Design and build quality
Let us say this outright - we were quite pleased with the build and design of the Coolpad Note 5. Despite being a moderately priced smartphone, it looks and feels quite good.
Coolpad Note 5 is available in two colour variants - Royal Gold and Space Grey, with our review unit being the former. The front panel is dominated by a 5.5-inch Full HD display of 1080x1920 pixel resolution. There are three capacitative navigation below the display and above it lie the earpiece, an 8MP selfie camera and the usual array of sensors.
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The rear panel hides a large 4, 010mAh battery. This is also where the 13MP primary camera ( along with LED flash) and the circular fingerprint sensor is. The lower section of the back panel has the Coolpad branding.
READ ALSO: Coolpad says 95% of its smartphones sold in India are assembled locally
The metallic edges wrap around all the sides of Note 5. The SIM tray and power button are located on the right edge, while the volume rocker is on the left. The top edge of Coolpad Note 5 has a 3.5mm audio jack, while the bottom edge is where the microUSB charging port is located.
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In summation, Coolpad Note 5’s design is simple yet elegant. However, we couldn’t help but notice the similarities it bears with the Gionee S6s .
Moving on to the display of the phone, we were quite impressed with the 5.5-inch Full HD panel of the Coolpad Note 5. With a pixel density of about 401ppi, it displays everything from text to videos with ample detail. Both viewing angles and sunlight legibility are decent as well.
Performance and Camera
Coolpad Note 5 is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 CPU with 4GB of RAM. There’s also 32GB of internal storage, expandable up to 64GB via microSD cards. This translated into very good day-to-day usage during our testing.
Coolpad Note 5
vs
Moto G4
1500 MHz, Quad corePERFORMANCE1500 MHz, Octa core5.5 InchDISPLAY5.5 Inch32 GBSTORAGE16 GB4010 mAhBATTERY3000 mAh13 MPCAMERA13 MP4 GBRAM2 GB
Coolpad Note 5 vs Moto G4 Full Comparison
The Note 5 can handle everything from multitasking to multi-tabbed browsing. We used the phone for navigation as part of our testing. Even after prolonged use of the GPS, it only warmed up a little bit, something that generally all smartphones do. That said, the phone gets heated up even when playing casual games like Temple Run 2, something which mobile gamers may find irksome.
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Coolpad Note 5 comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box, with Coolpad’s Cool UI skin layer running on top. There’s no app drawer and all apps are laid out on multiple homescreens. However, Cool UI has quite a few software-based tweaks that enhance user experience. For example, quick settings and notification shade are not integrated.
READ ALSO: Coolpad Note 5: First Impressions
As for the call quality, we found the audio output to be quite adequate even at lower volume levels. Users may like or dislike it, based on their individual preferences. Audio/Video playback is quite good as well, both in case of saved and streaming content. The 5.5-inch Full HD display makes video content look great.
Coolpad Note 5 has a sizeable 4, 010mAh battery. During our testing, it easily lasted a day with moderate to heavy use involving social media usage, web browsing, music streaming and taking a few pictures.
The rear-mounted fingerprint sensor of the Coolpad Note 5 is really good. It works even with moist fingers and the phone lets you save up to five fingerprints.
Speaking of the phone’s camera, it was another plus. The 13MP rear camera takes great-looking pictures in well-lit conditions. Images are sharp and colour reproduction is accurate. Even low light images are quite appreciable.
Coming to the selfie camera of the phone, we were quite happy with that too. The selfie camera comes with a beauty feature with which you can whiten your skin, make your face look slimmer or eyes appear bigger. The pictures we took with it were really good too. To sum things up, we can say that the Coolpad Note 5’s camera is one of the better ones that we’ve come across, at least in the price range.
Verdict
As a budget smartphone, Coolpad ticks nearly all the right boxes. Be it the pleasing design, vibrant display or the lasting battery, Coolpad’s newest offering left us impressed. The only downer we could find was the phone getting a little hot during gaming, but that’s not a deal breaker.
For Rs 10, 999, the Coolpad Note 5 is definitely a great buy. But if you’re looking for alternatives in a similar price bracket, you can consider LeEco Le 2 and Moto G4.