Coolpad Note 3 review: At its low price, this phone is a steal

Chinese company Coolpad's debut phone in the Indian market -- the Note 3 -- looks like a  fantastic phone on paper, given the fact that it costs just Rs.8,999 to own one.

The Note 3 is the cheapest -- under Rs.10,000 -- phone to come with a fingerprint sensor, which works and works quite well at that. Interestingly, that's not the only interesting bit about the Note 3. There's more, and when you take everything into perspective, the Note 3 appears to be quite a steal, especially at its asking price. And we don't say that after looking at the phone's specification sheet but after using it for over a week. 

Design and build quality

he Note 3 has a simple, yet very ergonomic, design. It is almost entirely made of plastic, which is fine considering its price. The plastic back is removable and comes with a soft matte finish which feels good in the hand as also improves grip. The back has a similar look and feel to it like the Xiaomi Redmi 2.

The sides are flanked by an aluminium rim that breaks monotony of the design and ups the phone's premium quotient.

At 155 grams, the Note 3 is as heavy (or light depending on how you look at it) as the Lenovo K3 Note. It's not as slim though. In fact, at 9.3 mm its thickness is quite prominent. Still, it never gets out of hand. This is made possible by two things: good screen to body ratio and the gradual curve (of the back) towards the edges. Both these things help enhance ergonomics making one-handed operability on the Note 3 quite possible. For a 5.5-inch phone at this price, Coolpad has done a commendable job as far as design and dimensional parameters are concerned.

Display

The Note 3 comes with a 5.5-inch HD IPS display with a 720x1280 pixels resolution and 267 ppi pixel density which is kind of a downer, as rival phones like the Lenovo K3 Note and YU Yureka Plus give you FullHD screens at around similar price points.

The Note 3 however wants you to contend with an HD screen. As long as you keep your expectations low, it works well. In fact, the phone has pretty good viewing angles for an HD screen which is nice. And it gets bright, not as much as the K3 Note or even the YU Yureka Plus though

Software

The Note 3 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box with the company's custom Cool UI on top. Cool UI -- like most Chinese UIs -- resorts to heavy customisation which may or may not work in its favour depending on users' preference.

It is designed keeping ease of use in the mind though. The Note 3 wants you to get rid of multiple home screens, and instead gives you most of the things (you need) on just one. There are still multiple home screens -- and no app drawer -- but the drop down notification panel and Coolpad's version of floating apps/widgets means everything is right there on one home screen. All this is managed well without much chaos.

Let's start with the drop down notification panel. This one's closer to Lenovo's Vibe UI, and offers as many as 16 quick setting toggles, in one go. You cannot edit them or change their position though.

Performance

The Note 3 is powered by a 1.3GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor with Mali-T720. This is the first phone at its price to come with 3GB of RAM. On paper, the phone appears to be very well endowed for the price. And, it's an equally good performer in actual usage.

It's slick, peppy and very responsive. Even though Coolpad has literally gone out of its way and filled the phone to its brim with unwanted apps, the same does not affect performance. In fact, barring some occasional hiccups -- especially while streaming 1080p content -- the phone showed no signs of lag or unrest, even when we had multiple apps to the tune of 10 or more opened simultaneously