Lenovo Vibe X2 detailed review

Lenovo has tried its best to become one of the top selling laptop brands in the world but it's still lacking that momentum in the smartphone segment. To rectify this problem, Lenovo has been experimenting with screen sizes, material choices and customizations for quite some time and recently some improvements have started to show up. The Lenovo Vibe X2 looks like a tasty treat, something which is reminiscent of a candy cane. Let’s find out more about the phone and see if it works well.

Design and Build

Unlike any other candybar smartphone the Lenovo Vibe X2 has a colourful striped exterior thus giving the phone a candybar like look. Lenovo has gone with a different design making the phone quite a head-turner. The unibody slim and flat body does has one sour spot though, you won't be able to easily pick up the phone from a flat surface, like from a table for instance. Overall, we liked the design, it has a certain sweetness to it.

The Lenovo Vibe X2 is definitely a new design but the flat candybar design is not easy to hold and the edges do dig into your palms. The back of the phone has three contact points and with that the phone can connect to additional accessories like the battery case or the JBL speaker case. The phone is handsomely built and we are satisfied with the sturdy build quality of the phone, even though the phone does look like a bendable candybar.

Display and UI

Let’s move on from the candy references to the 5-inch screen 1080p screen which we liked. The display on the smartphone reproduces vivid colours and has good viewing angles. The 1080p screen is complemented by thin bezels which add to a better viewing experience. There are slight visibility issues with the screen under direct sunlight but not so much that it would require you to squint, but the same can’t be said about the dimly lit navigation keys at the bottom of the screen.

The custom UI on the Lenovo Vibe X2 may please some people but an Android phone without an App Drawer may also come across as a misstep. This doesn't mean that the UI is inferior to the stock Google UI in any way, it just feels unnecessary, and the same goes for the bloatware on the phone. Some included nifty features like ‘take a picture from the black screen by double tapping the home button’ or ‘answer the phone by simply by raising the device near to your ear’ are neat and work as intended.

Performance and battery

Lenovo Vibe X2 rocks the new MediaTek octa-core chip which loves to perform whether you are going through your Gmail or just playing Real Racing on the phone. The MediaTek chip inside the Lenovo Vibe X2 ran everything like a breeze but it does so at the cost of battery life and by heating up. We haven't reviewed a single phone till now with a MediaTek chip which does not heat that much. But apart from the heating and battery issues, the phone is a good performer which is quite evident from the synthetic benchmark comparison sheet given below.

Call quality and touch performance of the phone was good and we had no issues with the reception as well. Video quality on the smartphone is way up there but the phone was not able to impress us with its below par audio quality both via loudspeaker at the back or via headphones.

Like we said, the battery isn't the strongest on the Lenovo Vibe X2 and may or may not take you through a whole day of usage, and that totally depends on your gaming habits and your screen on time. Even in our battery test the phone was only able to last a little over 5 hours which is a point of concern.

Camera

The 13 MP camera on the Lenovo Vibe X2 is simple to use and good at what it does. It comes with optional grid lines and advanced settings. The pictures taken by the camera were good but were on the cooler side of the color palette. 1080p video quality of the phone is satisfactory but were oversaturated in ambient lighting conditions. The front-facing 5MP camera is passable at best and would do the job for you for an occasionally selfie.

Camera Samples from Lenovo Vibe X2

Bottomline

Lenovo has taken a different approach with its Vibe X2 on the design front with its layered design, making it quite different from an orthodox candybar smartphone. The phone has a good screen, a good camera, a custom UI which tries desperately to look like iOS which we won’t crib about and a powerful Mediatek chip, but the deal breaker here is below average battery life in which the processor plays the main culprit. It looks like the phone has the brawns as well as the brains but could have done better with a bigger battery. Consider the Huawei Honor 6 as a better alternative but remember that the Huawei also faces some problems such as poor audio quality and an average camera.

