Android Smartwatch review: LEMFO LES 1 - Gadget Victims

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Android Smartwatch review: LEMFO LES 1

The LEMFO LES 1 is one of the most complete Android Smart Watch available in its price range, with plenty of memory and a beautiful design.










Unpacking. first run and impressions

Under the LEMFO LES 1 watch itself, the box contains 2 USB cables (one is branded LEMFO and of much higher quality), the documentation, the magnetic charging plate, and a screwdriver with 2 spare screws. 


The reason for the spare screws becomes obvious when inserting the nano SIM card which cover is secured by a tiny screw. I'm not sure it protects the card better but it certainly makes its installation more difficult.
The wrist strap is not longer than the DM368 Plus but the slightly different design allowed me to use the second last hole this time.

The watch feels well built and is a pleasure to look at. The excellent 1.39' (400x400px) screen is inserted with a thin bezel that blends it perfectly in the rounder shape of the watch.
On this picture we also see the pre-installed screen protection, which I removed later because I think it affected the touch screen response in some situations. The screen also looks and feels nicer without it! 


The antenna covers are visible from the inside of the strap and I just hope they won't come loose with time.


An initial charging time was necessary, after which the watch started in just 20 seconds.
The magnetic charging plate is quite convenient to use, but unlike the photo below, the best position insures a correct contact is with the watch facing down.
Although the spare cable for K88H is compatible with LES 1, a steady connection is difficult to obtain and it tends to disconnect while charging so I do not recommend it.   


The interface received a special attention from Lemfo and the native apps have their own red styled icons. The rounded list style, found in many Android Smart Watches is not available here.



On daily use, this watch shows the same qualities as the DM368 Plus for the heart rate sensor accuracy, the audio recording.
With my own phone under repair currently, I had to use this watch quite a lot and,as a phone substitute, it did very well. Nobody noticed the difference!
The most convenient way to use it remains a Bluetooth ear set or car hand free system.

The 2 megapixel camera.
"A solution looking for problems!"


At best, taking pictures with your watch will make you look like Spider Man and the result will most often include a part of your hand in the field of view.
The camera is decent for its 2 megapixel resolution but just not convenient at all to use.

I tried to find some purpose for it as a bar code scanner but the lens is just not sharp enough for that.

I often take "visual" notes in Google Keep and the camera is fine for that, so it's not a complete waste of space.
A "screen capture"

Watch Faces

The LES 1 has a few nice watch faces installed and many more can be installed directly from the interface. An endless and constantly growing collection is also available on the Web.
Head to my previous review for some good sources. 

I noticed that some custom Clock Skins that gave a black screen on the DM368 Plus were able to load fine on the LES 1.






Performance and Battery life

16GB ROM offers plenty storage space and the quad-core MT6580M (present in many full-size smartphones) with 1GB RAM can run anything smoothly.

The principal limitations to the choice of applications is the crisp but small 400x400 pixels screen, and the 350mAh battery (10x smaller than for most modern smartphones).

Therefore, it is important to avoid the energy hogs and only install what is absolutely necessary.
Some discipline is also required to make it trough the day with one charge: limit the interactions with the screen, turn on Wi-Fi, BT and GPS only when needed. Allow the battery saver mode to turn on automatically from a certain level of the battery (that's under Settings>Power Saving>Super power)  




For some reason, Lemfo did not include the useful Power Save button in the shutdown menu (appears after a long press on the unique side button).

LES 1
DM368 Plus

Security? 

A lock screen might not seem so important on a wearable device, but if for any reason you happen to remove the watch and leave it unattended, the Gesture Lock Screen from Q locker works very well on the LES 1!






Conclusion: 

The LEMFO LES 1 is technically almost identical to the DM368 Plus reviewed earlier and its embedded camera is hardly a strong factor of preference.

The killer feature here is just its superb design!

It not just a pretty face though and does everything it says on the tin...but with style!


LEMFO LES 1 is available from Gearbest at 109.99$ (~95€)
The coupon code "LEMFO" bring the price down to 105.90$ (~90€) until the 31th of August 2017)





Special thanks to Kylie @ GearBest for providing this sample.








DEVICE INFO (generated with Droid Hardware Info from InkWired)
Model: LEMFO (LEMFO)
Manufacturer: alps
Baseband Version: MOLY.WR8.W1449.MD.WG.MP.V6.P17, 2016/07/29 18:03
RIL Version: mtk gemini ril 1.0
Build Number: Z10-YFZ-V08-20170608
Build Fingerprint: alps/full_LD_GSM_PHT/LD_GSM_PHT:5.1/LMY47I/1496934681:user/test-keys
Bootloader: unknown
Java VM: ART 2.1.0
OS Version: Lollipop MR1 (5.1)
SDK: 22

DISPLAY
Resolution: 400x400 pixels
Software Density: 160 dpi (mdpi)
Refresh Rate: 59.59 Hz

PROCESSOR
CPU Architecture: ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)
Board: LEMFO
Chipset: MT6580M
Cores: 4
Clock Speed: 604 MHz - 1001 MHz
Instruction Sets: armeabi-v7a, armeabi
CPU Features: swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt
CPU Governor: interactive
Kernel Version: 3.10.72
Kernel Architecture: armv7l

GRAPHICS
Renderer: Mali-400 MP
Vendor: ARM
OpenGL Version: OpenGL ES 2.0

RAM
Total: 971 MB
Java Heap: 128 MB

STORAGE
Internal: 12.9 GB

PRIMARY CAMERA
Resolution: 2.1 MP
Flash: No
Video Resolution: 1920x1088


FEATURES
Bluetooth: Yes
Bluetooth LE: Yes
GPS: Yes
NFC: No
USB Accessory: Yes
WiFi: Yes
WiFi Direct: Yes










1 comment:

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