Coolpad is back with another budget-friendly smartphone, Cool 5, right on time for the Diwali season here in India. If you're a regular visitor of this site then you might have checked out my review of Coolpad Cool 3 Plus, which was posted here a few months ago, if you haven't then no problem because today we bring to you another Coolpad smartphone review, and this time it is the newly launched low-budget smartphone Coolpad Cool 5.
Coolpad Cool 5 is a new entry-level smartphone which comes with amazing features and hardware in a sub 8K price range. The smartphone comes with a 6.22 inch display with a water-drop style notch design, Dual rear cameras, USB Type-C connectivity, 64GB internal storage and 4GB RAM, sounds great right? Also there is only one variant of Coolpad Cool 5 (4GB+64GB) available in the market, however you get two color options to choose from. The smartphone is available in Gradient Blue & Midnight Blue colors, and is priced at Rs.7,999 in India. We've been using the device (Coolpad Cool 5) for about three weeks now and finally we are here with a full review. Stay with us and you'll find out whether the device is worth or not.
Box Contents
Talking about the box and contents, the Coolpad Cool 5 smartphone came in a box which looked quite similar to Cool 3 Plus' box. Apart from the phone, the box contained usual stuff as Cool 3 Plus - you get a Charging adapter, a USB Type-C cable, a transparent case, SIM ejector tool, a screen guard and some documentation like a quick start guide & a warranty booklet, that's pretty much it. There were no earphones inside the box which is pretty much normal these days.
It's good to see that Coolpad provided a transparent case as well as a screen guard inside the box, nowadays a lot of brands are providing extra accessories along with the phone, which is a good thing in my opinion and must be continued.
It's good to see that Coolpad provided a transparent case as well as a screen guard inside the box, nowadays a lot of brands are providing extra accessories along with the phone, which is a good thing in my opinion and must be continued.
Design & Display
Coolpad Cool 5 smartphone is well designed keeping the current trends in mind, it comes with a water-drop style notch design which is quite popular these days. The smartphone is available in two color options - Gradient Blue & Midnight Blue. The one which I have with me is Gradient Blue, and honestly I found it quite attractive. Talking about the design, the smartphone is made up of plastic and has a glass like finish on the back. It measures 8 mm in thickness and weighs around 145 grams.
Coolpad Cool 5 smartphone is well designed keeping the current trends in mind, it comes with a water-drop style notch design which is quite popular these days. The smartphone is available in two color options - Gradient Blue & Midnight Blue. The one which I have with me is Gradient Blue, and honestly I found it quite attractive. Talking about the design, the smartphone is made up of plastic and has a glass like finish on the back. It measures 8 mm in thickness and weighs around 145 grams.
The top section contains the 3.5 mm audio jack, while the bottom contains the loudspeaker, USB Type-C charging port and the microphone. The back contains Dual camera setup along with the LED flash, fingerprint sensor and Coolpad branding.
On the left side you get the SIM tray, while on the right side you get the volume button along with the power button. Coolpad Cool 5 supports dual SIM cards, it has a dedicated SIM slot and a hybrid slot which can be used for SIM 2 or a microSD card.
The display on Cool 5 is a 6.22" inch IPS LCD of 1520 x 720 pixels resolution with a 270 ppi pixel density and 19:9 aspect ratio. It comes with a dew-drop style front camera cut-out and rounded corners. This time again Coolpad went with a 20p resolution display which I can't complain about since it is a low-budget smartphone, but still would've loved to see a higher resolution display on this phone. Anyway, the display on Cool 5 is still quite good as compared to other phones in the same budget. The brightness levels of the display are quite high, sunlight legibility is decent and once again I found the contrast levels to be a bit low and colors sometimes felt washed out. Overall the display is decent for this price range.