Apple iPhone 5S detailed review

The iPhone 5S is the perfect example of a bit of the new, with a dollop of the old. For all the talk about being the next big step for the iPhone, the 5s looks exactly like the 5, on the outside. But, there is a lot more in store.

Build & Design: New, yet the same!
Despite whatever is new and whatever is not, the foundation of any comparison begins at the roots - the design. The iPhone 5s is the perfect example of some new, with a lot of the old. For all the talk about it being the next big step for the iPhone, the 5s looks exactly like the 5, on the outside. If you were a fan of the iPhone 5's aluminum chassis and chamfered edges, you will feel a warm sense of familiarity here.

However, the colour options have been tweaked - space grey, silver and the attention grabbing gold. Space grey looks a tad more like a darker version of grey than actually being closer to the black option in the iPhone 5. The silver version that we have received for testing is actually a dual colour play of silver and white

However, the bad part about carrying forward the same materials is the 5s will possibly retain the same susceptibility to scratches and nicks, even though Apple says that the newer more metallic colours will make the 5s additionally resilient to the aforementioned evils.

Between the 5s and the 5, almost nothing seems to have changed. The form factor, the dimensions and the weight remain exactly the same as the predecessor - 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm and 112 grams. All the ports and keys are also placed exactly as before. If they aren’t looking very closely, or you are using the golden iPhone 5s, most people may not even notice the difference, unless someone notices the dual LED flash at the back, or the redesigned home button which now hosts the fingerprint scanner.

Display: The 4-inch real estate has its share of fans
Apple has been lectured quite often by people who seem to know better, about the presumed reality that a 4-inch screen isn’t big enough for a modern day flagship smartphone. The examples cited are of the latest Android flagships. However, Apple has remained with the 4-inch Retina display (1,136 x 640 pixels) as on the iPhone 5. Maybe a bigger screen will arrive with the next iteration, but for the moment, those of us who do not like carrying around humongous phones are quite happy.

iOS 7: Not a unique point
We don’t really understand the logic of claiming iOS 7 as a unique feature of the iPhone 5s just because it comes with this OS out of the box. All compatible iPhones are eligible for the update, and if reports are to be believed, more than 70% of the eligible iOS devices have already upgraded to iOS 7.

Touch ID: A lot of potential
Another important upgrade is the Touch ID. Yes, biometrics have been done before in smartphones, but it hasn’t been done too well. The fingerprint sensor is integrated into the home button itself and is protected with a sapphire crystal layer. The silver ring encircling the home button is the only visual give-away that this isn’t the iPhone 5’s home button! The Touch ID sensor communicates directly with the registered fingerprint on the A7 chip, and that is locked away so that apps that don’t have authorization do not have access to it. The fingerprint is also registered with a particular iPhone, so there's no chance of it ending up on iCloud.

Simply put, the fingerprint sensor is an additional security layer for your phone when it is locked, or when you may be making transactions on iTunes. You can unlock the iPhone 5s with the registered fingerprint, and not have to punch in a four digit pass-code every time. Pick up the phone, press any hardware key to wake up the display, let your finger rest easy on the scanner (also known as the Home Button to the rest of us!), and voila. All this takes about 2 seconds, and is definitely a lot more convenient than punching in a code every single time.

Secondly, the Touch ID sensor can also be set as the authentication method for the App Store. Whenever you tap on “Free” or “Buy” on any item in the App Store, you are typically asked for your iTunes password. If you have enabled Touch ID for iTunes (Settings -> General -> Touch ID & Passcode), you can scan the fingerprint to authenticate a transaction or even a free app download, without having to bother with the iTunes account password.

At the time when you are setting up your new iPhone, you will be prompted to set up the fingerprint scanner. You can set up to five fingers to be used with Touch ID. If there are multiple people using the same phone, this is a rather convenient aspect. However, I did notice that the scan time did increase, marginally, if you have more than one print registered. But, that isn’t really a big problem. It's important to note that the passcode still remains in the mix, and is a parallel security measure along with the sensor.

