Over the years, Coolpad has launched various budget segment phones. After a few initial hits, there has been a steady decline in its devices, at least according to our tests. The Coolpad Mega 3 and Note 3S were average, as were some other devices. The Coolpad Note 5 Lite is the newest in the mix. While it may feel like a toned down Coolpad Note 5 (review), it seems to be replacing the Coolpad Note 3, our favourite phone from the company so far.
Coolpad has been experimenting with the specifications in the sub-10K segment lately, but for the Note 5 Lite, it has gone back to its roots. So, it has 3GB of RAM, a fingerprint scanner on the back and the MediaTek MT6735 SoC. This particular SoC has been seen previously on various devices, including Coolpad’s own ‘Mega’ smartphone last year. In the short time we have spent with it, the phone didn’t seem any faster than its competitors.
Navigation between homescreens seems reasonably quick. The UI feels heavy, although Coolpad tells us the phone should be able to handle resource intensive tasks without any major issues. Running a quick Antutu benchmark test, we recorded slightly better scores than the Coolpad Mega 3 (review), but considering the competition, it’s still low. Geekbench 4 returns similar results.
Putting aside performance scores for a while, Coolpad has certainly gained some points in design. The Note 5 Lite looks better than most sub-10K phones from the company. It looks mature and at-par with the rest of the metal bearing crowd. The metal back is complimented by 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 3, which gives it an upmarket look for the price. The phone feels light and ergonomic, thanks to the 5-inch display and rounded edges.
On the UI front, the Note 5 Lite brings back Cool UI, layered on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The fact that Coolpad still doesn’t have Android Nougat out-of-the-box is a downer. You don’t get an app drawer and the quick toggle menu is redone in the form of an iOS like Control Centre. There’s nothing new and unless you’re a Coolpad user already, there’s a learning curve to deal with The UI feels functional on first impressions.
We tried a using the camera for a few shots too and there seems to be improvement here. Colour saturation seems decent in images taken in low light conditions, although there is definite drop in details. On first glance the camera quality looks comparable to the Lenovo K6 Power (review).
Note: Camera samples below have been resized for the web. You can view the full gallery at the end.
Taken in outdoor sunlight.
All in all we think, the Coolpad Note 5 Lite feels like just another budget smartphone, with nothing to really set it apart. It looks decent and seems to have a decent camera.