Coolpad Note 5 is the cheapest phone with 4 GB RAM and it competes against Redmi Note 3, LeEco Le2, Lenovo K5 Note at this price point. In this hands on, we will find out if it can challenge such phones or not.
Specifications
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Design and Build Quality
Unlike its predecessor, this time Coolpad has gone all metal with a Unibody design. So, this counts as a major upgrade over Coolpad Note 3. But many Chinese smartphones also come with a metallic unibody design at this price point. We have two plastic antenna bars on the backside of the body, but the chrome linings add up to the beauty. All the buttons are metallic and give good feedback. The back has slight curves on the sides which makes it easy to handle and the edges have chamfer finish. Speakers are placed on the backside, so sound may be muffled. But we find that it has a small leverage to avoid sound muffling just like the Redmi note 3. Also, the fingerprint sensor is placed on the rear side hence can be used easily. The design reminds us of Redmi Note 3 when you take a look at the back. We can sum up that the design and build quality is impressive at this price point.
Overview
On the front you can find a 5.5 inch Full HD display and capacitive touch buttons below it. The earpiece is placed between the proximity sensor and the front facing 8 MP camera. And you even find the LED Flash on front. On to the right side, it has hybrid SIM tray and power button.
On the left, it just has the volume rocker.
The micro USB port for charging and data syncing and primary microphone are on the bottom, .
On the top it just has the 3.5 mm Audio Port.
On the rear side, there is a 13 MP camera, a LED flash, fingerprint sensor and the secondary noise cancellation microphone. It has a classic Coolpad branding at the bottom. And the loudspeaker is also placed right below the logo.
Display
The phone comes with a 5.5 inch Full HD screen with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. This resolution in a 5.5 inch screen results with a pixel density of 401 ppi. Coolpad claims to have added an anti scratch protection over it the display glass. 5.5 inch Full HD display would be great for multimedia but it makes the phone slightly big to use single handedly. The display is bright enough for outdoor usage and the viewing angles are also decent.
Camera
This phone comes with a 13MP camera on the rear side which has a CMOS sensor with f/2.2 aperture. It is coupled by dual LED flash. The photos captured are good and have good detailing. One can record 1080p videos at 30 FPS on this device. The camera app is simple to use and also comes with various modes like beautification, time lapse etc. It has an 8MP front facing camera. It’s a wide angle camera with 80.1 degree wide angle. It also comes with a LED flash light for capturing some good photos in low lighting conditions.
Highlight
The main USP of this phone would be the 4 GB RAM which was unheard at this price point. All the phones competing at this price point come with a 3 GB RAM. It also comes with a 4010 mAh battery and fitting it in this slim profile is a tricky task. We cannot ignore the fact that it comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, which is also a huge plus. It runs on Cool UI 8.0 based on Android v6.0 Marshmallow.
Pricing and Availability
Conclusion
We have great phones at this price point. Most of them come with 5.5 inch Full HD screen, 32 GB storage etc. But none of the phones came with 4GB RAM at this price. So, we can expect it to perform well in gaming and day to day tasks. Also the Hybrid SIM slot is sort of a let down. Wait for more detailed reviews of the Coolpad Note 5 before making your mind.
