First Impressions: Coolpad Note 5 Lite

At an Event in New Delhi last month, Coolpad announced its new phone "Coolpad note 5 lite" targeting the budget oriented audience yet again.

The phone was launched at ₹ 8,199 and straightaway heads up one on one against the Redmi 3S Prime, Redmi 4A and Redmi Note 4. Nevertheless we got to use Coolpad Note 5 lite and here is our first impression.

Packaging

Inside the box, you get a charger, a USB cable, protective film, quick start guide, warranty card and Ejection pin along with the device that has battery inbuilt onto it.

Display and Design

From the beginning Coolpad hasn’t been bad in terms of design and Note 5 Lite is not different. Forged in high-grade Aluminium for the perfect balance of sturdiness and elegance. The device has a matte finish back panel that not only enhances it beauty but also improves the overall grip of the device.

The phone is available in 2 variants- Grey and Gold. We got to use the grey variant of the device

Physical Briefing

Tl;dr : Coolpad note 5 Lite doesn't offer anything new but also doesn't do anything wrong.

On the back of the device we get silver linings for the antenna, a 13 MP camera on the top, with a flash on its right and a fingerprint scanner just below it. The loudspeaker is at the bottom of the back side. Power button on the right, volume rockers on the left, with Micro USB charging port and microphone at the bottom and a 3.5 mm Audio port on the top. On the Front of the device we get a 5.5 inch screen with 8 MP selfie camera with flash along with some sensors. At the bottom we get 3 non back-lit capacitive touch screen buttons - home, back and recent.

Screen

Coolpad Note 5 comes with a 2.5D gorgeous HD 5 inch display with 2.5D curved glass featuring a resolution of 1280x720 px resolution and a pixel density of 294 ppi. In the time we had with the device the display looked decent, the colors were accurate and adequate with decent visibility in the outdoors.

Hardware and Software

Coolpad note 5 is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6735CP with each core running at 1GHz, the Note 5 Lite can ease through most daily tasks without breaking a sweat. This processor is highly energy efficient and provides the perfect balance between performance and battery life. Furthermore, the Mali 720 GPU is optimized to deliver high-end graphics so that you can enjoy a highly immersive gaming experience.

The device runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS. Supported with Coolpad's Cool UI 8.0, users can enjoy the benefit of multi-tasking using multi-window, screenshots for entire pages and swipe gestures. 

Battery

The Coolpad Note 5 Lite comes with a 2500 mAh battery under the hood. The company claims that the phone had a standby time of 200 hours. With 720 pixel, 5 inch display, the phone was able to give a day of backup with moderate usage. When compared to its competitors like redmi 3s prime which offers a colossal 4000 mAh battery, the device struggles in the battery department.

Memory and Storage

The Coolpad Note 5 lite comes with 3 GB of RAM, that provides a rich and lag free multi tasking experience while switching between apps and games. The headset comes with 16 GB of Internal memory which is further expandable upto 64Gb using a microSD card slot. 

Camera

Note 5 Lite comes with 13MP and 8MP cameras with flash on the back and front side respectively. Although the Megapixels are at par with other devices currently in the market, the smartphone companies doesn't really focus on the camera part of the device.

The front LED flash is surely an advantage against some other devices. The front flash lets you take decent quality images in low light also.

Fingerprint Scanner

The fingerprint scanner that comes with note 5 Lite combines speed with accuracy, unlocking the device in approx. 0.5 seconds. Along with unlocking, the fingerprint scanner can be used for a variety of other purposes too like clicking pictures(when inside camera app), sending and receiving calls and opening applications.

 Video Credits: Coolpad

Verdict: The Coolpad Note 5 Lite does hit a number of good points in terms of design and Camera for this price. Battery capacity surely is low as compared to other devices like 3S prime but is more than enough for Note 5 Lite. The fingerprint scanner is one to look out for.