Chinese smartphone vendor, Coolpad has announced its latest smartphone, Cool Play 6 to the Indian market. The launch event took place in Dubai, where the company also announced the price of the phone. The device is priced aggressively and goes against the likes of Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Moto G5 Plus, and Smartron srt.phone, which are available for similar prices.
We were at the launch event of the phone and played with the Coolpad Cool Play 6 for an entire day. For the entire period, I used the device with Dubai's network 'du,' on 4G LTE. Here are my first impressions about the phone.
Design and Display
If you recall, Chinese vendor, LeEco was the major stakeholder in Coolpad back then, which made Coolpad use LeEco's design and software on its smartphones. However, LeEco is now into deeper troubles, which made Coolpad come back to another software skin, keeping the design similar to the LeEco devices.
The Cool Play 6 sports the same design of the LeEco smartphones such as Le 1 and Le 2, and it even resembles the Cool 1 Dual smartphone. The device sports a metal body, with volume rockers and power button placed on the right side. The smartphone features a USB Type-C port and a 5.5-inch Full HD display on the front.
The 5.5-inch display has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which, in my short period appeared to be good. The only sad part is the display is reflective, which will affect the viewing angles. The design of the Cool Play 6 is not a new one, and the display is the same on what we have seen in the smartphones such as Redmi Note 4 and Moto G5 Plus.
Hardware
This is where things get rather interesting and put the device ahead of other. The Cool Play 6 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 chipset, paired with mammoth 6GB of RAM. Yes, you heard it right, the Cool Play 6 has 6GB of RAM. Coolpad says that more amount of RAM in a device results in a smoother gaming experience.
While I didn't try the gaming part as of now, the device performed well, when it comes to opening apps such as camera, dialer, messaging, browser, etc.
The icing on the cake, however, is the 6GB of RAM. I have opened more than 20 apps in the background, but the device still shows that there's 4.5GB RAM still left for usage. Further, it looks like Coolpad's new user interface has a decent RAM management because almost all the apps were in memory.
Camera
The Coolpad Cool Play 6 comes with a dual camera setup at the back, which is another highlight. The device has two 13MP sensors at the back: one captures standard RGB shots, while the other one shoots monochrome shots. The device also has a dedicated Portrait mode, which adds depth to the images. The phone has an 8MP front-facing camera.
Here are some of the samples I shot in Dubai with the Cool Play 6. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Software
As I mentioned earlier, the Coolpad Cool Play 6 does not come with LeEco's EUI. Instead, the company has come up with its own custom skin called 'JupiterUI'. However, the JupiterUI is not much different from EUI, when it comes to visual changes.
The JupiterUI does not have an app drawer, meaning all the apps are spread across the home screen. There are not many features as well besides the slightly customised Do Not Disturb mode and Theme Engine support.
The best part is that the JupiterUI on the Cool Play 6 is built on top of Android 7.1.1 Nougat with July security patch. We will come up with a dedicated article on Cool Play 6' software later.
Battery
The smartphone has a generous 4060mAh battery. My initial impressions are the battery will last a day and not more than that. When Coolpad team handed me the device, the battery was around 54%, and by the time I setup my email ID and download few apps, the battery dropped down to 47%.
The device's hotspot was turned on all the time, and I used the camera for more than 30 minutes. That's it, within seven eight hours, the device's battery came down to 4%. However, I will use the device for the entire next week and will conclude the final battery performance in the full review.
Conclusion
The Coolpay Cool Play 6 is a great smartphone for the asking price. The device goes against the Redmi Note 4 and Moto G5 Plus and beats them hands down with more RAM, and dual cameras. Like I said, my full review of the Cool Play 6 will be live in a few days. For now, I feel that the device will give Redmi Note 4 a stiff competition.
