Coolpad is one of the few smartphone manufacturers that has launched a triple SIM smartphone. We are talking about the Coolpad Mega 3. Interestingly, it is priced under Rs 7,000. This means that the company will not have any problem in differentiating the handset in a competitive market. On the other hand, low-priced phones are usually good only in one or two aspects. As a customer, you have to compromise in many departments.
Notably, the Mega 3 has been launched just a few days after the Coolpad Mega 2.5D was launched. But both are priced almost the same. The Mega 2.5D was named after its curved-edge glass front and the Mega 3 seems to be named after its triple-SIM feature. Let’s try to find out how the phone fares in other departments apart from this unique feature?
Coolpad Mega 3 Design
This is a slightly bigger and thicker phone. 170 grams is considered heavy. Surprisingly, Coolpad is marketing this phone as a low weight phone but it is a bit heavier than a regular phone. This is a completely plastic body phone and the battery is removable. The design is such that the phone fits easily in the palm. But the rear part does not give a good feel in the hands. It is not that easy to use with one hand, but it does not slip in the hands.
We got the white colour variant for review. It does not use curved glass like the Mega 2.5D. You will see a flash along with the front camera. At the bottom, you will see Android navigation buttons which are not backlit. There is a micro-USB port at the bottom and a 3.5mm audio socket at the top.
After removing the rear panel, you will see three micro-SIM slots. You will not be able to remove the battery. If you look carefully, you will see a microSD card slot at the bottom. This is a good thing, because these days even dual SIM phones have started coming with hybrid slots.
Overall the build quality is decent for a budget phone. It’s not the best looking phone, but you have to compromise somewhere.
Coolpad Mega 3 specifications and features
The 5.5-inch screen has a resolution of 720×1280 pixels which is not bad at all. The good thing is that these days every budget phone comes with a display with this resolution. Sharpness and viewing angles are quite good. You will not have any problem watching videos. There will be a little difficulty in reading the screen in daylight.
The MediaTek MT6737 processor is not very powerful. The maximum clock speed is 1.2 GHz. You will get 16 GB of storage with 2 GB RAM. You will be able to use microSD card up to 64 GB. The company has shown generosity in terms of battery. You will get a 3050 mAh battery. Probably due to this the phone is heavy.
Both the camera sensors are 8 megapixels. In Coolpad Mega 3, you will get Wi-Fi A/B/G/N, Bluetooth, FM radio and GPS features. All three SIM slots are also equipped with 4G and Voice over LTE feature. There is no fingerprint sensor in it and there is no support for quick charging.
Talking about software, the phone will run on Coolpad’s CoolUI 8.0 skin based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Many apps will be pre-installed in this Coolpad phone. Coolpad’s apps ask for a lot of permissions, we believe that this is more than necessary.
Coolpad Mega 3 performance
The Coolpad Mega 3 is by no means a bad phone, but you will immediately notice that the phone is not very powerful. You won’t be able to decide if this is due to the weak processor or the heavy software.
However, there was no problem in playing videos. The display is big and sharp too. With its help, watching videos will be a lot of fun. Surprisingly, there was no problem in playing Asphalt 8 as well. One speaker of the phone is not very good.
We never felt the phone getting too hot. The vibrator of this phone is very soft and harsh.
There are 8 megapixel sensors on the front and rear panels. But there is a lot of difference in quality. In daylight, the rear camera takes good closeup shots. There was no lack of detail in them. However, the quality starts to drop as the distance from the subject increases. You will be disappointed with the landscape shots. There was a lot of lack of detail in them. Shots taken indoors had a lot of noise. Photos taken at night were either completely black, or without details.
The front camera took good selfies. However, lighting also played an important role in this. You will be able to record videos with a maximum resolution of 720 pixels. Their quality was usable.
Battery life was excellent. In the video loop test, the battery lasted for 10 hours and 11 minutes. In normal use, it easily lasted a day. However, the battery took a lot of time to charge.
Our verdict
When a budget phone has a unique feature, it usually means that other features will be compromised. The Coolpad Mega 2.5D had a priority on looks, but performance-wise, the phone lagged in every department. This time around, Coolpad has not only given a unique feature in the Mega 3, but has also not compromised on performance.
Camera performance could be better. The CPU is a bit weak. The software needs some cleaning. But since this is a budget phone, we don’t have too many expectations from it. On the other hand, the display quality, battery life and design are good.
At this price, Mega 3 competes directly with Xiaomi Redmi 3S which has a more powerful processor, better camera and bigger battery. If you are willing to spend a little more money, you will be more satisfied with the phones in the range of Rs 8,999-9,999. However, in Mega 3 you will be able to use three SIMs simultaneously. If you like this feature very much, then you will not have any problem in ignoring the other shortcomings.