The competition is tough and companies like Xiaomi and Lenovo are offering powerful smartphones in this segment. The Coolpad Note 5 Lite has a lot to offer to challenge these devices. Will this phone be successful in the market? Let us know in the review.
coolpad note 5 lite design
The Coolpad Note 5 Lite is a good looking device and is available in Space Gray color. The company says that it is made of metal unibody, but it does not give a premium feel. The frame and buttons feel plastic when touched.
There are power and volume buttons on the other side of the body. The power button is well placed and easy to use. This phone comes with hybrid dual SIM tray, that is, two SIM cards or one SIM card and one microSD card can be used simultaneously.
The display of Coolpad Note 5 Lite has 2.5D glass. We would advise you to use an adapter to protect the screen in the phone. Below the display are three capacitive buttons, arranged in the reverse order of Google’s stock layout. These buttons are not backlit and are difficult to use in the dark.
The rear of the phone is curved at the edges, which makes it convenient to hold the phone in the hand. The cameras are in the center of the rear and there is an LED flash next to it. The Note 5 Lite has a fingerprint sensor and a loudspeaker below the camera. There is a small plastic tab below the loudspeaker so that the sound does not get muffled if the phone is placed on a surface.
Coolpad Note 5 Lite Specifications and Software
Coolpad Note 5 Lite features a 5-inch display with 720×1280 pixels resolution. And looks crisp. The resolution of the display is good but the color reproduction is not very accurate. Everything looks washed out. If you have ever used an AMOLED display, it will take some time for you to get used to this display.
Budget level specifications have been given in this phone. The Coolpad Note 5 Lite is powered by a MediaTek 6735 processor clocked at 1.4 GHz. The processor is a bit old. And due to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 and 430 processors given in rival phones, Note 5 Lite lags behind. The Coolpad could use the new MT6737 processor, which is used in the more expensive Asus ZenFone 3S Max.
This phone has 3 GB RAM and we found more than 1 GB RAM free in the phone all the time. Inbuilt storage is 16 GB which can be expanded up to 64 GB via microSD card. Keep in mind that in case of using another SIM, you will have to work with limited storage only.
Talking about the software, Coolpad Note 5 Lite runs on Android Marshmallow based Cool UI. This UI is quite different when compared to the popular stock Android. There are quick toggles in a separate panel, as in iOS, swiping up from the bottom of the screen opens a separate panel, while the notification shade can be accessed by swiping up from the top as usual. There is no app drawer and all apps appear on the home screen once installed. This smartphone comes with Xuemei Weather, Xplory Keyboard and TouchPal Keyboard.
The command center of the device is the Cool Manager app and through it you can set the functions as per your need. This provides the facility of RAM, permission and battery management in one interface which is very useful. For battery management, Common, Outdoor and Ultra modes are already available. Apart from this, there is also a cool store where users will get deal lists of e-commerce sites and you can also download popular games and apps here. The good thing is that it does not provide spam notifications.
coolpad note 5 lite camera
The Note 5 Lite has a 13-megapixel camera on the rear with an LED flash. This aperture comes with F/2.2. The camera app has been customized by Coolpad and has some additional options. The phone has a Pro mode that offers manual controls, a Beautify mode, and a separate Night mode.
Beautify can improve photos by removing blemishes. Night mode keeps the shutter open longer. With a steady hand, photos taken in low light look better than in Normal mode.
The camera app on the Coolpad Note 5 Lite also offers the option to record GIFs and panoramas. The phone has an HDR mode that can be turned on auto or every time a photo is taken. Note 5 can record video up to 720 pixels. Focus can be adjusted by tapping the screen during recording.
Photos taken with Coolpad Note 5 Lite look good. There is a need to keep the hand steady while taking pictures otherwise they become blurry. With HDR mode on, there is a delay in receiving photos. When taking a picture in HDR mode, any movement causes the picture to turn into a ghost image. In good lighting, close-up shots come out nice and sharp.
Coolpad Note 5 Lite has an 8-megapixel front camera with flash. Beautify mode is activated by default when using the front camera. It has fixed focus but can be shared directly on social media. Selfie flash helps when taking pictures in low light.
coolpad note 5 lite performance
The Note 5 Lite didn’t get much better figures. And it lagged behind the Redmi 3S Prime (Review) with Snapdragon 430 processor. Apart from this, the recently launched low-cost Redmi 4A also left Note 5 behind.
We also played games on the Coolpad Note 5 Lite and the results were satisfactory. We loaded Asphalt 8 and Real Racing 3 and it took longer than usual to load but there were no issues with play. The phone did not get hot despite playing games for a long time. Although the phone felt hot to touch, it was not uncomfortable to hold.
Coolpad Note 5 Lite has a 2500 mAh non-removable battery. It has MediaTek 6735 processor and with normal use the phone battery lasts for a day. In our HD video loop test, the phone’s battery lasted 9 hours and 7 minutes. About an hour of GPS navigation drained 20 percent of the battery but the phone didn’t heat up too much, which is a good sign. In case of battery discharge, the 7.5 watt charger that comes in the box charges the phone from 0 to 100 percent in about two and a half hours.
The fingerprint scanner given in Coolpad Note 5 Lite is given a perfect place in the phone. And it has the fastest scanner in a phone at this price. Different fingerprints can be set for different user accounts, so you can unlock the phone with the appropriate fingerprint and switch between work or personal accounts. With the fingerprint sensor, you can also perform other tasks like locking the app, answering an incoming call, recording a call, turning off the display etc.
our decision
Coolpad Note 5 Lite is currently in a price segment where a new smartphone enters every week. There are high expectations from the phone and it looks to be a good option compared to some other big brand phones. However, it will still face tough competition from Chinese companies, and especially Xiaomi Redmi 3S.
Some things in the phone are very good. The build quality of Note 5 Lite is good. There is 3 GB RAM and a fingerprint scanner. The only drawback of the phone is the MediaTek processor which makes the phone run slow. But if you’re tired of trying your luck at Xiaomi’s flash sales, the Note 5 is a good affordable option.