Fingerprint scanners on smartphones started off as a high-end feature by Apple and the followed by Samsung, but by the end of 2015 it became one of the biggest trends in the smartphone market and almost every smartphone maker started to incorporate one in their devices. So much so, the security focused feature began to creep in the budget smartphone range. Coolpad was one such smartphone manufacturer who launched its first handset, Note 3, in India last year with a fingerprint scanner and set a benchmark by providing it under the Rs 10,000 price mark.
The company announced its second handset in India today which is a smaller version of the Note 3 and has priced it even lower, coming in at Rs. 6,999. The Coolpad Note 3 Lite features a 5-inch HD 720p display and runs on a MediaTek MT6735 64-bit quad-core with 3GB of RAM. There is 16GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot that supports up to 32GB of memory cards. At the back there is 13MP camera with an LED flash and a front facing 5MP one. Other features of the smartphone include a 2,500mAh battery, dual-SIM card slots, 4G LTE, and USB OTG. Running on Android 5.1 Lollipop, it will come with company’s own layer called CoolUI 6.0 and will be getting Android 6.0 Marshmallow in the future.
Like the last time, the company has focused heavily on the fingerprint scanner and claims that it can unlock the smartphone in just 0.5 seconds and will have an accuracy rate of 99%. The scanner will also serve purpose to a variety of features apart from unlocking the device including taking pictures, opening apps and authenticating payments. The handset will also be Coolpad’s first ‘Made in India’ smartphone for which it has partnered with Videocon as a manufacturing partner. The company has confirmed it will be assembled at a facility in Aurangabad, Maharashtra and is expected to be manufactured sometime in the future.
The Coolpad Note 3 Lite will be available on Amazon India through a flash sale model for which the registrations start today at 5PM and the first sale will be on the 28th of January. For its price, the handset sounds like a good deal and it might give some competition to the smartphones in the budget segment.
