[LeEco Le Max 2 Questions & Answers] abufrejoval:
Got two types of devices, with one AF works, with the other it doesn't

I got my first LeTV Le Max2 in September 2016 on an extended business trip in the US via mail order from China: It was a rose 6GBRAM/64GB Flash variant that sported an "international" firmware, but to this day splashes something Chinese when booting.

Been running Mokee for some time on it, with Marshmallow the camera worked fine enough and with Nougat the AF certainly didn't sound healthy, nor did it ever really work.

I did verify that using a latest+greatest original LeEco ROM, brought me back a working camera and also enabled some functionality on my LeECO LeVR Pro virtual reality headset: Touch sensor worked, audio passthrough didn't, outside of China you're basically at Google Cardboard level in terms of applications.

Because it was such a great deal and seemed to work fine enough, I got another for one of my sons, who in return recommended it to his girlfriend and her father, so we got three additional handsets, but this time around it was all 4GB RAM/32GB Flash, because those were a lot cheaper (totally unbeatable €200/piece). We also ordered them around Christmas 2016 from Germany and had them delivered there, two in rose and one in silver (silver was hard to get for a while).

Those phones also sported an "international" ROM, *and* never displayed any Chinese characters even during boot: They were also showing "LeEco" rather than "LeTV" branding during boot.

I had all those phones on some kind of CM/LineageOS pretty much from the start (actually it was a pre-condition for buying them) and now on Mokee, because as an IT professional I want full control (including root) and newest security patches for my ultra-portable PCs (which is what these "phones" are).

My son, his girlfriend and her dad never had any issues with the camera, it worked with Marshmallow and with Nougat without any problems whatsoever, which is great, because I don't need any grief from him, her or the potential in-laws!

My only disappointment is that my own--supposedly bigger and better--Le Max2 turned out to be rather problematic, both with regards to the camera and with the touch buttons (ghost touches, getting increasingly problematic). So much so, that I got myself a OnePlus 5 with 8GB RAM/128GB flash, an instant action fingerprint reader and a fully working camera to soothe the pain.

Still, le Max 2 is a great piece of hardware and it pains me to have it lying around, especially since my supposedly adult "kids" keep banging up their (my old) phones and a OnePlus 1 is on the retirement list from "too much love".

But without a camera an ultra-portable PC isn't a "phone" to "fresh adults", but pretty much a brick.

Obviously the hardware isn't exactly the same, mine has more RAM and more Flash. Obviously they weren't built at the same time, perhaps some hardware variations were "abstracted" by official ROMs, but aren't by custom builds. But perhaps it's just a firmware issue and the fact that parts of what makes the camera "tick" or "crrrckkkkchtchchck" comes with the bootloader: Could there be any benefit in attempting to swap the bootloader apart from having visually pleasing but (to me) unreadable Chinese characters on the boot loader replaced Roman ones?

AFIK bootloaders should have a) minimal functionality and b) high bricking potential when you replace them, so I'd rather not risk anything, unless there was a chance for a reward...

I'd have loved to compare notes on the camera firmware, but unfortunately the code sequence which is supposed to give you camera firmware data (and even the ability to update) doesn't return anything on both phones, at least not with the latest Mokee ROM, while other codes work just fine.