At an event in Delhi, Coolpad today announced two new devices as part of their Note & Mega series. In our previous reviews of the Coolpad Note 3 and Note 3 Lite, we found the devices to offer a solid experience with design being a relative shortcoming. This time around, it seems that Coolpad has worked to fix just that on the Note 3s. We spent some time with the phone at the launch event and here’s some quick impressions about the device.
Coolpad Note 3S specifications
- 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS 2.5D curved glass display
- 1.36GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 415 64-bit processor with Adreno 405 GPU
- 3GB RAM, 32GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD
- Dual SIM
- Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with Cool UI 8.0
- 13MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/2.2 aperture
- 5MP front-facing camera, f/2.2 aperture
- Fingerprint sensor
- Dimensions: 154.5x77x8.6; Weight: 167g
- 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, USB OTG
- 2500mAh battery
While the front of the phone pays homage to the Mega 2.5D with similarly curved corners and high gloss finish, you’ll notice a very interesting mesh like pattern on close inspection. This adds a very unique design element to the device and looks particularly nice when held outdoors.
Beyond that, the phone retains a 5.5 inch 720p screen with capacitive keys placed below it. A 720p display on a 5.5 inch panel does seem a bit outdated in today’s smartphone landscape and while that is true, Coolpad has used a very high quality panel which ensures that contrast, brightness levels are top notch. You’ll only notice the resolution drop while viewing images close up and for the most part, the difference isn’t too evident. Given the competition though, it is high time that Coolpad caught up on this front. Above the display lies a 5MP front facing camera.
The hardware keys lie on opposite sides of the devices with the volume rocker being placed on the left. The power button is on the right and like the volume rocker, it offers good tactile feedback.
Coming to the rear of the phone, the sides of the device gently taper in and offer a nice curvature to the back panel. Up above lies the 13MP camera module with a single LED flash next to it. The fingerprint scanner is placed below the camera sensor. We feel that some symmetry in design here would have helped further accentuate the form of the device. Meanwhile the audio jack and USB connectors are placed at the top and bottom of the phone respectively.
The phone itself is powered by a Snapdragon 415 processor with 3GB of RAM. We observed performance to be snappy but that is no surprise given that we were testing out fresh demo unit. We’ll have more on the performance front once we’ve had an extended amount of time with the device. Users get 32GB of storage of which close to 23GB is available at launch and you can extend that via the microSD card slot. The battery itself is 2,500 mAh which is once again a bit disappointing given how the competition is building in much higher capacities into similar sized hardware but the lower resolution screen should help offset this to a degree. Beyond that you get dual SIM support alongside 4G VoLTE. There’s also USB OTG support built into the hardware.
The Coolpad Note 3S offers a solid upgrade over the already excellent Coolpad Note 3. The design and build in particular is surprisingly premium and is a definite step up over the likes of the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime and perhaps even the Lenovo K6 Power. The Coolpad Note 3S is priced at Rs. 9,999 and will be available exclusively on Amazon.in starting 7th December.