Coolpad: Feature-rich at a reasonable price

Go to a typical mobile phone store in any small town in India and chances are that the first phone the shopkeeper shows you is a nondescript Chinese one. Reason: they are much cheaper than the branded ones and come loaded with a number of apps that attract young buyers.

Spice seems to have understood this psychology of consumers well. With an eye on the low-end smartphone market, the mobile maker launched Spice Coolpad recently, in collaboration with Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad. It is strategically priced at Rs 9,990, which is not really a bad bargain given the features it offers. The phone features dual SIM , one of which can be used for 3G data. Lets see what else it offers.

Looks
The first thing one notices about Spice Coolpad is its fairly big 5-inch display screen, with a decent of 540X960 pixel resolution arguably the biggest size available in this price range.

However, despite its name, its plastic body with metallic blue paint isnt really that cool. Like other 5-inch display smartphones, it weighs a little more than 150 gms 161 gms to be precise and it is thin enough (9.9 mm) to comfortably hold in your hands. You may need to carry a pouch always as the Coopad is slippery in nature and, therefore, runs the risk of getting scratches.

If you are touchy about camera specifications, the Coolpad might disappoint you. It has a 5 megapixel (MP) rear camera and the one on the front is of 0.3 MP. This is nothing to boast of, given that other quad core-enabled phones come with 8 MP cameras. The only consolation is that the 5 MP camera offers decent resolution.

The sound quality is not something to write home about. The speaker doesnt really sound like a smartphone speaker and you might have some problem plugging in the headphone. The Coolpad has a sound recorder, too, but that appears to be just for the sake of having one. You have to literally shout to the microphone to record your voice.

Performance
The Spice Coolpad has a 1.2 GHz quad core processor from Mediatek, which makes it faster, be it downloading apps, shuffling between apps, playing games, etc. That it runs on Jelly Bean 4.1 also helps. Notably, the interface is quite responsive one doesnt have to try too hard to jump from one app to the other as well as menus. The Coolpad supports 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth.

Like all Chinese phones, Spice Coolpad though not fully Chinese comes loaded with a lot of apps, especially the most commonly used ones such as WhatsApp, Twitter et al, which makes things easier for first-time smartphone users. Pre-loaded news apps are another plus. The battery is a big disappointment. Even after fully charging the device, it may not run though out the day. If you browse more, communicate with heavy emails, play games, watch videos and make decent numbers of call per day, it is advisable to carry the charger along with you.

Overall, the Coolpad has enough features to lure the guy at the small-town phone shop.

SPICE COOLPAD

Price: Rs 9,900

Screen: 5 inch

OS: Android Jelly Bean

RAM: 1 GB

Processor: 1GHz quad core

Memory: 4 GB onboard, expandable (up to 32GB

Camera (rear/front): 5 MP /VGA

Battery: 2000 mAh