Leagoo T1 Plus, a smartphone with a 5.5-inch screen

Today I'm reviewing a smartphone that stands out a little from the crowd of devices made in China. It has a lot in common with phones I've reviewed before, but while preparing this review I came across some interesting features.

To start with, I should say that the phone seems to be aimed more at women. At least, that's the impression I got after getting to know it.
I'll show you why I came to that conclusion in this review, though I'll be reviewing it in the same way I would any other phone, since to me it's just a phone.

Specifications claimed by the manufacturer:
Colors: Gray/Gold/Pink
Processor — MTK6737, 4 cores
GPU: ARM Mali-T720 MP3, 450 MHz
Operating system — Android 6.0
Memory — 3 GB RAM, 16 GB flash storage.
Display — 5.5 inches, 1280x720 resolution
GSM network bands: 850/900/1900/1900
WCDMA: 900/2100
4G: FDD-LTE 800/900/1800/2100/2600 MHz
Wireless interfaces — Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1
GPS
Memory card slot — MicroSD, supports cards up to 128 GB.
Audio output/microphone — 3.5 mm jack.
SIM card type — 2 Micro-SIM cards
Front camera: 8 (13) MP
Main camera: 8 (13) MP
Battery: 2660 mAh
Dimensions: 150x76.3x8.3 mm

The phone comes in a fairly large box.


There's very little information on the packaging: just the charger type, supported languages, and network bands.


One thing worth noting is how sturdy the packaging is. I recently received a phone and was surprised it had made it here in one piece. That won't be a problem with this one.


The package includes:
1. Leagoo T1 Plus smartphone
2. Charger
3. USB-to-microUSB cable
4. Headset
5. Manual and warranty card


The manual even includes a brief section in Russian. The translation is far from perfect, of course, but I can say that even this information can sometimes be useful.
You might ask what could possibly be new in a manual—everyone already knows all this.
No, not everyone knows it, and sometimes a brief guide like this is just what you need. I won't even get started on the massive manuals that came with old cell phones.


The cable is about 80 cm long and very flexible.
The headset is nothing special, just a standard bundled headset. It works, and that's about it. Hi-Fi fans can rest easy: it won't be giving their headphones any competition :)
The charger has a European plug and is rated for a 1.5 A charging current, although I didn't notice any significant difference in charging speed. The manufacturer does claim it has a fast-charging feature, where 1 hour of charging is said to provide a full day's use.


Although the phone is advertised as “gold,” it's actually two-tone. The bottom and sides are gold-colored, while the top is white.


There are protective shipping films on the top and bottom. The bottom one is just a shipping film, while the top also has the main screen protector.


Once the protective film is removed, the phone looks a little less striking, though it’s still a far cry from the all-black models that turn into plain black chunks of plastic. In my opinion, it looks neat, though I’d have chosen the gray version myself—it’s more familiar.
Another point in its favor with female buyers is that it’s also available in pink. I doubt many men would buy a phone in that color.
Though I think most women would prefer white, black, or gold, too.


You might get the impression that the phone is large, but in fact it’s only slightly bigger than models with a 5-inch screen.
For comparison, I took a photo: it’s about 5 mm wider and 7 mm longer.
It sits quite comfortably in the hand, mainly because the side edges are fairly narrow.


Its weight is more average than heavy.


The bottom edge has a microphone hole and a microUSB port. The port is for charging only; unfortunately, OTG is not supported.


Because the phone has a white front panel, everything at the top is easy to see.
On the left is an LED that doubles as a camera flash. The phone is clearly aimed at selfie fans; another clue is the front camera, which has the same resolution (8 (13) MP) as the rear one. The only difference is that the front camera has no autofocus.
As expected, the earpiece and proximity sensor are at the top.
There’s also a hidden blue LED on the left that serves as a notification indicator, smoothly varying its brightness from minimum to maximum.


The top edge has a jack for connecting headphones or a wired headset.


The control buttons are another difference from most common phones.
There are three buttons, as usual, but they’re arranged differently: the power/lock button is on the right, and the volume buttons are on the left.
To me, it’s just a design quirk. The only advantage is that taking screenshots is a little more convenient this way. That’s about it.


No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the color to match the original. The back cover kept coming out looking more copper than gold. In reality, it’s a little lighter and less saturated.
The inserts at the top and bottom are plastic, but most of the back cover and the side edges are metal. You can tell by the look and by the fact that it conducts electricity, though I suspect it’s some kind of aluminum-like material.


The side edge is the same color as the back, but it has a brushed bevel along the top and bottom, which looks pretty good.


The main speaker is located at the bottom. I have to say, I was genuinely surprised by the sound quality and volume. Obviously, you can't get much bass out of a phone this size, but the mids and highs are fine, and there's no distortion even at maximum volume. Overall, I'd say it gets top marks in this department.
At the top are the fingerprint sensor, the flashlight/flash LED, and the secondary camera, which, unlike the front camera, has autofocus.
I also noticed a small hole at the top, but never figured out what it's for.

The fingerprint sensor works well. In my opinion, it's noticeably better than the one on the Thor and Doggee.


