Coolpad is one of the most popular smartphone brands in China and is the 9th largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Spice has partnered with the Chinese giant to introduce their range of Android running phones in India. The first of these is the Spice Coolpad Mi-515. Read on to find out what we think about the handset.
Video Review
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnZFa9iX-yE
Design
The Spice Coolpad isn’t going to win any design awards but the first handset introduced under the Coolpad branding is far from an eyesore. The 9.9 mm slim profile feels good in the hand and the plastics used are fairly high quality though they attract fingerprints very easily. The handset weighs in under 160 grams.
The front fascia is dominated by the 5 inch screen below which are three buttons that correspond to back, homescreen and the menu key. Worth noting is that the keys are not backlit.
Above the display lies the 0.3 MP front facing camera that should be sufficient for a video chat but not much else. We feel that the company skimped out here and should have included at least 1.3MP snapper considering the competition is starting to include as much as 5MP front facing cameras.
Over at the top of the phone you can spot a 3.5 mm audio jack and the micro USB port. The bezel running around the phone is a different shade of blue than the back plate and this makes the handset look fairly appealing. The right side of the phone sports a lone power key while the volume rocker lies on the left side of the phone.
The backplate of the Spice Coolpad has an interesting grayish blue color to it with a Spice logo embedded right in the middle. Above it lies the 5MP camera module with a single LED flash below it. Over all we feel that Spice has done a decent enough job at the hardware design and the phone is comfortable to hold despite having a large 5 inch screen.
Display
The Spice Coolpad has a large five inch display with a resolution that proves to be lacking. The 960×540 resolution just isn’t sufficient to provide a razor sharp image on the 5 inch screen.
Once you set aside the disappointment of the low resolution panel, the screen is actually quite decent. Being an IPS panel, colors are vibrant yet accurate with none of the over saturation seen in AMOLED screens. Brightness levels are adequate and outdoor visibility too is good enough if not particularly impressive.
Software
Like several other Spice devices, we find that the software layer is mostly stock Android 4.1.2. The company hasn’t really touched the interface and we always appreciate this as it helps keep things running smooth all around. Notable omissions here are the wireless indicators and the battery bar which have been given a graphical update.
The homescreen sports the standard Google search bar on top with space for app icons below it. The icons in the row at the bottom can be switched out at will except for the app drawer launcher. Moving into the app drawer, we find that Spice has tweaked the icons to give them a 3 dimensional look.
The notifications drawer includes a bunch of quick access toggles. It is possible to swipe through these to get additional toggles. The operating system as mentioned earlier is Android 4.1.2 and we can’t help but feel that Spice should’ve used an updated OS build here given that the competition is already on Android 4.2.
Performance
The phone is powered by a 1.2 Ghz quad core MT6589M Mediatek processor paired with 1GB of RAM of which about 500MB is available at launch. This hardware combo is potent enough to keep things running smooth across the board. GPU performance in particular is impressive with the handset scoring 45 in the Nenamark benchmark. This places it right at the top of the competition in this category.
CPU performance on the other hand isn’t too impressive. Synthetic benchmarks like Quadrant result in scores of about 3924 which is on the lower end of the spectrum but not too far from the competition.
We also tried out some games. Here is the Asphalt 7 gameplay
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTEDl17qdec
Camera
The Spice Coolpad Mi-515 is equipped with a 5MP camera with autofocus and single LED flash. We found the image quality to be above average with vibrant images. The camera manages to set exposure levels accurately and noise is surprisingly well under control.
While noise is kept under control, we felt that images were lacking in detail. As can be seen in the bushes in the image above, the green areas have turned into a large swath of green mush.
The camera also includes an HDR mode which works quite well but can result in images with unrealistic colors.
We were very impressed by the close up shots taken with the Spice Coolpad Mi-515. The camera manages to get a focus lock very quick and results in razor sharp images.
Connectivity & Battery Life
The Coolpad Mi-515 is a Dual SIM ( 3G + 2G) phone with Dual Standby. Connectivity options include 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0with A2DP and GPS / aGPS. The phone also includes an FM radio. Inbuilt storage is 4GB but can be expanded via the micro SD card slot.
The Lithium Polymer battery is rated at 2000 mAh and is sufficient for a work day of frugal usage. Given the large screen of the device, we feel that Spice should have included a larger battery here as active usage does take a toll and you might be left scrambling for the charger halfway through the day.
Conclusion
The Spice Coolpad Mi-515 is a thoroughly midrange handset that is a good enough and doesn’t have any show-stopping omissions. We do feel that Spice could’ve equipped the handset with a higher resolution screen and a larger battery would have been appreciated too.
Performance is par for the course and the hardware quality is good but not spectacular. Priced at the Rs. 9,990, the Spice Coolpad Mi-515 is worth your consideration but we would also recommend taking a look at the Zen Ultrafone 701HD that offers a higher resolution screen and slightly better build quality.
Pros
- Decent build quality
- Good performance
Cons
- qHD display
- Average battery life