The mobile phone market has become a game of Chinese Checkers, at least at the middle and low end segments. Each day -- or at least each week -- we see a new entrant attempting to up the ante for the others by either rock-bottoming the price or by offering a specification that was reserved for expensive phones. The Coolpad Note 3 Lite has gone and done both.
This 5-inch black or white smartphone has come in at a budget price of Rs 7,999. And among its boast-list of specs is a fingerprint sensor that works quite well. And 3GB of RAM, which also sounds real good. With this device, Coolpad, which partnered with Videocon and made this phone in India, wants to change the game in its favour. Though this never lasts long in the mobile market.
You'll need to register to get this phone, to be exclusively available on Amazon in a flash sale. These have become really popular -- with the manufacturers, that is. It allows them to play at creating a feeling of exclusivity apparent demand, game the buying process, and later talk about how many thousands of phones were sold in how many minutes. At the same time, they get to sell as many phones as they have rather than as many as are demanded.
The Coolpad Note 3 Lite is a toned down Note 3 -- Coolpad, that is, not the Original Samsung Note from which everyone seems to have freely borrowed the name. This smartphone is a 5-inch one and not quite as large as the 5.5 devices that seem to have become the average these days. It's consequently easier to hold and even use one-handed. I found the power and volume buttons too flush, confusing me whenever I wanted to turn on the device. I couldn't tell how hard it wanted to be pressed to wake up. Luckily, the phone has a fingerprint sensor which not only works quite well but can be linked to wake up to selected apps. This fingerprint sensor is the highpoint feature of this device, since it's been considered a 'flagship' feature until recently.
The Note 3 Lite costs just Rs 6,999 and for the price, doesn't look bad at all. There's a line of gold coloured metal along the sides and on the back. While it doesn't really fool anyone into thinking this is an expensive phone, it does lift the look of the device a little. It's available in black and white and the textured plastic back can be opened to access the 2,500mAh battery, two micro SIM slots and a card slot for storing 32GB worth of data.
This smartphone feels light and yet well-built. The display is a 720p and while colours are good, there's better viewing angles and brightness needed. The sound is so-so. The 13MP and 5MP camera set is certainly not too bad. There is undoubtedly noise in indoor shots but we're talking about a thoroughly budget price here and for that, it's just fine.
The processor running the Note 3 Lite is a 1.3GHz Mediatek with 3GB of RAM -- another 'big spec' on this phone. Its performance is as expected; no more no less. But the software is a bit annoying. Android Lollipop 5.1 is paired with Coolpad's own interface, CoolUI 6.0, and is sometimes quite glitchy. My review unit started by rebooting about 17 times for no known reason. It wasn't from a depleted battery. Eventually it decided to right itself, but the episode didn't inspire too much confidence.
What did inspire confidence however is that specs reserved for top end phones are making their way into budget devices and in that sense, a buyer certainly is getting a better deal than was available just a few months ago.
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