Hardware & Performance
Lets straight jump into it, Coolpad Cool 5 comes with Mediatek MT6762 Helio P22 (12 nm) chipset, Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 processor along with PowerVR GE8320 GPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory. Unlike the previous Coolpad devices, the Cool 5 only comes in one memory option (4GB+64GB). However you can expand the storage by using a microSD card up to 128 GB in the hybrid slot.
The hardware provided by Coolpad on Cool 5 smartphone was as improvement as compared with the previous Coolpad Cool 3 Plus smartphone, but still was quite entry-level, so I was not expecting any exceptional performance from the device. To my surprise, the smartphone performed quite well in day-to-day tasks like calling, email, browsing, instant messaging etc. Also I had no issues running basic apps, performing various daily use functions and moderate gaming. The smartphone came with Android 9.0out-of-the-box, topped with 360 OS as usual. I did come across some bloatware and unnecessary apps which were pre-installed on the phone, some of them can be uninstalled while some are there to stay. Some company apps like Theme store, Battery saver, Health guard, Game booster etc., are also present on the device.
To give you a better idea about the performance, we ran a some of the popular benchmark tests on Coolpad Cool 5 smartphone, here are the results. The AnTuTu Benchmark score we got was 91438, the GeekBench score we got was 156 for single-core & 789 for multi-core, the 3D Mark (Ice Storm Extreme) score we got was 8348 and finally the GFXBench score (Check here).
Overall Coolpad Cool 5 was average in terms of performance but still did a good job during my testing period. I was able to run most of the apps & games without any problems, the phone performed well overall, however you cannot expect it to run high graphic games without some hiccups in performance, still it did a decent job for the price tag. The smartphone is good for daily usage like WhatsApp chatting, calling, browsing, social media, watching YouTube videos, listening to music & even light gaming.
Camera Performance
Coolpad Cool 5 smartphone comes with Dual rear camera setup which comprises of a 13 Megapixel sensor & a 2 Megapixel sensor. The rear cameras are designed & positioned similar to what we saw on iPhone X. In between the two camera sensors, there is an LED flash, completing the iPhone look. The Cool 5 rear camera comes with autofocus and can shoot 1080p videos at 30fps. The front camera is a 16 Megapixel sensor.
The front camera on Cool 5 supports AI functions and also comes with various camera modes like Beauty, FaceCute, Bokeh, Time Lapse, GIF etc. You can even add watermark to your pictures. The camera app also supports QR code scanning, which comes quite handy at times and eliminates the need of installing a third-party QR scanning app. The front camera comes with an AI portrait mode which does work but the results are quite average, still it's good to have it on board. You also get a Beauty video mode which actually is a beautification mode specially designed for videos, it helps in enhancing your looks when capturing videos, this feature was also seen on Coolpad Cool 3 Plus and Its good to see Coolpad providing such features on their budget smartphones.
The camera results were good, if not great. The pictures came out well in good lighting, we took several shots in daylight & also in artificial light. The pictures clicked in daylight were quite good with details & good dynamic range. However there was some loss in details when clicked in artificial lighting, but nothing to worry, the pictures were still pretty good. In low light the camera performance was not so impressive, there was high noise and details weren't captured the way I expected it to do. However the camera still performed good for the price this phone comes in, can't complain much. The 16 Megapixel front camera performed well but the portrait mode could use some improvement, and I hope Coolpad will fix it with future updates. The camera app on Cool 5 reminded me a lot of iPhone, it looked quite similar and came with tons of features like picture modes & other settings. The smartphone can capture 1080p videos at 30 frames per second which is quite normal these days, the video quality was decent for the price. Below are some sample shots taken with Coolpad Cool 5 smartphone.
Connectivity & Battery Life
Coolpad Cool 5 offers various connectivity options like Dual SIM support, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 5.0 with A2DP & LE support, GPS with A-GPS support, USB Type-C 1.0 connector with OTG support, FM Radio, Infrared sensor and 3.5 mm audio jack. The smartphone supports dual SIM cards, it has a nano-SIM card slot and a hybrid SIM slot which supports either a second SIM card or a microSD card up to 128GB.
