GADGET GIZMO REVIEW...... Coolpad Note 3 Lite

GADGET GIZMO REVIEW Coolpad Note 3 Lite

There was a time -just a few months ago -when `10,000 was the `minimum' you needed to spend on a smartphone to get good perfor mance, a high-quality screen and all the features you wanted. Now, new brands are challenging this notion and offering even better value than before.When we reviewed the CoolPad Note 3 in October 2015, we called it “one of the best phones under `10,000“. The Note 3 generally received favourable reviews from both the tech community and users. Now the Lite version offers a similar mix of style and unbeatable value -but at a significantly lower price.

Although this device has the Lite moniker, it shares a lot of features with its bigger brother. Some of the key changes include a smaller screen (5-inch vs 5.5-inch), a quad core processor (instead of octa) and a smaller 2,500mAh battery (vs 3,000mAh on the Note 3). Looking around the device, it shares more than a passing resemblance with the larger Note 3. The smaller screen makes it ideal for one-handed use. Up front, the glass takes up a major portion and there's no branding. With the device off, the screen looks deceptively larger but you'll see the bezels once the screen is lit. Under the screen are the capacitive Android buttons (not backlit) and around the back you'll see the centrally placed camera and square fingerprint sensor.The power button is on the right, volume rocker is on the left, 3.5mm audio is on top and micro USB is left aligned on the bottom edge.Quality of materials is quite good and the phone feels sturdy and easy to grip (thanks to the textured back cover). Speaking of which, the cover also pops off to reveal the dual micro SIM slots and a separate micro SD slot (it supports up to 32GB cards for expansion).

The device has the CoolUI skin over Android 5.1 -there is no app drawer by default and everything is placed on the home screen. You can choose to activate the `traditional style' with an app drawer.You get a voice call recorder, themer, screen colour settings, multiple gestures and accessibility options.For instance you can double tap to wake, slide up to unlock, slide down to take photos and so on.

There's also a high sensitivity mode for gloves and multi screen mode (you can have two active apps side-by side -from a list of basic apps). Some of the pre-loaded apps include Cool Store (app store), Cool Service, Amazon, Facebook, WPS Office, WeChat, WhatsApp and Clean Master. The fingerprint sen sor works really well (and really fast -as good as the best ones) and there's even an option to individually lock apps using it.

So does this phone lack anything compared to some of its more expensive competition? Well, for starters, it has a more `basic' quad core processor.It'll still work for 1080p HD videos and gaming, but it won't win any medals for speed. The camera is a ste p down from the big g er CoolPad: it's a lot noisier, there's some shutter lag and it struggles to get good shots indoors. Battery life is about average too. But apart from these quirks, the Note 3 Lite is still unbeatable value. If you need something under `7k, get this!

Hitesh.Bhagat