Coolpad launched the Coolpad Note 3 in India last month. It is launched in India at Rs. 8,999. We tested the device thoroughly and reviewing the Note 3. The phone offers some great set of specifications at this price point. Is it the best budget smartphone under Rs. 10,000? Let’s check it out.
We are using the device for a month and now posting the review of the device. Earlier the phone was having some issues, but later the company pushed the software update with version number V019. The update has fixed several issues. We will talk more about the update in software section.
Let’s check out how the device performs in each segment:
Box Contents:
Coolpad has improved the packaging of the box, the box looks nice in the White color. In the box you get a Headset, Charger, USB cable, and Headphone. The phone doesn’t come with a removable battery, although the back cover can be removed but battery can’t be removed.
Design:
Coolpad Note 3 comes with plastic matte back cover which the company calls ‘Baby Skin” finish. The cover does give feel like a baby skin. By looking the phone at first sight, you will think that it is a bezel-less smartphone but the company has smartly covered the thick bezels with black glass.
On the front side there are three capacitive touch buttons without backlit, front camera, LED light and proximity sensor. The company has added the metal rim on the device. It provides better grip to the Note 3. On the right side there’s power key, on the bottom side there is Micro USB port and mic, On the top side you will find 3.5mm audio jack. On the left side there is a volume rocker and on the back side there’s rear camera and fingerprint sensor below it.
Display:
Coolpad Note 3 is a phablet and it comes with a 5.5 inch HD(1280×720 pixels) LCD capacitive screen with a pixel density of 267ppi. The phone offers good viewing angles but it is very reflective screen. At times it is very difficult to read under direct sunlight. Overall the screen performs well.
Under the Hood:
Coolpad Note 3 is powered by a 64 bit 1.3 GHz Octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM. For graphics, there is a Mali T-720MP3 GPU. The phone is properly optimized to handle the hardware. You always get more than 2GB of free RAM. Multitasking is also very good in the smartphone. We have opened up several apps at the same time, but the phone handled it properly.
Earlier while playing games, the phones used to heat a lot, but the company has now fixed the heating issue with the latest software update. On playing heavy games also, there was no noticeable lag. The phone doesn’t hang.
Fingerprint scanner:
The device boasts one the fastest fingerprint scanner. It comes with fingerprint sensor on its back side. You can assign upto five fingers. The setup process is easy, you need to keep the finger on sensor in different positions. Each finger can be assigned different tasks like Unlock screen, Quick Capture, One Key Dial or open any app. With ‘FP Lock’ app on Coolpad Note 3, you can lock any app and open it after authenticating with the finger.
The fingerprint sensor works like a charm. It detects the finger in under a second. Coolpad has also added some cool features for the fingerprint scanner on the Coolpad Note 3. You can answer a call or record a call using your finger.
Camera:
The Coolpad Note 3 comes with a 13 megapixel rear camera with LED flash. The camera comes with several modes like Face Beauty, HDR, Dimlight Shot, Smile Shot and Gesture shot. While the video can be shot in Delayed mode and Face beauty mode. The rear camera is good at this price point, it captures photos with great details but sometimes the photos gets too sharp.
Daylight photos are good and it can capture decent shots. The autofocus works well and is able to click photos with perfect focus. Low light photos were also good but sometimes it fails to take the perfect click. Coolpad Note 3 comes with a 5 Megapixel front camera. It works well and clicks great selfies. The images are bright and captures major details. The face beauty mode is one of the good addition to the camera.
At price of Rs. 8,999, Note 3 offers great camera which you can’t complaint about.
Battery:
Battery is one of the important aspect of any smartphone. The Note 3 comes with non removable 3,000mAh battery. The battery is big enough to last over a day. In the full charge, you won’t need the charger again for the day. In our usage, we got around 5 hours of screen on time, which is good. The standby time is great too.
Storage and connectivity:
The Coolpad Note 3 comes with 16GB of internal storage, of which you get around 10.7GB for your usage. Around 5.2GB of memory is used by the system. There’s MicroSD card slot too, through which you can expand its storage upto 32GB. The phone also supports USB OTG. You can connect a Pen Drive using USB post and mount it on the device.
Its connectivity options include 4G, LTE, 3G, GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi, GPS/AGPS, GLONASS, Wi-Fi Direct, WLAN, Bluetooth, USB OTG, and Micro-USB. We didn’t tested the 4G on the device, but it does support 4G sim card. It has dual sim card slots. The call quality is good.
Software:
Coolpad Note 3 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop with a layer of Cool UI. The UI is very similar to other Chinese ROMs. The device comes pre-loaded with apps like Amazon, WeChat, Facebook, Whatsapp, WPS Office, Xploree and other Google services. The phone also comes with company’s own services like Cool Service, Cool Store, Rock Wallpaper, CoolShow, Fingerprint Management, FP Lock, File Manager, My downloads etc. The phone doesn’t have app drawer, all apps are on the home screen itself.
One of the screen is taken by the CoolStore widget, the widget shows app suggestions from its app store. Xploree is the default keyboard on the device, you can change it to Google keyboard or any other. Recently the company pushed an update with version V019. The 23.6MB fixes issues like Heating issues, Camera improvements and adding LED notification for third party apps.
Final Verdict:
Coolpad Note 3 Price in India is Rs. 8,999. It is exclusively available in India via Amazon. At this price, the phone has too many features and great set of specifications. We can say it is the budget smartphone in India priced under Rs. 10,000.
