This is more likely going to be a dual-camera year for the smartphones. It’s actually surprising for us to know that how Coolpad is always ahead in this furious race and gaining its space in the smartphone market. After LeEco took over Coolpad, they finally decided to make one extraordinary smartphone called ‘Cool 1’ by combining LeEco’s design and hardware with a dual camera. It’s like Le 2 by Coolpad that labels a bigger 4,000 mAh battery, a new camera unit, and the missing headphone jack.
Apparently, Lenovo Phab2 Plus is the only close competing phablet that comes with dual camera setup. If you take a closer look, Coolpad initially revolutionized the fingerprint scanner technology at a low price and then it started. Coolpad is changing the way and making a buzz in the budget smartphone category,. Is that Cool 1 Dual managed to turn the tables in the mid-range price category? We will find it out in our Coolpad Cool 1 Dual review.
What’s in the Box?
- Coolpad Cool 1 Dual with built-in battery
- USB Cable (Type-C)
- Power Brick (5V, 2A)
- Screen Protector
- SIM Tray Ejector
- Quick Start Guide and Safety Information
No earphones provided, despite the fact that most Coolpads come with earphones. It has a double-sided USB Type-C cable.
Coolpad Cool 1 Dual Specifications
- Model: C103
- Display: 5.5-inch Full HD IPS Display (1920 x 1080 pixels resolution)
- Software: EUI 5.8 based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
- Fingerprint Scanner: Yes, at the back
- CPU: Up to 1.8 GHz octa-core processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (MSM8976) SoC
- GPU: Adreno 510
- Memory: 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM
- Storage: 32 GB internal storage, No MicroSD slot
- Main Camera: Dual 13 MP, f/2.0, PDAF, dual-tone LED flash, 4K video @30fps. Slow Motion 720p @120fps
- Front Camera: 8 MP, f/2.2, 1080p video
- Connectivity: USB Type-C port, 3.5 mm audio jack, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
- Cellular: 4G LTE support, Dual nano-SIM cards (GSM + GSM), VoLTE enabled
- Battery: 4000 mAh (non-removable)
- Power Supply: Output 5V, 2A
- Dimensions: 152 mm x 74.8 mm x 8.2 mm
- Weight: 167 grams
- Colors: Silver, Gold
- Price: ₹13,999
- Warranty: 1 Year Warranty
Design and Build
The initial impressions reveal that Cool 1 looks very identical to the Le 2, and if you like the design of LeEco smartphones, you will fancy this one. Coolpad Cool 1 Dual offers a sleek metallic design with chamfered edges. The Cool 1 Dual looks stylish, there are chrome bezels around the screen, the top and bottom end are covered with plastics instead. However, the exteriors are still better than the existing Coolpads in this range. Also, the phone feels very strongly built.
On the back, the surface isn’t glossy but matte finish, so there won’t be fingerprint smudges anymore. It weighs 167 grams and as thin as 8.2 mm. Since it sports a larger 4,000 mAh battery, you might feel some weight. There’s a mirror-finish fingerprint scanner just below the camera.
Moving to the cameras of the phone, it comes with dual 13 MP cameras (Sony IMX258) each featuring different functionality. One camera is for Monochrome and other one uses RGB to capture colored images. The camera setup is very similar to Honor 8 and HUAWEI P9, much like a cheaper variant for camera features. The camera can capture Monochrome images and an SLR mode that snaps images with shallow depth of field.
The front has an 8 MP f/2.2 camera without any front LED flash. If Coolpad would provide a front LED flash, that would be an overall great camera package offering in its class. The bottom area uses capacitive backlit touch buttons that light up, albeit the backlit illumination isn’t effective when using the phone outdoors.
The Cool 1 Dual supports 4G network and VoLTE calls. You can place two nano SIM cards in it. The SIM Tray is provided on the left while the right side has power and volume keys.
The bottom center has one USB Type-C port, not the regular port. The left grill contains a microphone and the right one is the speaker. On the top, you will find an IR Blaster and surprisingly, an earphone jack.
Display
The Cool 1 Dual has 5.5-inch full HD IPS display protected by a scratch resistant glass covered on top of the display and it is highly glossy. Hence, it can let the phone slip from the hands easily. The brightness is adequate and viewing angles are good. Outdoor viewing can be uncertain due to its reflective and glossy display otherwise is good for indoors. The EUI software offers some display enhancements like color mode and LED notification light. There is nothing much to talk about in the display.
