Coolpad Max is the first flagship smartphone from Coolpad. Recalling a brief description about its specifications – Coolpad Max is powered by a 1.5GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 (MSM8952) with Adreno 405 GPU coupled with 4GB RAM and 64GB on-board storage which is further expandable via a microSD card. The device is bundled with 2800mAh non-removable battery. For the last couple of weeks, we have been using the Coolpad Max as our primary device and we think two week’s time is good enough to pass a judgement.
Coolpad has indeed worked hard to give premium look to Coolpad Max and is definitely a step up in terms of design when compared with the previous affordable smartphones from the company. The smartphone comes with a full-metal unibody with 2.5D curved glass at front and Gorilla Glass 4 protection.
The volume buttons are on the left, the 3.5mm audio socket is on top, and the Micro-USB port is on the bottom flanked by two grilles, only one of which is actually a speaker. You will find the power button and hybrid slot on the right side, which can accommodate one nano-SIM card and a second nano-SIM card or a microSD card. At the back we have a fingerprint sensor with a shiny ring around it, and right at the top is the protruding camera with its two-tone flash to one side and a mic hole to the other.
Coolpad Max’s design reminds us of iPhone 6S Plus, especially the Rose Gold variant. The device itself looks like a mashup of recent designs from Apple and HTC.
The Coolpad Max runs on Coolpad’s own Cool UI skin running on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop. There is no app drawer and everything you have is on the homescreen. It also comes with a C button as seen in the other Coolpad phones and it is nothing but a floating widget having shortcuts like back, screenshot, restart, and more. For the first time a Coolpad device has support for themes and has its own theme store where themes can be downloaded for free, just like theme store in MIUI. The company has adopted a Gold colour theme for the Coolpad Max. Coolpad has skinned even the icons for popular apps like Facebook and WhatsApp in the same Gold hue, which cannot be changed even if we apply another theme and feels irritating at times. The default keyboard is called TouchPal 2015 and has a number of extras such as preset phrases, a full-screen mode, and an optional T9 layout. Cool Service is another app which helps you locate authorised service centres on a map and call them. The USP of the smartphone, one which Coolpad have been highlighting tremendously, is its ‘Dual-System’ security feature. The user can have two different accounts of WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat, or other social media platforms while keeping the photos and other data private.
The phone comes with a 13MP Samsung ISOCELL 3M2 CMOS sensor with LED flash and a 5MP front-facing snapper for selfies. The camera app is simple and easy to use, the company has also incorporated different modes to enhance the photography experience. The images captured are mediocre not justifying the 25k price tag. We are not saying that the images captures are pathetic but these are average shots. The images captured in bright daylight are vibrant, have good dynamic range and depth of field effects looked great in close-up shot. Fine textures were reproduced well, even in shaded areas. The phone did well even in low light, capturing details and colours that would usually be lost. We are quite impressed with the camera performance but at this price point the expectations from camera module are significantly higher than sub 10k price range Coolpad devices. Overall, the Coolpad Max impresses with its image quality.
The Coolpad Max is pretty snappy for the most part, but does tend to get a bit warm when used for a long time(same story for all Android smartphones these days). The smartphone suffers from frequent lags and hiccups and the day to day performance is just not as smooth as you would like. The culprit being inefficient RAM management, but this issue can be fixed via OTA. As expected from Coolpad, the fingerprint sensor is extremely responsive. The sensor unlocks the device in less than a second. The chipset starts to sweat when we started playing high graphical games like Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5: Blackout, though medium to low graphical games like Dead Trigger 2, Clash of Clans and Hill Climb Racing worked like a charm.
Coolpad Max is backed by a non-removable 2,800mAh battery unit. We think the device is a bit underpowered but Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 can be considered as a consolidation prize. The battery unit is not powerful enough to last for a day with heavy usage. The device ships with a 2amp charger and it takes about 80 minutes to charge the handset using wall charger from 2% to 100%. With moderate usage, you shouldn’t have to reach out for the charger during the day, but even if you do, you’ll only need it for a few minutes at a time.
The Coolpad Max is definitely a premium-looking device having design traits from Apple iPhone and HTC. The manufacturer is betting on its dual-system security feature and seems to have priced itself out of the market when it comes to other aspects of the smartphone. But pricing high is not bad as this device might not be at par with its competitive devices like OnePlus Two and Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 as hardware is not the selling point of this device. The private space feature is neat and the Research and Development team has put a lot of effort in developing this privacy solution. The mode is useful as a way to avoid carrying two phones but not necessarily to keep sensitive data completely secure. Other companies including Samsung, BlackBerry, and Nokia have tried similar features to help people keep their work and personal data separate, and it feels as though Coolpad’s implementation is designed more for personal privacy than corporate data security. We can easily recommend Coolpad Max to someone who is willing to spend this much and wants to keep sensitive data completely secure.
Coolpad Max is available for ₹24,999 exclusively from Amazon.in
[easyreview title=”Install or Not Scorecard” cat1title=”Hardware” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″ cat2title=”Performance” cat2detail=”” cat2rating=”3.5″ cat3title=”Design” cat3detail=”” cat3rating=”4.5″ cat4title=”Value for Money” cat4detail=”” cat4rating=”4.0″]
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