GADGET GIZMO REVIEW.............. CoolPad Dazen X7

GADGET GIZMO REVIEW

CoolPad Dazen X7

Chinese smartphone makers have been quick to recognise the massive potential of the Indian market. Coolpad has launched their flagship, called the Dazen X7. At `17,999, it will face an uphill task because of direct competition from Xiaomi and OnePlus.

The phone itself is attractive and well built. It's got a familiar design: unibody with glass on both sides and a brushed aluminium frame with chamfered edges. Despite the size, it's lightweight (131 grams) and very thin (6.5mm throughout). Front and back are protected by Gorilla Glass 3 (the device comes with a rear scratch protector installed).On the right are the two SIM slots (one is a hybrid nano microSD).

CoolPad has their own skin on Android and they call it CoolUI. It works fine but is heavy on animations which sometimes slows the device down. The device is much better with a lighter launcher like Nova.

Coolpad has put a lot of effort into the camera. It's a 13MP Sony unit with f1.8 aperture, optical image stabiliser, manual controls and dual colour temperature LED flash. No other phone at this price offers these features. Results are impressive too, especially with macro shots. You can get shallow depth of field and the OIS helps in capturing sharper images.

While overall phone performance is satisfactory, there were a few hiccups with image gallery and random stuttering with apps and multi-tasking.Battery life was a sore point too, with the phone seldom making it through a whole day .

Overall, a commendable effort but a new brand like Coolpad has to undercut established players to gain a s t r o n g f o o t h o l d . E ve n a Galaxy S4 with amoled screen, better performance and some extra features (like IR) is cheaper. To add to their woes, more recognisable brands like Meizu have also launched and are quite bullish about the market.

hitesh.bhagat

ET17JUN15