Coolpad Note 3 Review: Budget Phone with Flagship Features

Coolpad has launched a new budget beast in the market with a fingerprint scanner and 3GB RAM under $200(USD) i.e., ₹ 8,999 INR in India. With a lucrative price tag on the flagship features in the budget range, Coolpad Note 3 gives the perfect ending for the year 2015.

Let’s peek into the technical specifications, pros and cons of the device segment wise. I’ll be sharing my impressions on the device level by level further in this review. Put your seat belts on, we’re going to take a long ride.

Highlights:
  • 5.5 inch TFT IPS Full HD 720p screen
  • 13MP rear and 5MP front camera
  • Dual SIM 4G
  • 3GB RAM
  • 16GB ROM and expandable up to 64GB
  • Finger Print Sensor
  • 3,000 mAH Li-Ion battery
  • Android v5.1 based CoolUI 6.0

Design

The design of Coolpad Note 3 looks like a typical Samsung Galaxy phone with a curved back panel and a silver bezel around the white skin. The phone looks good and it measures 151mm x 77mm x 9.3mm in size.

On the front, the screen extends to the extremes, following the trending screen design ergonomics. The front panel also includes a speaker grove, proximity sensor and 5MP camera on the top along with the navigation capacitive buttons in the bottom.

The right edge of the screen contains the power button and the left edge contains the volume controller. The top edge contains the 3.5mm audio headphone jack and the bottom contains the microUSB port with a noise cancellation microphone.

The back cover of the phone contains the budget flagship feature, the fingerprint sensor like as Nexus 5X had. The whole body of the phone is made up of plastic and has matte finish back cover.

This phone is now available in Amazon India for an exclusive price of ₹ 8,999 and can be brought in EMI scheme offered by some of the major Indian banks at the rate of ₹ 803.77 per month.

Design impressions:
  • Coolpad Note 3 is not so fantastic in its design and those who don’t like Samsung Galaxy phones’ design would not like its design as well.
  • This phone is currently available in only one color i.e., creamy white.

Display

The Coolpad Note 3 has a beautiful IPS 720p HD screen of 5.5 inch size with the pixel density of 267ppi and an viewing angle of 178 degrees wide visibility. The dark wallpaper-less screen as shown in the pictures is quite good and would have looked great with a black colored body. It is not quite a sharper display though compared to the most of the competitors at this price point.

Display Impressions:
  • Larger 5.5 inch display.
  • Good viewing angles.
  • Less sharper high definition with 267 ppi only.
  • Protected by Gorilla Glass 3 protection

Performance

Coolpad Note 3 comes with a 1.3GHz 64-bit Octa-Core MediaTek MT6753 CortexTM-A53 processor on board with supporting 3GB RAM and Mali-T720 GPU. The device plays HD videos and games smoothly but it may not give sharper display because of 267ppi pixel density on screen.

The chipset is powered by Android v5.1 based CoolUI 6.0 which is easy, faster and gives better user experience. It has gesture controls that enable quick access to apps and double-tap to wake up feature that lessens the usage of physical power button for locking the screen.

Performance impressions:
  • Good processor, GPU and RAM.
  • Android v5.1 can give good bug-free lollipop experience.
  • Good to know that it has gesture features and double-tap to wake up button as well.

Buy Coolpad Note 3 from Amazon India for ₹ 8,999 before it goes out of stock

Camera

Coolpad Note 3 comes with 13MP CMOS rear camera with f/2.0 Sr lens that is good in terms of sharpness and color reproduction in normal light photography and slightly loses its capacity to restore colors of the taken pictures in low light. The 5MP front camera takes sharper selfies that reproduces colors much better than some of the other smartphones in the market in this price range.

Both the cameras can record HD videos at 30fps frame rate. So, video recording will fun with Coolpad Note 3.

Another interesting feature about the camera in Coolpad Note 3 is that you can take a selfie snapshot with the help of the fingerprint sensor at the back.

Camera impressions:
  • Good rear and front cameras that can reproduce colors in natural and artificial lights but except in low lightening conditions.
  • Tap to focus take a little bit slower than normal but can be negligible.
  • Fingerprint sensor as a camera shutter button for selifes.


Storage

This phablet has 16GB internal memory (operating system installed) which can be expanded up to 64GB through external microSD card. The memory expandability is not so great though compared to its competitors like Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE550KL which has the expandability support up to 128 GB.

Storage impressions:
  • 16GB is normal storage as of now, according to the trend.
  • Expandability up to 64 GB is not so bad but it could have been up to 128 GB.

Connectivity

Note 3 supports dual 4G LTE connectivity along with support for regular GSM bands (900/1800/1900 MHz) and WCDMA bands (900/2100 MHz). It also have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS connectivity and light, gyro, eCompasss, and finger print sensors on the board.

The flagship fingerprint sensor is great and very responsive while locking and unlocking the applications. The idea of setting it as camera shutter button is no wrong decision by the company.

Connectivity impressions:
  • Having dual 4G LTE is good in this budget.
  • The multi-functioning faster fingerprint sensor is impressive.

Battery

The device is equipped with a 3000mAh Li-Ion battery that can stand by one complete day for the hardware configuration It has.

It has no quick charge and it is not even recommended because quick charging batteries can discharge quicker as well.

Battery impressions:
  • 3000mAh is a powerful battery and it can withstand completely a day with the 720p screen activity.
  • Good to know that it doesn’t have quick charging. Because quick charging will lessen the life of the batteries.

In the box

In the box, along with the handset, you will get headset (which is missed in many other phablet devices’ packages), charger, USB cable, protective film, user manual, and warranty card.


Buy Coolpad Note 3 from Amazon India Now before it goes out of stock

Final impressions

Coolpad Note 3 is a good device but I won’t say it is that much great. It has only a couple of flagship features in the price range of ₹ 10,000 i.e., fingerprint sensor on the back and 3GB RAM on board. It is probably the first device to have a fingerprint sensor and 3GB RAM in this budget. If you wanted a device that has a fingerprint sensor and better processing capability under $200(USD) or 10K INR, Coolpad Note 3 is definitely your cup of tea.

Share your thoughts about the device in comments below.

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