price when reviewed
£121.18 inc VAT
Leagoo Shark 1 review: One of the best battery life phones
The Leagoo Shark 1
is all about power - battery power. With a huge (world-leading)
6,300mAh battery and quick-charge technology, it could well be the phone
to buy if you’re looking for a best battery life phone. Also see: Best budget smartphones 2016.
You can pick up the Leagoo Shark 1 from GearBest, where it costs £121.18 with free delivery to the UK, but note that you may have to pay import duty - see our advice on buying from China. If you’re in the US, GearBest offers the Shark for $169.99.
Of course, having the highest-capacity battery doesn’t necessarily mean it is the longest lasting, because actual runtime depends on what you do with the phone, and on how energy-efficient is the software and hardware. Leagoo claims up to 770 hours on standby, 72 hours of general usage, 25 hours of video or 49 hours of music.
In our tests of various smartphones we were intrigued to find that although the Shark 1 has by far the biggest battery, both the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 have been able to perform better in the Geekbench 3 battery life test. Not that we should do down its incredible 11-hour, three-minute score in this benchmark. Also see: Best Android phones 2016.
Arguably just as important as how long the Leagoo’s battery lasts is
how fast it is to charge. Leagoo specifies quick-charging technology
known as LQC 3.0. This is not the same thing as Quick Charge 3.0,
which is for Qualcomm processors (the Shark 1 has a MediaTek chip), but
it is fast, able to boost the charging current accepted by the phone
from 2A to 3A.
Leagoo markets the Shark 1 with the slogan ’30 mins to charge, 1 day to enjoy’. Obviously you aren’t going to charge the entire 6,300mAh battery in 30 minutes, but you could get enough runtime for a full day’s use from a 30-minute charge. When the battery is full (or even when it’s not if you’re feeling really generous), OTG support means you could potentially use the Shark 1 as a power bank for charging another phone, helping both get through a full working day. For this you’ll need an OTG adaptor, though, which is not supplied in the box.
Note that the battery inside the Leagoo Shark 1 is a non-removable lithium-polymer unit, which does not support wireless charging. Also see: Best smartphones 2016.
Leagoo has done what it can to shrink down the size of the Shark 1, with narrow screen bezels, onscreen navigational controls and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. The edges are slightly rounded at the rear, and the 2.5D curved glass adds to that streamlined finish, but we think Leagoo could have gone a little further in the rounding of this device to make it easier to hold. A matt surface wouldn’t have gone amiss either; while the metal rear plate looks good it doesn’t have any grip.
The Shark 1 is built around a metal frame, but unlike its marketing would have you believe it is not a metal unibody phone. At the rear you’ll find plastic panels at the top and bottom - most likely to help avoid signalling issues - and you’ll clearly feel the difference as you run a fingertip across the back. The camera sensor and dual-tone flash sit in the top panel, almost entirely flush with the casing, while a speaker grille is found in the bottom panel. We aren’t usually enamoured by rear-facing speakers, but Leagoo has at least added two little plastic protrusions either side to keep it from lying completely flat on a desk or other sound-muffling surface. Also see: Best audio phones 2016
The Leagoo logo is etched on to the middle panel, at the bottom of
which sits the usual legends, European Conformity logo and so forth. The
‘Huge Battery 6300mAh Smart Phone’ legend did make us grin.
Something that is becoming increasingly rare is the IR blaster found on the top edge of the Leagoo, opposite the 3.5mm headphone jack - and you’ll find a camera flash on the front, too. On the right side sits a volume rocker and power button, and Micro-USB for charging and data transfer at the bottom. AA SIM tray sits at the top-left edge, able to accommodate either two Micro-SIMs or one SIM and one microSD card for storage expansion.
The screen is possibly the second-best feature following this phone’s huge battery. While it’s way too big for my personal tastes, there are a lot of customers out there looking for large-screen phones. Whether you have poor eyesight, wish to use the phone as a satnav, or maybe it’s just your thing, the Leagoo Shark 1 is a huge 6in on the diagonal.
