Coolpad Note 5 Lite Review: It Adds Weight to the Sub 10K Segment

Coolpad Note 5 Lite is a budget smartphone under Rs 9000. Can it shake Redmi 3S’ market? Read our review.

A 5-inch smartphone is almost a novelty in today's time of big screens, or 'Plus' size displays as they are usually marketed. Coolpad Note 5 Lite is the younger sibling to CoolPad Note 5, which was a 5.5-inch device with notched-up features.

ALSO READ: Coolpad Note 5 Review.

So, should you buy this one for Rs 8,199? Read our review.

Pros:

• Battery life
• Solid metal and glass construction
• Decent camera
  

Cons:

• Slow fingerprint scanner
• No backlit keys on the front

What's Good?

The phone has a metallic body encased in a solid frame. The screen has a 2.5D glass to give it a more rounded and premium feel.

The optics department works quite well for this segment, especially if social media is your preferred destination for those snaps. The 13-megapixel snapper on the back captures details, but misses out on the colour depth. The highlights seem to burn a bit too much. On the front is a 8-megapixel shooter, with a good choice of selfie options to make your eyes bigger, face thinner, and skin fairer.

The quad-core MediaTek processor gives it enough processing speed for a smooth experience in using regular social media and multimedia applications. But using multiple apps at once bogged it down slightly while switching between them.

Coolpad Note 5 Lite has a 3 GB RAM, with 16 GB storage on-board. The storage can be bumped up to 64 GB via a microSD card. The phone uses a hybrid SIM slot.

The 2,500 mAH battery is really impressive, as it clearly lasted for almost a day and a half in our usage. This included phone calls, WhatsApp, YouTube, social media surfing, a few emails, and even music.

What’s Bad?

If you unlock the device from standby mode, the phone's fingerprint scanner is quite slow. Takes over a second for the display to turn on.

Furthermore, the soft buttons in the front are not backlit. This means that you’d have to grapple in darkness to go back to the home-screen, or check the recent apps.

Why Buy It?

If you're looking for a phone which handles your basic activities, but aren't able to get lucky with the flash sales of Xiaomi smartphones, this may be your road to budget nirvana.

That said, if patience is a virtue you believe in, Xiaomi Redmi 3S, retailing at Rs 8,999, offers extra storage (32GB) and longer battery life (4,100 mAh).