To day I am talking about Coolpad note 5 lite amazing smart phone. The Coolpad brand is a associated with budget smart phone in India. The Chinese manufacturer has a significant chunk of its portfolio in the united rs 10000 segment. When it launched, the Coolpad note 3 lite was one of the most affordable smartphone to sport a fingerprint scanner, making it a popular choice. History, it seems has repeated it self with the Coolpad note5 lite, it's metal clad successor.
Design: - The Coolpad note 5 lite is a good looking smartphone and is only available in Grey color. The manufacturer states that it has a metal unibody, but it does not feel all that premium to us. The frame and buttons feel plasticky to tuch.
The power and volume buttons are on either side of the body. The power button is well positioned and is easy to reach. Above it is a hybrid dual sim tray which can take either two None sim or one Nano sim and one microSD card.
The display on the Coolpad note 5 lite has 2.5D glass on top which curves all along the edges. There is no reinforcement for the screen, and we highly recommend using an adhesive protector. Below the display are three capacitive buttons that are arranged in the opposite order to Google's stock layout. These buttons are not backlit are quite hard to hit in the dark.
The back is curved towards the sides making the phone comfortable to hold. The camera is placed right in the centre with a single LED flash next to it. The note 5 lite has a recessed fingerprint scanner placed under the camera and a loud speaker further down. There is a tiny plastic to below the loud speaker so that sound isn't too muffled when the phone placed on a flat surface.
Specifications and software: - the Coolpad note 5 lite sports a 5 inch display with a resolution of 720×1280 pixels, which looks crisp. While the resolution is good, color reproduction isn't very accurate. Everything appears to be washed out. If you have ever used and Amoled display, you might take some time to adjust to this.
The phone has typical budget level specifications. The Coolpad note 5 lite is powered by a Media Tek 6735 processor which has four cores clocked at 1.4 GHz. The processor is quite dated and so this phone has a hard time keeping up with competitor powered by Qualcomms snapdragon 425 and 430.
There is 3GB of RAM and we found that the device always had more than 1GB free. You get 16 GB of storage space which can be expanded by up to 64GB. Do keep in mind that you'll have to live with the limited storage if you need a second sim.
On the software front, the Coolpad note 5 lite runs cool UI on top of Android Marshmallow. The UI is quite different when compared to the stock Android experience we love. The quick toggles are in a separate panel that pops up from the bottom of the sereen when you swipe up, just like ISO, while the notifications shade can be pulled down like normal. There is no app drawer, all icons appear on the home screen when apps are installed. The smartphone has a lot of preinstalled blotlatware including zuimei weather, Xplorer keyboard, and touchpad keyboard that we could have done without.
The cool Manager app is a command center for the device and let's you tweak preferences as you wish. It combines RAM, permission and battery management into one interface, which is quite useful. For battery management you get preset modes called common, outdoors and Ultra. There is also a cool store which lists deals from e- commerce players and let's you download popular games and app. Thankfully it does not bombard you with spammy notifications
Camera: - The note 5 lite has a 13 megapixel camera at the back along with a single LED flesh. It has a f/2.2 aperture. The camera app is customised by Coolpad and offers quite a few options to play with. There is a pro mode that gives you manual controls a beautify mode and a dedicated night mode.
Beautify smoothens images and blemished and can make you appear fairer, if you are into that sort of stuff. Night mode keeps the shutter open for longer. With a steady hand photos taken in low light can look better than they do in normal mode.
The camera app on the Coolpad note 5 lite also lets you record GIFs and panoramas. There is HDR which can be set to auto or make it kick in for every image. Video recording with the note 5 lite maxes out at 720p. You can tap the screen to adjust focus while recording.
The Coolpad note 5 lite is equipped with an 8 megapixel front camera with its own flesh. Beautify mode is active by default when using the front camera. It has a fixed focus, but output is good enough to go on social media. The selfies flash helps when taking photos in low light.
Coolpad Note 5 Lite Performance: - The note 5 lite managed to score 27845 in AnTuTu and 14fps in GFXBench. It goes up against the Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime which sports a Snapdragon 430 processer and got a score of 40250 in AnTuTu. Even the recently launched and less expensive Redmi 4A can outpace the note 5 lite.
We did try gaming on the Coolpad Note 5 Lite and we're satisfied with the results. We loaded Asphalt 8 and Real Racing 3 and while the load times were longer than usual, they ran smoothly. Even after playing for a significant period, the phone didn't get too hot. Yes, it was warm to the touch, but not uncomfortable to hold. The battery also held up well while gaming and we didnt notice any abnormal drops in the charge level.
The Coolpad Note 5 Lite packs in a non removable 2500 mAh battery. Coupled with the media Tek 6735 processor, this phone can run for one working day with moderate use. In our HD video loop test, it lasted for 9 hours and 7 minutes. Approximately one hour of GPS navigation consumed close to 20 percent of the battery , but again the phone did not get too hot, which is a good sign. When you are running low, there is a 7.5W charger in the box that takes about two and a half hours to charge this phone from zero to 100 percent.
The fingerprint scanner on the rear of the Coolpad Note 5 Lite deserves a mention. It is conveniently placed and is one of the fastest scanners in this price range. Different fingerprints can be assigned to different user accounts so you can jump to your work or personal accounts simply by unlocking the phone with a specific finger. It can also be used to lock down apps answer an incoming call, record an ongoing call, and turn the display off, among other things. These gestures make the scanner useful beyond its usual function.
Verdict: - The Coolpad Note 5 Lite is in a war zone right now. It is priced in a segment that sees new entrants every other week. Expectations are high, and this phone does look good compared the what some bigger brands sell. However, there is still competition from other Chinese companies, most notably the Xiaomi Redmi 3s which is very strong contender.
Quite a few things are right. This phone offers good build quality, 3GB of RAM, and a fingerprint scanner. The only real chink in its armour is the show. If you are tired of trying your luck at Xiaomis flash sales, the Note 5 Lite is a reasonable alternative.
