Among the Chinese manufacturers that offer smartphones with top end features at prices far below the market leaders, Coolpad is a brand which has been able to achieve reasonable success in the Indian market. After all, India is a price-sensitive market and if the phone offers all the functions and is priced economically, there is really no reason why the Indian buyers won’t buy it. Coolpad does just that and the latest Coolpad Note5 Lite is no exception.
Mobile’s Specifications
Coolpad Note5 Lite has a 5-inch display enveloped in a uni-metal body, though the critics may not see it as being in the ‘classy’ range. The precise dimensions of the phone are 145.3 x 72.3 x 8.7 mm (5.72 x 2.85 x 0.34 in) and it weighs 148 grams. The display is the standard LCD touchscreen and the resolution a moderate 720x1280 (yielding 294ppi).
The processor is the Mediatek MT6735CP quad-core rated at 1.0GHz. The Coolpad Note5 Lite comes with 3GB RAM and 16GB storage, which can be expanded through a microSD card up to 64GB. The phone runs on the Android M and has the Cool UI 8.0 riding over it.
As for the cameras on the Coolpad Note5 Lite, the main rear camera is 13MP with a LED flash while the secondary front camera is 8MP. The phone comes with a fingerprint sensor on the back at the centre. The battery is again quite moderately sized at 2500mAh and it is non-removable.
The phones comes in two colour variations, Gold and Grey.
Specs and Performance Review
According to experts, the Coolpad Note5 Lite does offer value for money to the typical Indian smartphone customer. At just Rs.8,199, this must be one of the very few handsets offering 3GB RAM and other latest features like the fingerprint sensor.
Another area of interest to most phone users, the cameras appear to deliver good images and the video recording facility is also much appreciated by the critics.
The three buttons on the home screen are not backlit and can pose a problem in dark environments. Secondly, the UI might be responsible for several apps being pre-loaded and may not be needed by you. These bloatware could have been avoided. On the positive side, there is a Cool Manager that allows the user to perform multiple tasks in a single interface.
On the actual performance of the phone, the Coolpad Note5 Lite has its pluses and minuses. The phone appears to hold well while games are played on it, though while loading the games, it might take a bit longer. The verdict on the battery also appears acceptable and recharging from 0 to 100% takes about 2.5 hours.
This particular review also has a word of praise for the fingerprint sensor on the Coolpad Note5 Lite. The sensor permits you to programme different fingers for accessing different uses of the phone like checking personal mail as opposed to reaching for the official part of the phone’s functions.
Lastly, on the memory front, one has to understand that the 64GB microSD card has to be sacrificed if you insist on having a second SIM also in use. Then there will be a storage constraint since you will have to do with the 16GB internal storage only.