Lightning Review: Leagoo Lead 7

Why buy a smartphone when you can have a smartphone and a powerbank in one? Leagoo recently launched the Lead 7, a mid-range budget Android smartphone that packs a huge battery under its 5” hood that can even be used to charge up your other devices. Desperately need to charge up your smartwatch or second smartphone? The Lead 7 will come in handy.

What is it?

The Leagoo Lead 7 is one of the latest smartphones from Leagoo to reach Malaysia. It has a 5” 720p display and is powered by a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6582 quad-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. Camera wise, it has a decent 13MP rear shooter with 5p lens and stacked CMOS sensor by Sony, and an 8MP selfie camera equipped with a live beauty mode, perfect for those who love to take selfies.

The box comes with a charger, regular USB cable, USB OTG cable and a pair of earphones. The display also comes with a screen protector by default

But what makes the Lead 7 special isn’t the specs. It has a 4000mAh user-replaceable battery, which is pretty big considering the size of the device. With such a huge battery on board, Leagoo even allows it to charge up other devices with a USB OTG cable that comes in the box.

If only Leagoo bundled the phone with an extra battery, it would be perfect, especially if you’re always on the go. Other specs include dual-SIM standby, and runs on the company’s very own Smart UI based on Android 4.4.2.

Use the USB OTG cable to charge up your other devices

Is it any good?

If you’re not those who are willing to fork out thousands of Ringgit just for a smartphone, the Lead 7 is an interesting product. It has a very good battery life, which makes it perfect for those who are always on the go and just need a phone for basic things like making calls, sending messages, and staying connected.

The Lead 7 runs on Leagoo’s own ROM based on Android 4.4.2, which reminds me of Oppo’s ColorOS. You can easily pick between Google’s launcher or Leagoo’s launcher in the settings menu – the former will give you a very familiar home screen and app drawer interface, while the latter is visually similar to ColorOS, and does not have an app drawer.

Leagoo’s launcher with no app drawer

These two homescreens look very familiar indeed

With a retail price of RM599, it is pretty cheap for all that it has got to offer. The display is decent and definitely a lot better than the Lead 5 we saw last time, and while it’s made out of plastic, it has a nice metal frame along the edge to give it a more solid feel. In addition, the phone feels a little bulky, but I think it’s easier to hold on to a phone this size compared with super thin phones.

Performance wise, I didn’t encounter any major problems using the phone. I’ve been using it as a secondary device so the long battery life is definitely very helpful because I don’t need to charge it as frequently as my iPhone.

The bad stuff, tell me.

The Leagoo Lead 7 is a mid-ranger, so don’t expect too much from it. One particular issue occurs when I try to scroll through the settings menu, where the touch display doesn’t feel very responsive. If I don’t swipe hard enough, it will either recognise that as a touch, or just scroll through very slowly.

Loading and closing apps aren’t as quick as flagship smartphones but hey, for the price, you can’t have it all right? It takes slightly less than a second for an app to load for the first time, but it’s nothing unbearable.

Camera wise I think Leagoo could have done a better job. Pictures comes out highly saturated and the colour isn’t very accurate, even in bright conditions. HDR mode requires you to keep your hands very still, which makes it almost impossible to capture a decent HDR shot. The result of my HDR shots?

HDR Shot

Outdoor

Indoor shots are very grainy too. I took some pictures in a well-lit indoor environment and they don’t look good either.

Of course, turning on the flash will give you better results, but I’ve never been a fan of flash on phones.

Without flash (original image) vs. With flash (original image)

Should I Buy it?

Need a new phone, or a second phone and want to try out something new? The Lead 7 is something worth considering. It has a decent performance, dual-SIM support and most important of all, great battery life. The only major setback on the phone is the camera, so if you rely on your phone’s camera a lot, there are other solid alternatives too.