This is an LTPS display made by LG with a full-HD resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, equating to a pixel density of 368ppi. That’s pretty sharp - sharper than the iPhone’s Retina Display - and it also offers reasonable brightness and realistic colours. Gorilla Glass 3 protects the display from damage, helping to protect this beast of a smartphone should it slip out your hand.
Leagoo has fitted a 1.3GHz MediaTek MTK6753 64-bit octa-core processor, which is based on the ARM Cortex-A53 and builds in Mali-T720 graphics. There’s also 3GB of DDR3 RAM, plus 16GB of storage. That might not sound like a generous amount of space for your files and media, but remember that this is a £120 phone, and many UK budget phones still come with just 8GB. And, as we mentioned earlier, you can add up to 64GB using microSD at expense of a second SIM. Also see: Best phablets 2016
There isn’t a huge gap in performance between this Shark 1 and the smaller (5in screen) Leagoo Elite 1 we reviewed previously, although the Elite does have the edge for processing power.
We ran the Shark 1 through our usual benchmarks and recorded 2228
points in Geekbench 3 (multi-core) and 34,423 points in AnTuTu 3D,
suggesting the Leagoo is up to the daily needs of most users.
Graphics performance is less impressive, with just 12fps in GFXBench T-Rex and 4fps in Manhattan. You won’t be able to play the most intensive games, but that 6in full-HD screen will still be useful for casual games and video streaming.
Our final test is JetStream, a JavaScript test, and here the Shark 1 managed 18.778 - about average for a budget Chinese Android phone.
Pleasingly, the Shark 1 will work with all three UK 4G LTE bands - 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz - though users from elsewhere should check the specification before purchasing. Here’s how to tell whether a phone is supported by your network.
You get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS, but one thing that is missing is NFC. There’s HotKnot, which is the MediaTek equivalent, but that won’t help you if you want to make use of Android Pay.
We quite liked the colours in our test shots (which you can admire first in Auto mode and second in HDR below), but there seems to be rather a lot of sharpening going on - especially in HDR mode - and the loss of detail is evident even without viewing at full-size. They’re nice photos for a budget smartphone, though, and you can’t really expect a lot more.
The Camera app is not the standard Google version, since this phone
is running Leagoo OS 1.2 over Android 5.1 Lollipop. It’s simple to user,
though, and with a swipe up or down the screen you can switch between
video, auto and pro modes. Varous other modes including HDR, Panorama,
Multi-angle, Motion Track, PIP, Face beauty and Watermark can be
selected from the menu. Three dots onscreen offer access to the Settings
menu, face detection and real-time colour effects.
When using the selfie camera you can turn on or off the mirror effect, but you don’t see the results until you take the photo. And we weren’t overly impressed with its beauty mode, which simply blurs your face. But the front flash is a nice, reasonably rare, feature. Also see: Best camera phones 2016.
Assistive Touch places onscreen a floating button with options to
lock the screen, go home, float video or music, or open a pop-up window
into which you can draw a gesture to open a certain app (created by you
in the Gesture Builder). You can also draw letters on screen from
standby to wake the phone and automatically launch an app (this is
customisable).
Various other gestures, such as flipping the phone to mute a call or answering by putting it to your ear are also supported, plus there’s a Game Mode that disables the back and menu keys, and Smart stay which prevents the screen timing out when you’re looking at it, perhaps when watching a video. The LED notification light can also be colour-customised so you know whether you’ve missed a call, text or other type of notification before you pick up the phone.
Read next: Best new phones coming in 2016.
Follow Marie Brewis on Twitter
You can pick up the Leagoo Shark 1 from GearBest, where it costs £121.18 with free delivery to the UK, but note that you may have to pay import duty - see our advice on buying from China. If you’re in the US, GearBest offers the Shark for $169.99.
Leagoo Shark 1 review: Is this the best battery phone?
Yes, and no. For now, the Leagoo Shark 1 does (to our knowledge) contain the highest-capacity battery of any smartphone on the market at 6,300mAh. Do note that Oukitel will shortly be launching a phone with an incredible 10,000mAh battery - check out the Oukitel K10000.Of course, having the highest-capacity battery doesn’t necessarily mean it is the longest lasting, because actual runtime depends on what you do with the phone, and on how energy-efficient is the software and hardware. Leagoo claims up to 770 hours on standby, 72 hours of general usage, 25 hours of video or 49 hours of music.