Coolpad Cool 5 offers various connectivity options like Dual SIM support, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 5.0 with A2DP & LE support, GPS with A-GPS support, USB Type-C 1.0 connector with OTG support, FM Radio, Infrared sensor and 3.5 mm audio jack. The smartphone supports dual SIM cards, it has a nano-SIM card slot and a hybrid SIM slot which supports either a second SIM card or a microSD card up to 128GB.
Unlike Coolpad Cool 3 Plus, with Cool 5 you get a bigger battery, 4000 mAh Li-polymer battery with fast charging support. The battery easily lasts a day and a half with moderate usage and takes little over 2 hour 40 minutes to charge fully from zero to 100 percent. The charging adapter which came in the box had 1.0 A output, so you'll have to manage with slow charging. The overall battery performance was decent, it lasted a day easily with moderate usage during my testing days.
My Verdict
So coming to the end, the Coolpad Cool 5 is a very capable entry-level smartphone with amazing features, cool design and a very long lasting battery life. The smartphone performs well when it comes to day-to-day tasks and is also good for light gaming. The display is large and very bright, you will definitely enjoy watching movies & videos on it. The phone is designed well and is very comfortable to hold, it has a good looking gradient design & a premium feel to it, despite being made up of plastic. The fingerprint sensor on Cool 5 is very accurate & fast, the camera performance was decent overall and the overall performance of the smartphone was good for the price tag.
One thing which really impressed me was the battery performance, the smartphone literally lasted more than 36 hours with moderate usage and sometimes went beyond that during my tests. With such battery performance, I can say for sure that it will easily last more than a day with moderate usage. So to conclude my review, the Coolpad Cool 5 is an overall decent smartphone which performed quite well in all areas, it is good for people who are looking for a dependable budget smartphone for daily activities like calling, emails, browsing, WhatsApp, social media and light gaming. If that ticks all the boxes for you then I would definitely recommend it.
So coming to the end, the Coolpad Cool 5 is a very capable entry-level smartphone with amazing features, cool design and a very long lasting battery life. The smartphone performs well when it comes to day-to-day tasks and is also good for light gaming. The display is large and very bright, you will definitely enjoy watching movies & videos on it. The phone is designed well and is very comfortable to hold, it has a good looking gradient design & a premium feel to it, despite being made up of plastic. The fingerprint sensor on Cool 5 is very accurate & fast, the camera performance was decent overall and the overall performance of the smartphone was good for the price tag.
One thing which really impressed me was the battery performance, the smartphone literally lasted more than 36 hours with moderate usage and sometimes went beyond that during my tests. With such battery performance, I can say for sure that it will easily last more than a day with moderate usage. So to conclude my review, the Coolpad Cool 5 is an overall decent smartphone which performed quite well in all areas, it is good for people who are looking for a dependable budget smartphone for daily activities like calling, emails, browsing, WhatsApp, social media and light gaming. If that ticks all the boxes for you then I would definitely recommend it.
Pricing & Availability
Coolpad Cool 5 smartphone (4GB+64GB) is priced at Rs.7,999 in India, it is available online via Amazon, you can purchase Gradient Blue variant or Midnight Blue variant as per your preference. The smartphone is a decent pick for budget oriented buyers and will not disappoint in the day-to-day moderate usage. I hope this review helps you in making a decision, if you have any queries regarding this device then please leave a comment below and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you.
Coolpad Cool 5 smartphone (4GB+64GB) is priced at Rs.7,999 in India, it is available online via Amazon, you can purchase Gradient Blue variant or Midnight Blue variant as per your preference. The smartphone is a decent pick for budget oriented buyers and will not disappoint in the day-to-day moderate usage. I hope this review helps you in making a decision, if you have any queries regarding this device then please leave a comment below and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you.
