The budget segment, particularly the sub-Rs. 10,000 category has been seeing a lot of smartphone launches lately. There’s no doubt that the segment is already cluttered with a countless number of devices to choose from already. Adding to that number, Coolpad had launched yet another budget phone called Coolpad Note 5 Lite.
As the name itself suggests, the Coolpad Note 5 Lite is a watered-down version of the original Coolpad Note 5. Now, Coolpad surprised the tech enthusiasts with its Note 3 handset a couple of years ago when the company forayed into the Indian market. But lately, the company seems to have lost its mojo with a couple of mediocre smartphones launched in the recent past. Nevertheless, the company has launched the Coolpad Note 5 Lite which puts directly against the Xiaomi’s Redmi 3s Prime.
Coolpad has always been a bit impressive with its design language. The same continues with its latest offering. There’s nothing remarkable as such neither is it a deviation from the run-of-the-mill candy bar design. But still, the smartphone is arguably one of the best-looking devices in its price category. Perhaps, better than the Xiaomi’s Redmi 3s Prime.
Specs wise both the Coolpad Note 5 Lite and Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime are pretty much similar. The former has a 5-inch HD display with a layer of 2.5D curved glass running over it. While the latter also has a 5-inch HD display, lacks the 2.5D curved glass. Both the smartphones have an all-metal unibody design with a fingerprint scanner placed on the rear. Just above the fingerprint sensor is the 13-megapixel camera on both the devices. The Note 5 Lite, however, gets the lead in the imaging department with an 8-megapixel sensor at the front as opposed to the 5-megapixel sensor on Xiaomi’s offering.
Under-the-hood, Coolpad’s offering has a 1.0GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735 SoC whereas the Redmi 3s Prime has a Snapdragon 430 chipset. Both the handsets come with 3GB of RAM. However, Xiaomi’s handset comes with 32GB of expandable (up to 128GB) storage in comparison to the Note 5 Lite’s 16GB of expandable (up to 64GB) storage.
Both the phones run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box. Of course, with the company’s respective customs skins such as MIUI 8 and Cool UI 8.0. The major difference between both the phones comes in the battery department. Xiaomi’s Redmi 3s Prime has a 4,100mAh battery whereas the Coolpad Note 5 Lite has a 2,500mAh battery.
If we look closely, both the phones more or less feature similar specs with the Redmi 3s Prime having slightly better specs. Both are priced similarly as well. Coolpad Note 5 Lite comes at Rs. 8,199 (exclusively available on Amazon) whereas the Redmi 3s Prime ships at Rs. 8,999. We haven’t checked the Coolpad Note 5 Lite for ourselves, but both the phones should handle day-to-day tasks smoothly. However, when it comes to handling graphic intensive tasks, both the phones are likely to suffer.
Eventually, it all boils down to your preference. If you’ve been a Coolpad fan, the Note 5 Lite seems to be a pretty decent phone or the Redmi 3s Prime is a good bargain for the asking price.
