Coolpad Note 5 First Impressions: The cheapest 4GB RAM smartphone in the market

By Rohit
|

Technology that drives smartphone has evolved tremendously in the last few years. A dual-core CPU paired up with 1GB of RAM seems a thing of yesteryears in the days when you can get 4GB of RAM coupled with an octa-core SoC. And to remind you, we are not talking about flagship smartphones but the ones that caters to masses- the budget smartphones.

Coolpad Note 5 First Impressions: The cheapest 4GB RAM smartphone

That said, Coolpad has announced the company's latest budget smartphone- the Coolpad Note 5. It is priced at Rs. 10,999 and as the company claims, is a 'Beast' of the budget smartphone category.
So without wasting any time, let's find out how beastly it performed in our brief usage during the launch event.

SEE ALSO: Coolpad Note 5 Announced for Rs. 10,999: Will it Outshine the Best Selling Xiaomi Redmi Note 3?

Looks Premium but offers nothing new

While Coolpad Note 5 is no cheap looking handset by any means, it fails to offer something new in terms of design. The smartphone resembles the Xiaomi Redmi 3 when seen from the back, but has a bigger foot print and feels a bit bulky while operating with one hand. Thanks to nifty software tweaks, which will help you use the smartphone with one hand by modifying the screen size.

The full metal unibody design will please consumers looking for a smartphone with metallic body in the budget price-point.

Coolpad Note 5 First Impressions: The cheapest 4GB RAM smartphone

5.5-inch Full HD Display

The Coolpad Note 5 sports a 5.5-inch full HD (1920×1080 pixels) IPS display with 2.5D curved glass. The display offers a good touch response and colours also look natural, however while shooting the hands-on video in outdoor lighting, we noticed that the display brightness levels are a bit on lower side and its quite reflective. Even at maximum level, we found ourselves struggling to have a comfortable viewing experience.

Coolpad Note 5 First Impressions: The cheapest 4GB RAM smartphone

Cheapest smartphone to offer 4GB RAM

As we mentioned, Coolpad calls the Note 5 a beast of budget smartphone category. This is because Coolpad Note 5 is the cheapest smartphone in the market to offer 4GB of RAM, beating even some of the top flagship handsets of 2016. In our brief usage, the smartphone did not stutter for a moment and 4GB RAM will be more than enough to take care of your work and multimedia requirements in everyday usage.

The smartphone's processing department is handled by Snapdragon 617 CPU, which is a 64-bit octa-core chipset and is paired up with Adreno 405 GPU to handle graphical related tasks.

Overall, the combination of 4GB RAM and the octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor is decent considering the asking price of the smartphone.

Coolpad Note 5 First Impressions: The cheapest 4GB RAM smartphone

Decent camera hardware

There's a 13MP Autofocus rear camera on board along with an LED flash. And it is worth mentioning that the 5MP front camera is also paired with an LED flash light to brighten up your selfies. We took some shots in daylight conditions, which were decent but nothing exceptional. We will evaluate camera's full potential while reviewing the smartphone.

Coolpad Note 5 First Impressions: The cheapest 4GB RAM smartphone

Faster and improved fingerprint sensor

Coolpad is the company that started the trend of integrating biometric sensors in budget smartphone category with the launch of Coolpad Note 3. Since then, the company has launched a number of handsets in various price-segments flaunting the fingerprint sensing technology.

Coolpad Note 5 also packs in a fingerprint sensor at the rear panel, which as per company is updated to unlock the smartphone in just 0.5 seconds. We will evaluate such claims during the full review of the smartphone.

Coolpad Note 5 First Impressions: The cheapest 4GB RAM smartphone

Adequate Storage, powerful battery and good on connectivity

Coolpad Note 5 comes with 32GB of internal memory that can be expanded by up to 64GB via microSD card. However, you can either choose to expand the storage or can use the hybrid SIM cad tray for running two numbers at a time. Besides, the smartphone also has USB OTG support.

Coolpad Note 5 is backed by a non-removable 4,010 mAh battery unit, which as per company offers 350 hours of standby and 14 hours of talktime. The smartphone is 4G LTE and VoLTE ready so you can use a Reliance Jio 4G SIM card on this handset.

Coolpad Note 5 First Impressions: The cheapest 4GB RAM smartphone

Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Cool UI

The Note 5 runs Android Marshmallow out of the box, with Coolpad's own Cool UI Version 8.0 on top. The best thing about Cool UI is the Dual Space feature, which allows you to use two accounts on different apps at the same time.

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