Leagoo: New Beast in the Sea of Smartphones

Leagoo is a brand based in Shenzhen, China, that is set up by an OEM smartphone manufacturer who decided to jump on the bandwagon and started selling phones themselves. It is differentiating itself from its domestic competitors in Singapore by setting up an after-sales Service Centre in Funan DigitaLife Mall. Having introduced several other phone models since its inception two years ago, Leagoo has recently launched their latest flagship smartphone – the Shark I.

First Impressions Out of the Box

The Shark I packs an enormous 6300mah battery behind its 6-inch, 1920×1080 pixel screen. That is almost three times the battery size for the average smartphone in the market, and more than two times for most flagship smartphones.  To top it off, Leagoo managed to fit all that electrical juice in a package that is only 8.5mm in thickness.

6300 mah battery in the Leagoo Shark I !

The 6-inch screen is covered in third–generation Gorilla Glass, curved in 2.5D and rimed in metal, with the volume rocker and power button on the thumb side.  The micro grill speaker can be found on the bottom reverse side, with its micro-USB charging port on the bottom.  Like many phones on the market, the battery and cover are non-removable.

This is one phone which you certainly do not have to carry a battery pack for. In fact, Leagoo is boasting that the Shark I could double as a battery pack for other lesser smartphones in need. To charge its ridiculously enormous battery, Leagoo has thrown in a special charger in the box – a USB power adapter that supports up to 9V/2A quick charging.

9V/2A allows faster charging from the Leagoo USB power adapter.

In addition, the Shark I is feature packed with the latest Fingerprint ID 3.0 sensor on the reverse side, dual SIM or SIM and microSD card expansion, infrared emitter, and front facing flash for the 5MP front-facing selfie camera. The fingerprint sensor claims to unlock the phone in under half a second while maintaining security and protecting your privacy. The 13MP, F2.0 rear-facing camera is assisted with dual LED flash and the camera app also supports manual controls to fine-tune the exposure settings. The on-chip positioning system supports the whole range of satellite positioning such as GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO and BeiDou, to ensure that the Shark I is never lost.  Unfortunately, the phone lacks an NFC system.

Fingerprint sensor on the back the 6″ screen phone.

The heart of the Shark I is an 64-bit octa-core Mediatek MTK6753T ticking at 1.3GHz, with 3GB RAM and 16GB of storage space, expandable with another 64GB via the microSD card slot. Upon powering up, the current iteration of Leagoo OS 1.2 is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop seems to favour the Chinese style of not having an app drawer.

Size comparison. Left to right: iPhone 5c, iPhone 6, and the Leagoo Shark I.

Stay tuned for my review of the Shark I in a few weeks to see if this beast will sink or swim in the sea of smartphones. Meanwhile, the Leagoo Shark I is selling in major stores in Singapore at S$399 and is available in three colours, Midnight Black, Starlight Silver and Champagne Gold.