Coolpad Note 5 Review

Last year Coolpad announced their popular device, the Coolpad Note 3 and it was the first device below Rs 10000 to come with a 3GB RAM and a fingerprint sensor. Now the company has their new phone, the Coolpad Note 5. The Note 5 comes with upgraded hardware and software and is also competitively priced at Rs 10,999. It has 5.5 inches Full HD display, Snapdragon 617 coupled with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage.

So how does the Coolpad Note 5 compete with the likes of Redmi Note 3? Let’s find out in this detailed review.

Here is the video review.

Design and Build:

The design of the Coolpad Note 5 is quite good and there is definitely an improvement over the Note 3 launched last year. Coolpad Note 5 has a metallic unibody design which actually feels premium in the segment. It feels good in hands with the chrome finish around the sides. On the front panel there is the 5.5 inch Full HD display. While the display is not a curved glass, the tapered edges gives it a good feel when holding in hands. There is a 8MP front camera along with an LED flash for selfies along with usual set of sensors. Below the display, there is 3 capacitive touch buttons, but they are not backlit.

There is a metallic rim while runs on the edges of the device and are also present along the antenna bands on the rear panel. The rear panel is also curved towards the edges giving a good feel. The rear panel houses the 13MP camera, LED flash and the fingerprint scanner. Towards the bottom you have the Coolpad logo along with the speaker unit.

The power button is placed on the right side, while the volume keys are on the left side. The bottom panel has the micro USB slow while the top panel has the 3.5mm audio jack. The phone is good looking and give a premium feel, but on the downside, it is slightly heavy at 173.4g and you really feel the weight when holding the device.

Display:

Coolpad Note 5 comes with 5.5 inches Full HD (1080p) IPS LCD panel. Unlike the display on Coolpad Note 3, the Note 5 has made a drastic improvement in the display quality. The display looks vivid and sharp and has great viewing angles. The brightness levels are very good and so is the sunlight legibility. There is also scratch resistant protection available on the display. The touch response is smooth and does not have any issues.

Overall, the display is one of the impressive aspects of the phone.

Software:

Coolpad Note 5 comes with Cool UI on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow and it is the custom UI from the company. Cool UI version 8.0 comes with a host of new features and improvements over the previous UI. The notification center does not have any quick toggles instead they can be accessed in the control center by swiping from the bottom. The control center also has shortcuts to some of the system apps which can be configured based on your usage.

The UI also comes with multiple home screens similar to other Chinese OEMs devoid of an app drawer. The settings menu is also customized one offering some new features.

The phone also comes with a host of gestures to wake up the phone and also has the floating C button. There is also support for dual apps where in you can use two accounts of WhatsApp or Facebook. The control center is also customizable.

The phone also comes with support for themes and there is also a cool Manager app which provides options like a cleaner, data manager, power manager, apps and privacy. There are many pre-installed apps on the phone which we feel could have been avoided. Overall, the Cool UI works very well and there is hardly any lag or issues.

Performance:

The Coolpad Note 5 is powered by Snapdragon 617 Octa Core processor coupled with 4GB of RAM. This is the same processor running on Moto G4 Plus. While the Snapdragon 617 is not a powerful chipset like the Snapdragon 650 or 652 (available on Redmi Note 3), it does the job pretty well on Coolpad Note 5. There is hardly any lag or issues and the UI is pretty smooth overall.

Since it has 4GB of RAM, multitasking is pretty smooth and switching between apps is also quick. We played heavy graphic rich games and the device handled the gaming pretty well although there were some occasional frame skips. The device did heat up in extreme gaming to around 42 degrees.

The phone comes with 32GB of storage and out of which close to 23GB is available in the first boot. There is also a hybrid SIM slot to expand the storage. The call quality of the phone was quite good and the speaker performance is also quite decent. it supports VoLTE in India, so you can use it with Jio SIM cards.

There is a fingerprint scanner located on the rear panel of the device and it works really well. The fingerprint scanner is fast and unlocks the device in quick time.

Camera:

Coolpad Note 5 comes with a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and 5P lens, f/2.2 aperture. There is also an 8MP front camera with LED flash. The camera interface is quite good and features a host of options including manual mode. There is also beauty mode to make your photos better. The phone can also record videos in 1080p.

Talking about the camera samples taken with the device, there is a decent amount of clarity in the photos taken in daylight and colors have also come quite good. There is definitely an improvement in processing since it uses a Snapdragon chipset. While it might not be the best camera in this segment, it is definitely an improvement. The low light photos are not as good as the daylight photos as they do have noise. Here are some of the samples taken with the device.

Battery Life:

One of the important aspects of Coolpad Note 5 is the 4100 mAh battery and the performance is really good. With moderate usage, it can last for 1.5 days easily and the usage includes social sites, browsing, calls, gaming and also camera usage. There are some battery modes to get better battery life on the device. Overall, the battery performance of the device is really good.

Verdict:

The Coolpad Note 5 is priced Rs 10999, and this is slightly lesser than the popular Redmi Note 3. While the Redmi Note 3 comes with only 3GB of RAM, it has a powerful chipset in SD650. The Coolpad Note 5 is overall a good device with a premium look and feel, good display, decent software, and performance along with good battery life.

Coolpad has definitely delivered a good overall product which is definitely value for money.