Review, hands on Coolpad Note 5
Category : Android , Apps , Deals , Review , Smartphones , Techgadgets , Unboxing
cool pad note 5
Recently we reviewed Coolpad Note 5, which offers good specs on paper with 4 GB RAM and 5.5 Full HD display.Overall, Coolpad Note 5 available in two colors Gold and Space grey, offers balanced performance considering its price range and segment. Let’s have a look at various features of this smartphone which makes it compete with Xiaomi Redmi 3S.
- 13MP primary camera with autofocus and 8MP front facing camera with flash
- 13.97 centimetres (5.5-inch) FHD IPS capacitive touchscreen with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution and 401 ppi pixel density
- Android 6.0 + CoolUI operating system with 1.5 GHz, Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 MSM8952 octa-core,
- 4GB RAM, 32GB internal memory expandable up to 64GB and dual SIM (nano+nano (hybrid)) dual-standby (4G+4G) with VoLTE
- 4010 mAh battery providing talk-time of 8 hours and standby time of 200 hours
- 1-year manufacturer warranty for device and 6 months manufacturer warranty for in-box accessories including batteries from the date of purchase
Design and Build quality
Coolpad Note 5 looks premium and elegant while holding, thanks to its metallic body. It sports a full metal unibody design which almost resembles Redmi 3S. Screen covered with 2.5 D curved glass adds a premium appeal to the smartphone. Below the display you will find capacitive keys for task switching, back and home. Unfortunately, sometimes you struggle to find them in dark. Embedding keys on display or at least have backlit on keys might be a good decision. At back, you can find camera and fingerprint sensor and brand logo below. The volume rocker is present on the left and the power button is located on right.
Multitasking and Gaming Performance
The combination of Snapdragon 617 1.5 Ghz Octa core processor and 4 GB RAM succeeds to provide multi-tasking environment in the day to day routine usage. Snapdragon 617 is quite low in terms of performance compared Normal usage of apps like Whatsapp, Facebook in frontend and messengers in background survive easily for smooth performance without ending background services. Fingerprint works flawlessly and unlocks the phone in less than a second.
Android 6.0.1 is onboard with custom COOL UI on top. In few aspects, COOL UI provide some cool features like gesture control, Smart control, inbuilt screen recorder, voice recorder, easy screenshot, dual apps, one touch wallpaper changer, Auto WIFI turn off while having signals less than 10%. You can also choose a lot of catchy themes available online from Theme manager. If you are not friendly with stock Android, COOL UI easily attracts your attention.Coolpad Note 5 also includes Cool manager app that allows you to easily manage cache memory, block unwanted calls, service centre locator.
Considering Coolpad Note 5 gaming performance, to utilise its 4 GB RAM and graphics memory we tested some graphic hungry games like Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5: Blackout. The phone easily handles heavy gaming and provides smooth performance. We find few skips in frames and little processing load in few instances but overall, smartphone manages to provide a nice experience. Phone heats a little which is quite normal while heavy usage. Casual gaming apps like Subway surfer and Temple Run, runs flawlessly. One thing which we missed here is the support for Virtual reality due to gyroscope sensor, which is a major issue if you are thinking of VR experience.
Camera quality
Coolpad Note 5 offers 13 MP rear snapper at the rear and 8 MP at front with flash on both sides. The rear camera seems to provide a better experience but needs slight optimisations in terms of detail. You need some time to settle with shooting photographs. Landscape shots were captured with some low details. Low light photography is average in dark conditions. Provides some nice clicks while doing macro-shoots. Color combination and reproduction seems slight low as you watch your pictures on other devices. Front 8 MP snapper is a good option for taking vibrant selfies. Inbuilt front flash enhances your low light clicks. A lot of optimisation and inbuilt beauty enhancing feature allows you to capture in different settings. Inbuilt Age detector and Auto beautify filter allows to capture instant uploads to social platforms without much need of editing. Video recording is capable at 1080 full HD but the quality is average considering 13 MP.
Battery backup
4,1000 Mah inbuilt battery gives enough power to 5.5-inch display for all day long performance. Using 4G data services and few instances of half an hour long, kept the phone running for the day. Another Power saving mode is provided to save your battery under low battery conditions which allow you to check SMS and handling calls. Charger provided inbox is a basic 10W charger which leads to slow charging. You can opt to use quick charger 3.0 which will drastically decrease charging time. Coolpad note 5 heats up little while charging and heavy usage is not recommended while it’s in charge.
Final Verdict
Coolpad Note 5 offers balanced performance considering its price segment, competing directly with Redmi Note 3 and LeEco Le2. If you could ignore few things like Snapdragon 617 and lack of Gyroscope sensor, it makes a still good budget deal as it is available directly without any rush of the flash sale. It also outperforms in terms of RAM to its contender Redmi 3 with 3 GB RAM. You can pick this smartphone if you are looking for options under 15 thousand.