In our tests of various smartphones we were intrigued to find that although the Shark 1 has by far the biggest battery, both the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 have been able to perform better in the Geekbench 3 battery life test. Not that we should do down its incredible 11-hour, three-minute score in this benchmark. Also see: Best Android phones 2016.
Leagoo markets the Shark 1 with the slogan ’30 mins to charge, 1 day to enjoy’. Obviously you aren’t going to charge the entire 6,300mAh battery in 30 minutes, but you could get enough runtime for a full day’s use from a 30-minute charge. When the battery is full (or even when it’s not if you’re feeling really generous), OTG support means you could potentially use the Shark 1 as a power bank for charging another phone, helping both get through a full working day. For this you’ll need an OTG adaptor, though, which is not supplied in the box.
Note that the battery inside the Leagoo Shark 1 is a non-removable lithium-polymer unit, which does not support wireless charging. Also see: Best smartphones 2016.
Leago Shark 1 review: Design and build
Given the size of the battery inside the Leagoo Shark 1, its width of just 8.5mm is incredible. Of course, this has been made possible partly because the phone itself is so big: with a 6in screen you could find the Shark 1 rather unweildy to use in a single hand - especially when you take into account its 241g weight. There are some provisions within the software to make handling easier, which we’ll come to later.Leagoo has done what it can to shrink down the size of the Shark 1, with narrow screen bezels, onscreen navigational controls and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. The edges are slightly rounded at the rear, and the 2.5D curved glass adds to that streamlined finish, but we think Leagoo could have gone a little further in the rounding of this device to make it easier to hold. A matt surface wouldn’t have gone amiss either; while the metal rear plate looks good it doesn’t have any grip.
The Shark 1 is built around a metal frame, but unlike its marketing would have you believe it is not a metal unibody phone. At the rear you’ll find plastic panels at the top and bottom - most likely to help avoid signalling issues - and you’ll clearly feel the difference as you run a fingertip across the back. The camera sensor and dual-tone flash sit in the top panel, almost entirely flush with the casing, while a speaker grille is found in the bottom panel. We aren’t usually enamoured by rear-facing speakers, but Leagoo has at least added two little plastic protrusions either side to keep it from lying completely flat on a desk or other sound-muffling surface. Also see: Best audio phones 2016
Something that is becoming increasingly rare is the IR blaster found on the top edge of the Leagoo, opposite the 3.5mm headphone jack - and you’ll find a camera flash on the front, too. On the right side sits a volume rocker and power button, and Micro-USB for charging and data transfer at the bottom. AA SIM tray sits at the top-left edge, able to accommodate either two Micro-SIMs or one SIM and one microSD card for storage expansion.
The screen is possibly the second-best feature following this phone’s huge battery. While it’s way too big for my personal tastes, there are a lot of customers out there looking for large-screen phones. Whether you have poor eyesight, wish to use the phone as a satnav, or maybe it’s just your thing, the Leagoo Shark 1 is a huge 6in on the diagonal.
This is an LTPS display made by LG with a full-HD resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, equating to a pixel density of 368ppi. That’s pretty sharp - sharper than the iPhone’s Retina Display - and it also offers reasonable brightness and realistic colours. Gorilla Glass 3 protects the display from damage, helping to protect this beast of a smartphone should it slip out your hand.
Leagoo Shark 1 review: Core hardware and performance
If you’re after battery power the Leagoo Shark 1 has it in spades, but for general processing- and graphics power it’s nothing special. That’s a good thing for runtime, since there’s nothing here to drain the battery, but it won’t be too happy when tasked with overcomplicated 3D games and multiple duties. You can compare its performance to all the phones we’ve recently tested in our article What’s the fastest smartphone 2016?Leagoo has fitted a 1.3GHz MediaTek MTK6753 64-bit octa-core processor, which is based on the ARM Cortex-A53 and builds in Mali-T720 graphics. There’s also 3GB of DDR3 RAM, plus 16GB of storage. That might not sound like a generous amount of space for your files and media, but remember that this is a £120 phone, and many UK budget phones still come with just 8GB. And, as we mentioned earlier, you can add up to 64GB using microSD at expense of a second SIM. Also see: Best phablets 2016
There isn’t a huge gap in performance between this Shark 1 and the smaller (5in screen) Leagoo Elite 1 we reviewed previously, although the Elite does have the edge for processing power.
