have either unveiled or launched their flagship smartphone featuring Snapdragon 820 SoC as well.

For instance, Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge, which were unveiled on Sunday, are also powered by Snapdragon 820 (though, there are Exynos-powered variants of both the models too). Xiaomi has also confirmed that its Mi 5 flagship smartphone, which is launching Wednesday, also has Snapdragon 820 SoC. Also at MWC 2016, HP unveiled Elite x3 which packs in a Snapdragon 820 processor. Vivo has also teased that it will launch its Vivo Xplay 5, which features Snapdragon 820 and 6GB of RAM, next month.

For a refresh, the Le Max Pro sports a 6.33-inch QHD display (1440x2560 pixels), and 4GB of RAM. Other features of the Le Max Pro include a 3400mAh battery, and a 21-megapixel rear camera that comes with optical image stabilisation (OIS). The dual-SIM Le Max Pro supports 4G LTE connectivity option and comes with USB Type-C port. The smartphone is running Android 6.0 Marshmallow with a customised UI from LeEco on top. It comes in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB storage variants.