With iPhone 5s’s Touch ID, as with any such feature, the biggest fear always had been about how consistent the sensor would be. For the entire time we have been using this feature, we haven't faced a single situation where the sensor didn’t detect the print from the finger resting on the home key. Every time, the response is prompt and precise - be it to unlock the phone or to verify a purchase on the app store.

But, at the moment, that is all you can do with a feature as smooth as this. The real stuff will happen once third part apps start utilizing this feature. The potential is endless, and for the India perspective even without the payments structure being in the mix - Touch ID to sign into Facebook or Touch ID to log me into Gmail or Instagram should attract users. There are a lot of possibilities, starting with doing away with the task of tapping in the password for every single app download. Also, if it is a phone being used by a single user, and most are, how about different fingers to launch different tasks on the phone?

Power Package: Definitely an improvement but potential will reveal itself over time
The big change, possibly the biggest, comes with the new power package. You have the 64-bit dual core processor, teaming up with the M7 motion co-processor and a beefed up GPU. There aren’t many third party apps that can take advantage of the 64-bit architecture, but that just means two things - the iPhone 5s' power package is designed to be future proof and app developers will sort themselves out and provide the compatibility soon enough. The same goes for the M7 motion co-processor. The M7, on its part, collects data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, etc., and can change app behavior depending on those readings. All those fitness apps, can easily utilize this processor with lesser load on the main processor and the battery.

All of this does make a significant difference, and yet at times, doesn’t. Speaking as someone who is an iPhone 5 user, I did not notice the any performance difference in most use cases. Between the two devices side by side, most apps open at the same speed. This is exactly what I meant when I said that despite the significantly improved 64-bit processor, the iPhone 5s will remain just an incremental update, albeit a newer product, till the time the apps can take advantage of the new hardware.

Speaking of which, the significant boost that the 64-bit architecture provides is well illustrated by the browser benchmark tests, run on Safari. The performance, page render times and the ability to handle multiple tab load - all see a significant difference for the better. The benchmark tests tell their own tale, with a massive difference.

The PowerVR G6430 GPU succeeds the PowerVR SGX 543MP3 graphics, with discernibly improved performance. While aspects like game load time and gameplay performance remain the same, the same games look a little better on the iPhone 5s. The newer graphics, at least made Real Racing look slightly better - the textures and the detailing on the cars definitely was crisper and better. As more and more games are updated to take advantage of the improved graphics, we will start noticing performance differences as well.

For the sake of the more powerful processor, Apple has loaded the iPhone 5s with a slightly bigger battery - 1560mAh to the iPhone 5’s 1440mAh. Under the exact same load on a work day, the iPhone 5s lasted me exactly one hour more on a single charge, and got through the evening a lot more comfortably than the iPhone 5. If you have just Twitter and a couple of IMs running in the background, the iPhone 5s will easily get you through a day and a half.

Camera: Improvement, definitely
My colleague, Swapnil, has been testing the iPhone 5s’s camera, and the reports from his end point to a rather impressive camera.

To Buy or not to buy?
The iPhone 5s is, quite truly, nothing like a typical “s” cycle upgrade. The new iPhone gets the processor upgrade, as well as a dedicated motion co-processor. The camera not only has a lot more features, but is a marked improvement over the fairly competent iPhone 5, which it succeeds. Touch ID feels at home straightaway. However, till the time your apps get updated to take care of the 64-bit architecture or the motion co-processor or the fingerprint sensor, the 5s will feel like an incremental update. The future proofing, however, is undeniable, and apps will soon fall in line. Not a big enough upgrade for anyone already using an iPhone 5. But, for anyone using a 4s, the iPhone 5c was itself a big upgrade and the 5s is just a massive one.