You don't need to take the phone apart to install the SIM cards and memory card. They go into a small tray, which you can eject with the included pin by inserting it into the designated hole.
That's a plus, but it's not very convenient that you can use either two SIM cards (micro-SIM size) or one SIM card and a memory card. Also, there's no ejector tool in the box, so you'll have to find a paper clip.
The tray itself is metal. Its end piece isn't rigidly attached to the rest, but it doesn't wobble during use.


Of course I took the phone apart. How could I not?
Someone once commented that if my review didn't include a teardown, it meant my account had been stolen. No, I took the device apart, and I'll keep doing so :)
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To measure the capacity, I once again had to improvise a setup with sticks and string, since the battery is built in and connecting to it is extremely inconvenient.


As before, I first discharged the phone until it shut itself off. Then I turned on the load at the current that would be used for the capacity test and measured the phone's cutoff voltage. It was the same as on the other phones I had tested: 3.15 V.


Since I already knew that the phone charges the battery to 4.35 V, I shortened the test a little and improved the measurement accuracy at the same time.
I fully charged the battery; 2720 mAh went in.
Then I discharged the battery to the phone's automatic cutoff voltage, which gave 2670 mAh.
Then I fully discharged the battery to find out its actual capacity; another 34 mAh came out.
In total:
Total battery capacity — 2704 mAh
Capacity used by the phone — 2670 mAh.
The rated capacity is 2660 mAh, which is quite consistent with my measurements.


Now let's move on to the software.


But before testing performance, I'll take a quick look at the phone's software.

When you turn it on, this is the home screen you're greeted with: just a few apps, a browser, file manager, media players, and other odds and ends.


The settings panel is split into two sections, which is unusual but convenient in its own way.
Some options have been translated into Russian, though that hasn't made their purpose any clearer to me.
For example, I still couldn't figure out the eye-control feature—or maybe you need a woman's perspective :)


The other section is still in English.
By the way, I almost forgot: the phone doesn't have physical buttons below the screen like other phones do. Instead, it uses virtual buttons, and you can change their positions or add a button to open the notification menu.
You can hide this virtual navigation bar when needed. To bring it up, swipe upward from the bottom edge of the screen.


The phone can also run in multi-window mode, though it's really more like two-window mode.
When you enable this option, you can choose what to place where. I think it's an interesting feature, just not at this screen resolution.


The phone has 16 GB of flash storage, with about 11 GB initially available to the user.
That's not a lot of storage for this phone, especially since using two SIM cards means the memory card slot is unavailable.

The latest firmware version available at the time is installed.


The file manager has most likely been “customized” by the manufacturer and comes in their own “signature” version. At least, I haven't come across this before.
Other extras include a power-saving app (all tests were performed in normal mode) and a basic photo editor.


USB debugging is enabled by default, though I still don't understand why this is needed on this device.
I also noticed a quirk: if you uninstall an app, the icons in the app list aren't rearranged automatically, leaving an empty space where the app icon used to be. And I still haven't figured out how to get rid of this “effect.”


When you connect a USB cable, several connection options are offered, and the last mode used is remembered.
For completeness, here's the full list of options in the Developer settings menu.



I'll hide the technical information under a spoiler this time, since it's of interest to only a relatively small group of readers. First, here's a brief summary of what I've been able to figure out.
1. The phone does not have root access.
2. It has a quad-core MTK6737 SoC with a Mali-T720 MP3-based graphics core.
3. Different sources list different amounts of RAM: 2 or 3 GB. The apps, however, report that 3 GB is actually installed.
4. The 5 GHz Wi-Fi band is supported.
5. The battery capacity is listed as 2660 mAh, but AIDA estimates it at a lower 2400 mAh.
6. Both cameras are listed as 13.3 MP, but as far as I can tell, that's interpolated from 8 MP; at least, the specifications list 8 MP.
7. Video recording tops out at 0.9 MP resolution (1280x720).
8. The flash works with both cameras.


The sensor selection is very modest; essentially, it's no different from the Vernee Thor, which is in the same price range. What surprised me, though, was that the light meter tops out at 65535 lux, while other devices maxed out at 10000–20000.
The sensors that actually work are the accelerometer, proximity sensor, light sensor, and sound level sensor.


A few more tests.
AnTuTu version 5 scored 23266 points. Compared with its “classmate,” the Vernee Thor, that’s a significant difference: the Thor scored 33866 in this test.
Version 6 scored 29391 points, while the Vernee Thor scored 37050. The gap is smaller, but still noticeable.


As a bit of an extra, I ran a couple more performance tests using GeekBench. The first screenshot shows the results from version 3 of the app; the second and third are from version 4.


I didn't run the AnTuTu Video test on the Vernee Thor because I couldn't get the app to run on it. This phone scored 547 points.


The Epic Citadel results also differ. In High Quality mode, the gap is tiny: 50.4 versus 54.7 for the Thor. In Ultra High Quality, the difference is much larger: 26.7 versus 43.4.
By the way, if you run the test without hiding the “virtual” button bar, the resolution is 1200x720 and performance is slightly higher, though the difference is very small.