Graphics performance is less impressive, with just 12fps in GFXBench T-Rex and 4fps in Manhattan. You won’t be able to play the most intensive games, but that 6in full-HD screen will still be useful for casual games and video streaming.
Our final test is JetStream, a JavaScript test, and here the Shark 1 managed 18.778 - about average for a budget Chinese Android phone.
Leagoo Shark 1 review: Connectivity and extra features
The Leagoo Shark 1 bucks the trend for budget Android phones with the inclusion of an IR blaster. Other features such as the dual-SIM dual-standby functionality, microSD support and fingerprint scanner are above and beyond when compared with budget UK phones, yet fairly standard in China. Also see: Best dual-SIM phones 2016.Pleasingly, the Shark 1 will work with all three UK 4G LTE bands - 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz - though users from elsewhere should check the specification before purchasing. Here’s how to tell whether a phone is supported by your network.
You get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS, but one thing that is missing is NFC. There’s HotKnot, which is the MediaTek equivalent, but that won’t help you if you want to make use of Android Pay.
Leagoo Shark 1 review: Cameras
The cameras are fairly standard for a budget Chinese phone, with a 13Mp, f/2.0 Sony camera with dual-tone LED flash and PDAF at the back, capable of 1080p video, and a 5Mp, f/2.4 front camera - interestingly, complete with a front flash to help with low-light usage. See all smartphone reviews.We quite liked the colours in our test shots (which you can admire first in Auto mode and second in HDR below), but there seems to be rather a lot of sharpening going on - especially in HDR mode - and the loss of detail is evident even without viewing at full-size. They’re nice photos for a budget smartphone, though, and you can’t really expect a lot more.
When using the selfie camera you can turn on or off the mirror effect, but you don’t see the results until you take the photo. And we weren’t overly impressed with its beauty mode, which simply blurs your face. But the front flash is a nice, reasonably rare, feature. Also see: Best camera phones 2016.
Leagoo Shark 1 review: Software
We’re disappointed to find the Leagoo Shark 1 runs Android Lollipop rather than the newer Marshmallow, but it doesn’t actually look anything like Lollipop. The app tray has been removed, with all your apps now shown on various home screens. A music player sits a swipe in from the left of the main home screen, and a gallery timeline is a second swipe away. You’ll also find differences in the layout of the drop-down notification bar, and in the Settings menu, which defaults to a Quick setting pane for access to the most common controls, while General settings are found on a second tab.
As we mentioned several times earlier the Shark 1 is a
huge phone, and as such Leagoo has implemented some software tweaks to
make navigation - particularly in one hand - easier. The standard
Android back, home and recents buttons sit onscreen (not at all times -
you can flick up from the bottom of the screen if they aren’t visible),
and are joined by a fourth control that pulls down the notification bar
without you needing to stretch your thumb to the top of the screen. In
single-hand mode these buttons are squashed up into the right half of
the screen to make pressing them even easier, although you can’t move
these over to the left for left-handed users. Also see: Best Chinese phones 2016.
Likewise, One Hand-Operate mode can reduce the size of the phone
dialpad, but here you can opt to have it sit on the left or right of the
display.
Various other gestures, such as flipping the phone to mute a call or answering by putting it to your ear are also supported, plus there’s a Game Mode that disables the back and menu keys, and Smart stay which prevents the screen timing out when you’re looking at it, perhaps when watching a video. The LED notification light can also be colour-customised so you know whether you’ve missed a call, text or other type of notification before you pick up the phone.
Read next: Best new phones coming in 2016.
Follow Marie Brewis on Twitter