Hello Friends! I ordered it in the previous flash sale ( from another account, really have trouble in these flash sales : -) I have been using it since then. Many of you must be hearing about the company COOLPAD for the first time. You must be thinking that it is just another cheap ’Chinese’ company. Well friends, I had the same thoughts as you before I purchased this mobile.
After purchasing this device all my doubts have gone seeing the quality of the product. If you are scared about after sales services then let me tell you that COOLPAD has partnered with HCL to provide after sales services. It has set up almost 200 plus service centers in major Indian cities. So, friends I want to tell you don’t worry about the after sales support. Also, COOLPAD is ranked in 7 position in top mobile brands in the world. I also have Yureka Plus, Lenovo K3 Note, so I will be comparing all these three phones in my review. So, without wasting any time her’s my full comparison cum review-
So, Let’s get started!
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LOOK AND FEEL
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1) Coolpad Note 3- Coolpad Note 3 dosen’t really have a revolutionary design but, it doesn’t look too shabby either. The Coolpad has a nice curved back and nice matte back cover which the company calls ’baby skin’. The back cover can be removed but unfortunately the battery is sealed and cannot be removed. The fingerprint sensor is also at the back, slightly recessed just below the 13MP camera lens and LED flash. The speaker grill is towards the bottom on the same side.There’s a chrome finish rim around the front panel that reminds you of older Samsung phones. It is about 9.3 mm thick. Unfortunately the buttons are not backlit.
2) Yureka+ - The Yureka+ still retains the textured moonstone back as seen on Yureka. It has a slim form factor with thickness of 8.3mm. The volume rocker and power button are finished in chrome and have a nice feedback. The front also has a thin metal running in the front, which looks really nice. The buttons are also backlit. The back cover can be removed and the battery can also be removed. Overall, the design is quite compact and solid.
3) K3 Note- K3 Note can never win a phone fashion contest. However, K3 is not that bad. The device overall feels solid. There are no gaps and the back cover fits perfectly. The back is matte finished and does not slip. It has smaller dimensions than Yureka + and is about 0.3mm slimmer. However the buttons are not backlit. The back cover can be easily removed and the battery is also removable. The back cover is a bit thin so take care to remove the back cover carefully.
-> WINNER: Coolpad Note 3 because of curved body and chrome finish.
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DISPLAY
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1) Coolpad Note 3 has a 5.5 inch HD display which is quite decent. The viewing angles are good and the colour reproduction is quite accurate. It offers HD ( 720x1280p) resolution, delivering pixel density of 267ppi. While the display doesn’t pack a lot of pixels , there is no pixalation that I noticed. The panel offers good brightness levels and is very responsive and fast. The sunlight legibility is OK but the display is very reflective.
2) Yureka+ -The Yureka+ has a Full HD 1080p display which is really sharp and bright. No complaints about the display. However I have noticed a bluish tinge on the display. The viewing angles are great, colour reproduction accurate, and overall a great experience. What’s more, it has Gorrila Glass 3. The Yureka+ offers an FHD ( 1980x1080) resolution delivering pixel density of 401ppi. The sunlight legibility is decent.
3) K3 Note- The display of K3 is a bit better than Yureka+ because it has better sunlight legibility and better contrast. However, I leave this to personal preference. The display is also Full HD 1080p and it is a joy watching movies on this thing. There is no Gorrila Glass, however you do get a hardened glass which is good for day-to-day use. It has 5.5 inch screen with a resolution of 1980x1080 which gives a 401ppi. Also, there is no pixalation.
-> WINNER: K3 Note because of super-sharp display and amazing contrast.
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PERFORMANCE AND GAMING
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1) Coolpad Note 3- This is one of the two phones in this price range to come with 3GB of RAM. As expected from the Mediatek Octacore processor and 3 GB of RAM day to day tasks were super-fast. The apps open up very fast and multitasking is a dream on this device. Gaming is also great and the 3GB Ram ensures all the games run smooth. Overall, this is a great performance oriented phone.
