Like all variants of Note 3, Coolpad Max is trying its best to prove itself as a premium smartphone. What are the features of Coolpad Max smartphone which comes in a beautiful box with metal body, curved-edge glass, great specifications and accessories? Today we will review this new smartphone of Coolpad.
Look and design
Coolpad Max comes in a beautiful box printed with golden letters. By sliding the box, you can take out this phone from its tray. Below this, you will find accessories in several black boxes. Along with the phone, you will get a charger with quick-charge support, a flat USB cable, a wired headset, a plastic case, a screen protector and a SIM ejector pin. The phone is presented in such a way with the box that the customer gets attracted and takes it home as a premium smartphone.
The influence of the recently launched Apple and HTC smartphones can be clearly seen in this Coolpad device. Our review unit was Royal Gold in colour. Apart from this, this phone is also available in Rose Gold colour variant. But its Natural Grey variant has not been launched in India, which may disappoint some customers. This design is being used in most low-cost Android smartphones these days. Gorilla Glass 4 has been provided for protection in the front part of the phone. The glass is quite reflective and the edges of the phone shine a lot every time the phone is rotated, which can be a bit annoying. There is an earpiece grill, front camera and sensor window above the screen, while the space below is empty. The navigation buttons are onscreen.
The phone has a power button and a hybrid SIM/microSD tray on the right side. You will have to choose between a single SIM and a single SIM or a microSD card. The volume buttons are on the left side. There is a 3.5mm audio socket at the top and a micro-USB port at the bottom which is surrounded by two grills. Only one of which is a speaker.
The rear panel of the phone is made of matte metal which feels good but there is a big white sticker pasted on it which carries regulatory information. Our review unit got bent which ruined the overall look of the phone. Above the sticker is a round fingerprint sensor with a shiny ring around it. There is a camera on the top right of the rear with a two-tone flash on one side and a hole for the mic on the other side.
The phone is quite comfortable to hold although the edges could have been better by making them a little more rounded. The phone is a bit heavy and weighs 170 grams. The rear of the phone is a bit slippery. With the plastic protective case on, we found the phone much better to hold. Overall, the Coolpad Max is definitely a premium looking smartphone but it is not the most attractive phone available at this price.
Specification
The Coolpad Max is also known as the Coolpad A8. This phone is available with different hardware in different countries. Our review unit was the variant launched in India which comes with a 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage. The processor can be said to be a bit weak at this price but the storage and RAM are better than expected.
The phone has a 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels, which is good for phones of this price these days. Coolpad Max has a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone flash and phase-detection autofocus. The front camera is 5 megapixels. Both cameras can record up to 1080 pixels. The phone has a 2800 mAh battery which is non-removable. The battery supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology and the company promises that the phone can give up to 3 hours of talk time in just 5 minutes of charging.
The phone supports Indian Band 3 and 40 LTE on both SIMs. For connectivity, Wi-Fi AC, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, FM radio and USB OTG are provided. Only 64 GB of storage can be increased with a microSD card in the phone. NFC and infrared support available in other phones are not available in Coolpad Max.
Overall, the Coolpad Max has strong specifications except for the processor. The processor in the Coolpad Max is also available in low-priced phones today. This Coolpad phone can give tough competition to most flagship smartphones priced above Rs 40,000 today. Coolpad is hopeful that the software features, build quality and design of the Max will attract customers. However, if you are looking for 4K video recording and 3D gaming features, you will have to look for another option.
Software
Coolpad’s Cool UI on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop offers a fair amount of customization. It has some really good features and some weird ones. For starters, the default skin is completely sepia-tone which looks a bit similar to the gold body but it makes it very difficult to identify the app icons. We didn’t like this look of the phone and had to go into the Themes app to get something better. All the app icons and widgets are placed at the bottom of the homescreen and there is no ‘traditional mode’ with an app drawer like other Coolpad devices. There are also some confusing text labels due to the translation from Chinese to English.
The phone’s dialer, contact list and messaging functions are combined into a single app with a tabbed interface. This isn’t a big problem, but it is a little awkward to use for the first time. The phone’s default keyboard is TouchPal 2015, which has all the preset phrases, a full-screen mode and an optional T9 layout. Apart from this, Google’s Hindi/Hinglish keyboard is also available.
The phone also comes with some pre-installed apps. Using Cool Manager, you can free up RAM, check data usage, monitor power consumption and tweak app permissions. Apart from this, you can also block selected callers. You can lock apps using your fingerprint and an app called Cool Service helps you search for authorized service centers from the map and call them.
There are a few other fun little features in the Settings app. You can enable split-screen mode to run an app in two independent frames. You can also change the color and layout of the onscreen navigation buttons. If you find the screen is too far for your finger to reach at once, you can enable the floating button, which brings up a circular menu with a number of control options. The Zen mode also has a scheduled Do Not Disturb feature that can be set to cancel important contacts or alerts.
One thing that is a little annoying is that you can’t easily protect private things with a passcode or fingerprint. The Space Management section of the Settings app is protected and lets you hide the dock icon and the quick settings bar. You can then register your fingerprint by going to the Fingerprint Management app.
Talking about Samsung, Blackberry and Nokia, they have already used such features to keep the user’s work and personal data separate. It seems that this feature implemented by Coolpad has been brought more for personal data security than corporate data security. This feature is based on Graphite Software Developer’s Secure Space. But it does not include all the features.
Performance
Coolpad Max responds well in most cases but it gets quite hot when used for a long time. Even during normal use, the phone starts heating up after a while. Everything works great on the phone but the phone is not comfortable to hold while playing games. Apart from this, the phone works well everywhere.
The screen is sharp and bright and the colours are vibrant. Games and movies are enjoyable except for some reflections on the edges of the screen. The speaker is loud enough for normal use and the bundled headset (which looks like Apple’s EarPods) is good for music.
The fingerprint reader in the phone works pretty fast, but it doesn’t respond every time. It takes a second try more than the first to work. Switching between spaces takes about 10 seconds, and the company that has licensed it to Coolpad says that it has very little impact on performance. We didn’t notice any significant difference in phone performance with Private Spaces.
In our benchmarking tests, we got decent results from the phone. The graphics score was a little weak. Apart from that, it was on par with the recently launched low-cost Lenovo Zuk Z1 (Review) and Moto G4 Plus (Review).
The camera of Coolpad Max is quite good and the pictures come out clear and without noise. Along with this, the texture is also good. In close-up shots, field effects also come with depth. But there is a problem while locking the focus, due to which the pictures taken even in good light came out ugly. Good pictures can be taken with the phone even in low light. But the problem of pictures turning ugly is there here too. The video recorded at 1080 pixels is fine but looks a bit dull.
In our video loop test, the phone’s battery lasted for 8 hours and 41 minutes. With normal use, we were able to use the phone for a day and the quick charge feature is very useful. You don’t need to charge the phone for the whole day and the phone gets fully charged in just a few minutes.
Our decision
Coolpad definitely wants to make its presence felt in India. The Coolpad Max is a good phone but its overheating and high price are a big problem. Perhaps the phone is priced high because of the private space feature and design.
The Private Space feature is good but the phone doesn’t have a separate privacy solution to help you manage your personal data while the IT administrator at your office manages sensitive information and policies.
In terms of features, this phone offers better features than the similarly priced Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) (Review). The only problem is that other phones at lower prices also offer the same features, albeit without the premium look. If you want great features and are looking for a good price then go for the Coolpad Max, but if you think you can live without the unique features of the Coolpad Max then you can save some money.