The Coolpad Note 3 Lite, as the name suggests, is a toned down version of the Coolpad Note 3 (Review | Pictures) that launched back in October last year. It was one of the first phones in the sub-Rs. 10,000 price segment to sport a fingerprint sensor, and today, the company is bringing this feature available at an even lower price segment.
Our initial impressions of the Note 3 Lite were fairly positive but that was after using it for just a short while. Let's see if Coolpad will be able to disrupt the entry-level Android market with its latest offering.
Specifications and software
With budget pricing comes budget specifications, but even here, Coolpad has tried to raise the bar. The SoC of choice is a run-of-the-mill quad-core MediaTek MT6735, but the Note 3 Lite is one of the most affordable phones to come with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. You can expand the latter by up to 32GB using a microSD card. There's also Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, USB OTG, FM radio, GPS, and a non-removable 2500mAh battery. The phone has two Micro-SIM slots with 4G support on band 40 through both.
The phone runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop with Coolpad's custom CoolUI 6.0 skin. We wrote about the interface in great detail in the Coolpad Note 3 review so we'll just skim over the essentials here. You get a single-layered UI by default but you can switch to two-layer setup with a dedicated app drawer if needed. Even though the option is labeled "traditional style", it's not the stock Lollipop launcher and just complicates things.
You get some in-house apps such as Cool Service, which still doesn't show any relevant
information about service centres; Cool Store, which offers a bunch of downloadable games;
Xploree, a customisable keyboard with themes and a note-taking feature; FP Lock,
which lets you lock apps to your fingerprint so only you can open them; Rock Wallpaper,
a widget which randomly changes the wallpaper; and Cool Show, to tinker with the phone's
themes, fonts, and notification sounds.
Performance and Camera
The Coolpad Note 3 Lite runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system topped with the Cool UI of the company. It consists of unified app launcher-homescreen navigation and a customised interface, which supports various themes. It also comes with customised system apps along with some third party apps.
There is no app drawer in the phone's UI and all the app icons are placed on the phone's homescreen. The phone comes preloaded with a number of apps including WeChat, WPS Office, Facebook, SwiftKey, among others. Some of these preloaded apps were specifically designed for Coolpad including FP Lock, CoolShow, Rock Wallpaper, and Cool store. The user interface is very smooth and works fluidly without any lags.
The Coolpad Note 3 Lite is powered by a 1.3GHz 64-bit Mediatek MT6753 quad-core processor, the phone is the only one in this price range to come with 3GB of RAM. It offers 16GB storage expandable up to 64GB via microSD card. Regarding connectivity, the dual-sim phone comes with support for 4G LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Both sim slots support 4G LTE, too.
As per its specifications the Coolpad Note 3 Lite performs very well and it lives up to its expectations. The handset handles all apps thrown at it pretty well and we were able to run ten applications simultaneously without any lag or hiccups. We did not face any heating issues while playing graphic intensive games such as Dead Trigger 2, Spiderman Unlimited, Asphalt 8 and others. The non-removable 2,500 mAh battery lasts a day under moderate usage. The call quality was also good and the device performed well even in low signal areas. Coolpad Note 3 Lite also delivers clear and crisp sound quality both over the headphones and loudspeaker. All-in-all the Coolpad Note 3 Lite scores well in the performance department.
Skipping to the cameras, Coolpad Note 3 Lite flaunts 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front camera for selfies. The camera can focus quickly on various objects and there is no shutter lag. The photographs taken during daylight came out well with good amount of detailing and colour reproduction. However, the pictures captured during low light looked average. The camera app is clean and easy to use and has various features, and modes for photography. There is also a Pro mode that lets you control the aperture, ISO level, brightness and colour settings.
The 5MP front camera produced some good quality selfies. You can also make use of the fingerprint sensor to click selfies, which makes it much easier to capture some of your great selfies and groupfies. The fingerprint sensor works like a shutter release button and you just need to tap on it once for clicking selfies.
- Wednesday, May 18, 2016
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