Sony Xperia XZs detailed review

Sony’s Xperia lineup is often an exhibition of the best of technology that Sony makes for mobile devices, and the Sony Xperia XZs here is no less. While it is not radically new, it is an able contender among flagship smartphones of 2017. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, the Xperia XZs presents a reasonably compact form within a well-crafted chassis. The Xperia XZs is a stop-gap flagship, launched to fill the gap in Sony’s portfolio until it unveils the all-new Xperia XZ Premium.

Alongside being the device that keeps Sony active in the flagship smartphone business, the Sony Xperia XZs also unveils the company’s dramatic new element - a mobile image sensor that can shoot nearly 6fps in RAW and produce 720p HD slow motion videos at a staggering 960fps. The Xperia XZs, as a result, is a demonstration of sorts of how the new image sensor would work in the flagship, which, in every possibility, will be more powerful and refined. As a result, we had to begin our review by testing the ultra-smooth slow motion videos.

Slow motion videos
The Sony Xperia XZs’ new sensor is being commercially dubbed as Motion Eye. With stacked CMOS architecture and significantly large buffer memory, the new camera can temporarily store much more data while a photo is being shot or a video is being recording, hence giving rise to the high frame rate count in videos.

The 19-megapixel image sensor is paired with a Sony G f/2.0 lens and the proprietary BIONZ X mobile image processor, the smaller version of what resides in Sony’s imaging products. To access the slow motion video mode, open the camera app, swipe right to enable video mode, and tap on the slow motion button that resides beside the traditional recording button. This opens the super slow motion mode. This particular mode has three functions - 960fps 720p video, one-shot super slow-mo (for slow mo snippet), and 120fps 1080p videos. You can choose each of the three slow-mo modes from the circular settings button to the bottom right of the screen.

The 960fps slow motion mode records standard 720p videos, sections of which can be rendered at 960fps by tapping on the slow motion button. To begin with, the slow motion stretches are incredibly smooth, exhibiting no interpolation as you would expect in the 120fps/240fps videos that mobile cameras can render at best. You can effectively produce incredibly smooth slow motion stretches in video, albeit at a compromise.

The Xperia XZs struggles with light when in slow motion mode, producing notable flickers as it adjusts to the shutter speed. Low light performance is also notably compromised, with heavy image noise affecting the overall videos, even in reasonably well lit environments. As a result, using the slow motion mode only makes sense when you are in a very well-lit area. It is certainly impressive, but limitations like no touch-to-focus without touch-to-shoot, heavy pixel noise and the limited video output resolution (720p only) somewhat restrict the potential that it has.

The Sony Xperia XZs does have an incredible feature at hand, but its implementation still requires some amount of refinement. Despite these cons, though, the power of the image sensor really shows as the camera itself is fast, and does not struggle even if you use the slow motion stretches in rapid succession. The 960fps recording mode shoots for only 0.2 seconds, translating to eventual screen time of 6 seconds, which is not surprising given the amount of data stored in the buffer memory for producing 960fps videos.

The new slow motion modes are somewhat of a mixed bag, impressing upon first glance with the uber-slow videos, but marring the overall experience with a few notable flaws.

Primary camera
Beyond the slow motion videos, the Sony Xperia XZs produces fairly impressive photographs. Photographs produce good details, and although fine details are slightly compromised, the overall sharpness is fairly decent. Colours produced are significantly better than Sony’s previous flagship, the Xperia XZ, and although slight strains of oversaturation remain, colours are vibrant and produce tight contrast levels most of the time. This is further accompanied by good dynamic range, producing decently detailed shadows and limited noise.

Sony’s camera app is also more fluent now, while retaining the same UI. This gives a familiar playground for those who have used Sony smartphones before, while making the experience smoother by giving more fluent end-user experience. Shutter response is smooth and autofocus is responsive, and the standard shooting (or in manual mode) actually impresses more on overall terms than the slow motion modes. The Xperia XZs gets laser-assisted, phase detection and contrast autofocus working in tandem to produce servo autofocus in videos, which works seamlessly (servo AF is essentially continuous autofocus in videos). Even in still photographs, the camera does well to recognise faces and lock focus on subjects.