2) Yureka+ - Day to day usage is fast and smooth. No lags whatsoever. Coming to playing high end games ( MC 5, Asphalt 8) , this is where these phones have great differences. In the beginning both perform same, but after some time ( around 15-20 minutes) the Yureka+ heats up very much. However in day to day activities such as browsing, messaging, Whatsapp, listening to songs etc. the Yureka+ does not heat up but becomes warm. This is not a matter of concern as this is the case with every smartphone. Once or twice when browsing I noticed lags but other than that Yureka+ was quite fast.
3) K3 Note - Here also day to day performance is buttery smooth. No lags even after running 30 plus apps in multi window.Coming to gaming , after the latest update gaming has very much improved. You can play heavy games but there are some frame drops here and there.But it stays cool after gaming. If you are OK with the phone getting hot, you should have no problems with Yureka+ . For those who play less games K3 Note is great.
-> WINNER: Coolpad Note 3 because of amazing gaming and smooth day to day performance.
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USER INTERFACE
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1) Coolpad Note 3- Coolpad Note 3 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with the company’s Cool UI 6.0 skin running on top. It features unified app launcher-homescreen navigation and a highly customised interface that supports few themes.The phone’s UI has no app drawer, and all the app icons are displayed on the phone’s homescreen. Some of these preloaded apps were specifically designed for Coolpad including FP Lock, CoolShow, Rock Wallpaper, and Cool store.I would like to specially mention the shortcut feature of the smartphone in the notification panel. This feature lets you use the most commonly used actions such as home, lock, auto-rotation, brightness control and even a screenshot with a single tap. The Ui is smooth and lagfree.
2) Yureka+ - It runs on Pure 4.4 Kitkat not on CyanogenMod. I don’t know why YU are not giving CM on their phones, must be some issues with the CM team ( Like what happened with OnePlus) . As there is no CM, you can’t customize your phone which is a bit disaapointing. Look and feel is completely like stock android which you find on Nexus phones. There were however minor bugs here and there such as proximity sensor which are now resolved. It is great for people who like pure and buttery smooth android experience. However, people who like simplicity must go forK3 Note as its VIBE UI is very simple to use.
3) K3 Note- K3 runs on VIBE UI, which is Lenovo’s custom skin on top of Lollipop. It has a very flat design. There is no app drawer and all icons are in the homescreen. The UI is very refreshing and colourful. Double tap to wake and sign commands are there. Option of themes is also present. UI is very stable and not at all buggy. There is also some gesture control such as blink to take selfie and double press volume rocker to take a photo when device is locked.
-> WINNER: K3 Note because of simplicity, smoothness and ease of use.
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CAMERA
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( P.s. Check out the sample pictures from all the three phones that I have posted with the review)
1) Coolpad Note 3- All the three phones have a 13 MP + 5 MP camerasThe phone has a 5MP front camera for clicking selfiesI noticed that there were absolutely no shutter lags and the focus was also very quick and steady. I tookusing the rear camera of the smartphone under direct sunlight came out pretty well with excellent level of detail, accurate colour reproduction and good contrast.
2) Yureka+ - Pictures come out fairly detailed with minimal noise in daylight conditions. In indoor lighting and low light pictures get grainy. Flash works to some extent but not always. Clicking pictures with the flash gives a bluish tinge on the pictures. Macro shots are good, with decent depth of field. The selfie camera is good but again selfies have a bluish tinge. The rear camera records Full HD videos. The videos were decent but hanged sometimes.
3) K3 Note - Both cameras perform quite well. Slightly better than Yureka. Front camera of Yureka give a slightly bluish tint but in K3 colours are natural. You need steady hands to shoot in low light, and the pictures come out great. The rear camera has full hd recording and the videos are great too. The pictures come out very good in daylight and the colours are vey accurate. Also, the 5MP selfie camera has Beautify feature which works great. K3 Note has an edge over Yureka+ in the camera department. However, they come very close.
