Coolpad is a name some might have already heard long time back, if they were enthusiasts of mobile phones. The company claims that they were the third to enter India, back in 2006. Since then, there was no real direct presence of Coolpad in India, and it was other brands like Micromax and then its subsidiary brand Yu Televentures selling rebranded Coolpad devices in the vast Indian market.
Recently, Coolpad’s sub-brand Dazen was officially introduced to the Indian market, and since then, the brands have been experiencing a rough time, eventually leading into a division. Now, Coolpad and Dazen are separate brands, and Coolpad’s first device we see now is the Note 3. The phone was announced today, with a lot packed for the price of Rs. 8999.
In the price range of Rs. 8000 to Rs. 10000, there are a lot of impressive options available already. Almost every known brand has a decent phone available in that price range. Coolpad Note 3 though has a few factors that might speak aloud to claim itself to be better than the competition.
On the first look, it seriously doesn’t feel like a phone that might be available for that price. But again, the recent launches including Yuphoria set a trend, and having some metal on the sides won’t be a surprise. The curved sides, metallic rim around the display on the front and a fingerprint sensor on the back, makes it look very decent.
Too early to comment but for whatever time I used the phone, it felt really snappy and tough. The interface is not loaded with animations, and it is simple and neat. Though, the display cannot be called great. I wasn’t obviously expecting a 1080p display as well for the price, but even for the given resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, it easily shows pixelation, even on the default wallpapers provided in the phone.
Fingerprint scanner – Let’s quickly put a focus on that. I seriously had no hopes on this to work that well, since for this price, whatever a special feature is usually a fancy feature to show off, than for practical use. But the setup of fingerprint scanner was quick, and the recognition is very good, both on turned off screen and locked screen.
Even if the recognition rate was lesser, I’d be okay to be frank, but it seems to be better than what one would expect. This would be a perfect one for those who always care about security, and don’t want to complicate things with patters and pins. The unlock takes less than a second, and you don’t have to hold the finger onto the scanner – a simple touch is enough, covering the scanner once.
It comes down to how well the camera, battery and performance of the phone is. Having just a decent fingerprint scanner as the USP won’t really help, and I’d be playing around with this as a primary device (yes, this has enough to be used as a primary phone) and the review should be up between 10-14 days from now.
For the early views, the Coolpad Note 3 does seem like something that can make an impact for Coolpad, and frustrate other brands, though there are some pretty good smartphones that were fit in this price point.