More camera samples

Build and Design
The Sony Xperia XZs practically retains the same overall design that Sony labels as ‘Loop’. While this may be the same as its previous smartphones, it still stands out among other smartphones. The upright, rectangular stance is complemented by rounded edges, lending smooth symmetry to the smartphone. However, the rigid edges stand a chance of picking up abrasions, even in minute falls.

There is a neat flow of symmetry about the device, with the physical power button to the middle of the right edge integrating the fingerprint sensor. The volume rocker and the camera button are placed to the lower end of the right edge, which contributes to ergonomics. One-handed usage is easy, aided by the compact body. The volume rocker falls seamlessly in reach of the right thumb even for smaller palms, and once you rotate the phone to horizontal orientation, even the camera button is placed perfectly for your index finger, just like the shutter button on cameras.

The build quality, except for the corners that are prone to picking up bruises, is quite sturdy, with tactile buttons and IP68-rated dust and water resistance. The Ice Blue finish, in particular, looks the best among the Xperia XZs’ colours, and the phone looks and feels premium on overall terms. The earpiece and mouthpiece also double up as stereo speakers, the quality of which is discussed below.

Display and UI
The Sony Xperia XZs houses a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display with screen resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. It has comparatively larger bezels, and we would have ideally preferred the bezel-less design that Sony implements on its XA lineup of smartphones.

The display is fairly impressive, producing 705 lux of luminance at peak. Alongside, Sony has used its proprietary TRILUMINOS display panel with the X-Reality mobile engine to produce vibrant colours and good contrast levels, that produce bright whites and deep blacks. The range of colours produced by the display makes objects look sharp, and this is further aided by good viewing angles.

For calibrating colours to your preference, Sony includes two settings, for white balance and image enhancement. For white balance, you get red, green and blue toggles to adjust the warmth of the display, which itself is slightly to the cooler side by default. Image enhancements are taken care of by the X-Reality engine, which you can either choose to switch off, use the X-Reality settings or put it on Super Vivid mode, which makes everything look a bit oversaturated.

Touch response is fluid, and you barely ever register missed touches. Xperia UI on Android Nougat v7.1.1 retains its glass panel look, which seamlessly fits the overall bearings of the smartphone. You also get synchronised touch tones (which can, of course, be switched off), and only on-screen navigation buttons that are adaptive to content. The overall interface is also easy to use, and offers in-phone search for quick access to applications. All system menus and notification panels retain the stock Android look.

Also included here for the first time are Xperia Actions, an AI assistant that performs certain actions that you carry out every day. Embedded in settings, you can choose to activate them as per your need. For instance, the assistant recognises when you put your phone on silent, and what notifications you mostly entertain at a certain time. Based on your usage, it does actions like turning off ringtone, enabling notifications and more. Unlike many assistants, this is fairly non-intrusive and works in the background. A neat addition, this.

Performance
The Sony Xperia XZs is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB native storage. The processor is underclocked to 1.6GHz, although that does not majorly impact overall performance.

Everyday-usage applications like WhatsApp, Facebook, Chrome and Gmail load seamlessly and almost instantly with up to four apps open, and then tend to take a split second longer to load with heavy multitasking. For instance, with Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, Maps and Wynk Music open, the camera app takes a split second longer to load, with a black loading screen greeting you at first. This, though, is not a major deal breaker, and the Xperia XZs performs to its peak smoothness for the most part. It is, however, something flagship buyers won’t appreciate.

Gaming performance is seamless and heavy games like Asphalt 8 run at 30fps smoothly, without any stutters. Gameplay itself is smooth and the rich display further adds to the overall experience. In-game menus also navigate smoothly, but a slight split-second lag creeps in if you have multiple apps loaded at the same time.

