Coolpad Note 3 Plus Review

Coolpad Note 3 Plus detailed review

Coolpad turned quite a few heads with its Coolpad Note 3 smartphones. Both the original Note 3 and the Note 3 Lite still offer one of the better packages at their respective price points. While the Coolpad Note 3 Lite is still amongst our top 3 phones under 7K, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has been stealing the Note 3's lunch money. To cope, the Coolpad Note 3 Plus brings a 1080p display and costs the same as the original, Rs. 8,999. Of course, the Note 3's price has currently been reduced to Rs. 8,499. 

So, has this change in display changed its current prospects, and what about the performance? Here's the Coolpad Note 3 Plus review.

Display

Starting off with the new, the original Coolpad Note 3 had a decent display with one of the best viewing angles in its category. The Note 3 Plus adds to that, with the new 1080p display, but isn't as good a display as the original. The 1080p display on the new phone has a slightly cooler tone that we aren't very fond of. The older Note 3 had warmer colours, which looked better. The sunlight legibility has improved, but the overall display quality is unable to match up to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3.

Performance

The other specifications of the phone are similar to the original. This means, the device is powered by an year old MediaTek SoC, which combined with 3GB of RAM is able to keep up with the competition, with the Redmi Note 3 being the only exception. Day to day performance is smooth and using social media apps, camera app, or any non-gaming app doesn't slow the phone down. However, it does stutter if you open a few heavy apps back-to-back, and is rather inconsistent at times. The graphics performance has dipped and while you can play heavy games, we found the phone lagging more often than its older iteration. All things considered though, this is still a recommendable phone to buy under the 10k price bracket. Coolpad is likely to cash in on the fact that the Redmi Note 3 is available via flash sales and in very low numbers.

Camera and Battery

While the megapixel count remains the same, the camera quality has improved, slightly. Images taken by the 13MP rear shooter on the Coolpad Note 3 Plus seem sharper. Besides that, nothing has changed. The camera remains similar in terms of focusing speed, the dynamic range seems same, and the front facing camera is exactly the same.

We did find a minute difference in the battery life, but overall it's quite similar to the Note 3, with both scoring more than 9 hours of screen on time on our Geekbench battery benchmark.

Everything else, like the build, design, and UI remains the same. However, we would urge you to check our review of the Coolpad Note 3 to know about them.

Bottomline

The Coolpad Note 3 Plus is a slight update to an already good phone, but if you are interested in this segment, we would suggest going for the the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, which is still the best phone in the sub-10k category, and if you are patient enough, that is the phone to go for. If not, the Coolpad Note 3 is a better phone than the Note 3 Plus, since it offers better colour accuracy and slightly higher performance levels.