-> WINNER: Coolpad Note 3 because of good colour reproduction and excellent details.
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BATTERY
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1) Coolpad Note 3- Coolpad Note 3 has a 3000 mAh battery which last almost 1.5-2 days on light usage. If you are a heavy user like me then the battery will easily last the whole day. The battery ran for 11 hours, 26 minutes in video loop test which is pretty great. You can expect to get a full day of active usage from each charge, including games and a lot of Web browsing. 4G worked well and call quality was also good.
2) Yureka+ - Yureka has a 2500 mAh battery compared to 2900 mAh of K3 Note. Battery easily lasts 1 to 1 and half days on moderate to heavy usage. YU says it has some feature on Cyanogen which gives 30% more battery. The phone also lasts a complete day on 3G. I cannot comment on 4G battery life, as I dont have 4G in my city.
3) K3 Note - The battery is very good. Drains very less. Gives about 2 days of use on moderate to heavy usage. A clear winner among the two ! Even after gaming, the battery reduces very less. 3G usage can easily give 1.5 days of usage.
-> WINNER: Coolpad Note 3 and K3 Note.
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SOUND
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1) Coolpad Note 3- Here Coolpad Note 3 is a little behind. Even though the sound is quite loud but it has little or no bass and depth. The speaker quality is between low and decent. However, the quality through earphones is quite nice and I enjoyed listenin through earphones. For watching videos and playing games the speaker manages to get the job done.
2) Yureka+ - The speaker sound is just above average. Not too good not too bad. It gives a little bass but that’s about it. However the sound through earphones is good, rich and clear. I also tried tweaking the speaker settings through the inbuilt equalize, but there was no improvement in the loudness. If you are in a room with ceiling fan running, you will have difficulty hearing from the speakers.
3) K3 Note - Wow ! The sound is just so loud ! Crystal clear and deep. Also Dolby Atmos is there. It can only be used while using earphones, and the experience is awesome. True 360 degree surround sound. You have to hear it to believe it ! Easily beats Yureka+ hands down. It is the best sound I have ever heard on a mobile. The treble is perfect and bass is amazing. Also, the speaker consumes very little battery even at full volume. If you love hearing songs, this is the best phone for you!
-> WINNER : K3 Note because of loud sound and amazing bass.
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MINI REVIEW OF COOLPAD NOTE 3 FINGER PRINT SCANNER.
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The most unique feature of Coolpad Note 3 which differentiates it from other budget offerings such as K3 Note and Yureka Plus is that it offers a FINGER PRINT SCANNER. For most people who are confused about what exactly will this feature do, let me tell you. The Fingerprint scanner can be used to unlock the phone. It can also be used to protect the apps which have sensitive material such as Whatsapp. Until and unless you do not use your finger-print, the apps which you have protected will not ope. This is a truly revolutionary feature in my opinion.Setting up the fingerprint sensor was also very simple and I found it to be pretty responsive and accurate. It reads your fingerprint 360 degrees. Like many of you I too was curious that does this finger print sensor really work or is it just a marketing gimmick? I told 3 of my friends to try unlock the phone by using the sensor. None of them were able to unlock it. After that, I tried placing my fingerprint and the phone instantly unlocked ! The sensor is smooth , fast, accurate and reliable It really works! For those concerned about privacy, Coolpad is the best phone to buy.
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VERDICT
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All the three phones are excellent performers for the price. However there are some differences. If you want the pure Android experience, better design and better gaming, Yureka+ is the perfect choice for you. On the other hand, If you want a stable UI, better sound, battery and simple UI, K3 Note is for you! On the third hand, if you want super-fast experience, excellent multitasking, finger print scanner and amazing camera, Coolpad Note 3 is the choice for you ! All three of them have some drawbacks, but what more do you want from a Rs.10, 000 phone?
The end decision is yours. Please read my review and make an informed decision.