Calling and network retention worked as intended. In-call voice clarity is always up to the mark, and there were no unusual network drops when in stable network conditions. The Sony Xperia XZs also performs well in terms of audio, with the phone including Sony’s proprietary DSEE HX audio upscaling for improving compressed audio files, ClearAudio+ to optimise headphone/speaker performance as per environment, and even a normaliser that levels volume differences in tracks. The phone itself includes stereo speakers, which are among the better speakers out there on a smartphone. The phone also profiles audio balance to personal listening patterns once you plug in earphones. Overall performance is decent, although the native speakers are slightly low on volume. 

Battery life
The Sony Xperia XZs houses a 2900mAh battery pack, along with Qualcomm’s QuickCharge 3.0 and Qnovo Adaptive Charging. On PCMark, the device lasts for 7 hours and 11 minutes, which is about average. In real life, the Xperia XZs lasts for the entire work day, at best. With nearly two hours of phone calls, a total of about two hours of social media surfing and Internet browsing, 45 minutes of gaming, an hour of music streaming, 30 minutes of GPS-enabled navigation and 30 minutes of video streaming, the Xperia XZs lasted from 10am to 11pm, at which point it would be left with 5-8 percent of power.

Charging it from zero to 100 percent takes 52 minutes on average, and the Qnovo Adaptive Charging adapts to your charge cycles to prevent the battery from overcharging. This is the same technology that we saw back in the Sony Xperia X, and takes over a week’s usage to become active. This is because the adaptive charging method takes time to read your usage pattern to charge the device to full. Essentially, Qnovo adaptive charging cuts off power once the battery reaches 90 percent. The rest 10 percent is only charged when the average time of your waking up is reached. On overall terms, the battery life is average at best, with limited idle discharge when the device is inactive.

Bottomline
The Sony Xperia XZs may have a previous generation processor, but is still well optimised for good performance. Alongside, it presents a compact, ergonomic build, a bright and vibrant display and a fairly decent camera. The battery life is the only element that is comparatively weak, but still lasts for an entire work day.

On overall terms, the Sony Xperia XZs is a fine smartphone that gets a lot of basics right. However, you may argue that with a number of newer flagships en route, the Xperia XZs may be a bit of a compromise. While that remains true, the Xperia XZs still provides good gameplay and movie streaming experience along with good audio, which will please many discerning buyers.

You can still wait for some time to get your hands on the new flagships coming to India soon, which will possibly give you longer life span of usage than the Xperia XZs, which now runs on a year-old flagship processor.

Coolpad Note 3S detailed review

When Coolpad first launched the Note 3 back in 2015, we quite liked what the device offered. You got a fingerprint sensor, 3GB RAM, and a well built device at a very reasonable Rs. 8,999. A year later, the company launched two new variants of the phone called the Coolpad Note 3 Lite, and Note 3 Plus. Now, the company has launched yet another variant of the device, called the Note 3S, priced at Rs. 9,999. However, the sub-Rs. 10,000 market is not what it was two years ago, the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime and the Lenovo K6 Power offer a lot of value to buyers, and Coolpad has to up the ante if it wants to take on these two.

Design and Build

The Note 3S looks very different from the previous Note 3 branded devices. It is curvier than its predecessors and feels quite good in hand. It comes with 2.5D glass on the front, a plastic rear and a metal frame. At the top you get a 3.5mm audio jack and the Hybrid SIM slot, while the micro USB port is located at the bottom. The power button is located to the right, while the volume rocker is to the left. The device features non-backlit capacitive buttons.

At the back, the 13MP camera has a slight bump, while the fingerprint sensor is slightly recessed into the clear plastic back. Instead of a traditional speaker grill, you get a single slit that is located at the bottom of the back.

The design makes for a nice change from the cookie cutter designs that we are seeing on the Redmi Note 3, K6 Note, Meizu M3S, and so forth. The bezels above and below the display also feature a dotted pattern, which adds to its uniqueness. The phone also feels pretty well built. That being said, the device doesn’t look or feel as premium as its metal-bodied competitors. 