In PCMark, which is intended to measure performance in everyday apps, the phone scored 3493 points, compared with 4095 for the Thor. The difference isn't very significant.
The 3DMark test, though, really surprised me: just 103 points. I ran it several times because the result was so strange, and I'm more inclined to think it was a software glitch than that the phone is really that slow—the Thor scored 6679 points in this test.


Flash storage performance is about one and a half times slower than the Thor's, while RAM performance is roughly on par.
The phone's touchscreen recognizes up to 5 simultaneous touches. I noticed no issues or false touches during testing.


Wi-Fi reception is average. At my usual test spot, under very poor conditions, the connection was there, but SpeedTest refused to run a test.
Elsewhere, the connection quality improved as expected. In the room next to the router, it managed a perfectly respectable 35 Mbps download speed; one meter from the router, the speed was around 50 Mbps.


For completeness, I ran tests in the same locations using iPerf.
The tests are listed in the same order as the SpeedTest results.




GPS navigation performance is also average, but it's worth noting that even without a SIM card, the phone detected satellite signals and determined its location in about 10 seconds. So I won't complain about that.


Two tests were conducted to check battery life. During both tests, the sound was kept low and the screen brightness was set to 75% (50% is actually enough).
1. Playing a Full HD video file at a bitrate of 10 Mbps.
2. Watching a video on YouTube.
In the first test, the phone really surprised me: it started at around 21:10 and finished at 7:17 the next day, so just over 9 hours.
The second result was more modest: just 6 hours. Still, compared with the other phones I've had in my hands, that's an excellent result—I wasn't expecting it.
It's also worth noting that the phone still turns on without any problems when the battery charge is down to just 1%.
But there's a small downside: testing showed that the battery drains noticeably when using the camera.


The screen is quite good quality, which is nice. The viewing angles are excellent.


In my review of the Leagoo M5, I mentioned that I didn't like how the screen gets washed out by the flash. I also said I had a phone at home that didn't have this problem.
Here you can clearly see that even the glare from the flash has no effect on the image, which speaks to the screen's decent quality.


Almost done; all that's left is to see how this phone's camera performs.
First, a comparison with a phone in roughly the same class, the Vernee Thor.
All photos were taken in auto mode, with no color correction.

To be honest, I expected more. I'll set aside the fact that one phone leans toward warmer colors and the other toward cooler ones, but the image from the Thor seemed sharper to me.
That said, they're quite similar overall, since the Thor's image looks sharper because its camera has a narrower field of view. In other words, the T1 simply fits more into the frame.














Lately, I've been trying to include photos taken in poor lighting in my reviews, and this one will be no exception.
The photos were taken on October 2; sunset that day was at 18:12:58.
The photos have been compressed to fit on the site; there'll be a link to the originals at the end.

17:52


18:20
The photo might make it look bright outside, but it wasn't quite like that in reality—the camera could "see" better than my eyes. But that came at the cost of a significant drop in image quality.


18:46


Link to the original photos.


I've checked everything I could; all that's left is to draw some conclusions.
Pros
Good build quality.
The battery capacity matches the stated specification.
9 hours of Full HD movie playback.
GPS gets a fix quickly, although its sensitivity isn't very high.
The fingerprint sensor works reasonably well.
Very good sound quality.
High-quality display.
Notification LED.

Cons
Camera performance in low light is poor; in good light, it's acceptable.
Low performance.
You can't use two SIM cards and a memory card at the same time.
No physical control buttons.
No OTG.

My opinion. I think this phone is aimed at a particular target audience, because my feelings about it are very mixed. I liked the solid construction, quality screen, and decent software optimization, which helps keep power consumption down. Also, thanks to its slim profile, the phone doesn't feel bulky.
Some people may also appreciate the various software features for enhancing photos, especially (I assume) female users.

On the other hand, I was disappointed by the cameras, which are advertised as a key feature of this phone. I didn't include tests of the front camera, but I can assure you that the rear camera differs only in having autofocus, which isn't particularly useful for selfies in this case.
That said, the front camera should do a pretty decent job with selfies, especially compared with models with 2–5 MP cameras, but I really expected more from the rear camera.
The review also makes it clear that this phone isn't a performance powerhouse, so there's no point buying it for games. The Vernee Thor, for example, is much faster.

Replacing physical buttons with virtual ones is hard to call a drawback, since this approach has its advantages too—for example, you can configure the buttons to suit your preferences. But I listed it as a con because they're not very comfortable to use. Or rather, they're unfamiliar, and therefore uncomfortable; perhaps I'll feel differently after a while.
Overall, this phone is designed for its particular audience.

I think that's about all I can say. I don't know what else to test; I've tried to check everything I could.

P.S. I've had this phone for about a month and a half, so I've had plenty of time to test it. The review has been sitting in drafts for about a month and I've kept adding to it. This unplanned extended test, as well as the delay in publishing, was because the phone has only just gone on sale.

The store provided a coupon for the gray version (the review unit is gold) from Leagoo, bringing the price down to $116.99.

The product was provided by the store for review.