Display and UI

The Note 3S comes with a 5.5-inch 720p display, which is a bit surprising considering that the Coolpad Note 3 Plus offered a Full HD display. The screen is slightly warm with a slight colour shift when viewing from angles. Black levels are just about acceptable, but colours are still . It is also pretty bright with a luminance rating of 533 Lux.

There is a thick bezel that goes around the display, which doesn’t look very nice. While, the device has pretty decent brightness, the screen is pretty glossy and reflective, making it hard to see in bright sunlight. It should also be noted that the Coolpad Note 3s doesn’t register more than five touches at a time, but that should not be too much of an issue in everyday use. It just shows that Coolpad is using a lower grade display panel.

Coolpad has also introduced a more stock like version of its CoolUI. So you get an app drawer and very little bloatware. However, Coolpad may require more time to polish the new UI. For starters, there is no ‘Clear All’ button in the recent apps list, which can be irritating if, like me, you have a habit of clearing all the recent apps.

This wasn’t all.  About two days into using the phone, after an update to Cool UI I started getting a notification that stated, “Unfortunately, Google Play Store has stopped.” It didn’t allow me to use the Play Store and used also used to pop-up when I opened apps. The usually techniques of clearing cache, manually syncing accounts, or even reverting back to an older version of the Play Store didn’t work. I tried wiping cache from the recovery settings, but that didn't solve the issue either. However, neither me, nor my colleagues could get the device to boot in recovery mode. The only way I could fix the problem, was via a factory reset.

Performance

The Note 3S is powered by a 1.36GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 415 octa-core processor with 3GB of RAM. There are very noticeable lags in Asphalt 8's menus, while loading times for heavy games is high as well. Gameplay remains satisfactory, at near 30fps frame rates for the most part. Framing issues are really slight. Not enough to really be an issue, but the phone is evidently slower than competitors for both regular usage, or gaming.

Another issue with the phone was with the accelerometer, which wasn't calibrated properly. We thought this was a limited to our unit only, but the Coolpad Mega 3, which is also being reviewed right now, had the same troubles. When playing games like Asphalt 8, my car veered towards the right of the screen. So, games like Traffic Rider and the aforementioned Asphalt 8 are almost impossible to play. We tried using calibrating apps, which made the issue worse. We then contacted Coolpad about this and the company suggested that we recalibrate the sensor by using a secret code (USSD Codes). After doing so, the games run fine. This may be a result of poor testing procedures for retail units. Further, while we had the option to contact the company, most regular users would take such an issue as a defect in their device.

Camera

The Coolpad Note 3S comes with a 13MP primary camera and images taken are pretty underwhelming. Photos are under saturated and subjects appear soft. There is also highlight clipping when there is strong sunlight falling on an object. Night time makes things worse and there is lots of noise on images, with colour morphing. Further, the app also seems sluggish when shooting in low light, making things tougher. Images taken by the 5MP front facing camera feature a lot of noise, but are just about fine for social media.

View post on imgur.com

Battery

The device comes with a 2500mAh battery, which is much smaller than what you find on the Redmi 3S Prime or the K6 Power. This shows in day-to-day usage. In about an hour and a half, which included about 20-25 minutes of gaming, while the rest was web browsing/social media, the battery dropped from 100% to 75% (100% brightness). You won't really get a full day's battery from the Note 3s, unless you're judicious with your usage. In our synthetic benchmark tests, the device got a score of 4 hours and 37 minutes.

Bottom Line

There is very little reason to recommend the Coolpad Note 3S. Besides offering a decent build and display, the device is trumped in almost all aspects by its main competitors, like the Redmi 3S Prime and the Lenovo K6 Power, which offer more for about the same price. Further, issues like the accelerometer calibration problem mentioned above, put us off a little more.