Software and User Interface
If we talk about its software, Cool 1 has now gone with the LeEco’s EUI software instead of Cool UI. And no doubt most of the software features are from LeEco’s EUI. Coolpad Cool 1 Dual runs on custom software EUI 5.8 which is based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. However, the software is tweaked in a way that it still uses some of the Coolpad software perks such as the camera app and preinstalled apps such as Xploree keyboard. The LeEco’s content Ecosystem apps are not provided with the phone. Furthermore, the software also does not show CDLA option and when plugging a CDLA earphone doesn’t work with the phone.
EUI is much better than the sluggish Cool UI. The software feels rich and offers numerous customization options. The EUI is already explained in our previous reviews of LeEco smartphones. Do consider reading them if you want to know more about the software.
It has a few preinstalled apps and one of them seems to be a bloatware that shows you ads when you open the keyboard. If you aren’t confortable with Coolpad’s Xploree keyboard, you can shift to Google Keyboard or any other keyboard you like. The app can be removed from the system.
Fingerprint Scanner
The fingerprint scanner works great. It is fast and effective. Though it doesn’t work with wet fingers, the scanner quickly unlocks the phone. The scanner can also lock apps using your fingerprint so, it gives you an additional layer of security. Furthermore, the scanner captures images and selfies when you tap it.
Hardware, Performance, and Gaming
The Coolpad Cool 1 Dual is powered by 1.8 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor and 4 GB RAM. Snapdragon 652 is way ahead in terms of performance as compared to Snapdragon 617 and 625 which are found in the higher priced Coolpad Max and ASUS Zenfone 3 to name a few.
The 4 GB RAM is quite a large memory to hold the apps for multitasking. It uses an Adreno 510 graphics if you want to game on it. Using apps and performing multitasking give a very pleasant experience without any lags or hiccups.
AnTuTu benchmark scored a very good 79,913 points. Further benchmarks such as Geekbench 4 scored 1,449 points on single-core CPU, 3,053 points on multi-core CPU. Adreno 510 got a good 3,416 points on GPU benchmark. Quadrant Standard Edition shows 37,571 points. All the benchmarks are above midrange category and very good for this price. These scores exceed Coolpad Max and ASUS ZenFone 3.
AnTuTu Benchmark
- 79,913 points
Geekbench 4
- 1,449 points (single-core CPU)
- 3,053 points (multi-core CPU)
- 3,416 points (GPU)
Quadrant Standard Edition
- 37,571 points
Gaming on the Cool 1 can be surprisingly good and when it comes to gaming, Cool 1 Dual performs at its best. Adreno 510 GPU coupled with 4 GB RAM gives you enough power to run most games. You won’t get disappointed with the gaming performance of Cool 1. It runs many games without any lags or issues.
Games Tested on Coolpad Cool 1 Dual:
- Real Racing 3
- Injustice: Gods Among Us
- Dead Trigger 2
- Ace of Arenas
The temperatures remain under control. It keeps cool under 40 degrees which means the phone gets warm but doesn’t heat while gaming or on load. The idle temperature stays 30 or below.
Storage and Connectivity
It does come with a 32 GB storage on board but no option to expand the storage. At first sight, it looks okay but for those people who ridiculously use a MicroSD card may find a little disappointing. Coolpad may be announcing a 64 GB version of Cool 1 Dual in future. The Cool 1 supports USB OTG but you will need a USB Type-C OTG connector.
Storage benchmarks are average. Though not as fast as OnePlus 3, it is okay for its price. We benchmarked with A1 SD Bench and AndroBench and here are the results.
A1 SD Bench
- 178.99 MB/s (Read)
- 143.94 MB/s (Write)
AndroBench
- 250.95 MB/s (Sequential Read)
- 134.54 MB/s (Sequential Write)
- 31.36 MB/s (Random Read)
- 9.04 MB/s (Random Write)
Cameras
For now, the Cool 1 Dual is the only smartphone at this price that comes with dual cameras. It features two 13 MP f/2.0 cameras with dual-tone LED flash. Due to the dual camera feature, it can easily kill the competition. This one feature makes the Cool 1 shines out among the others. There is an 8 MP f/2.2 camera at the front side.
Coolpad Cool 1 Dual Camera Specifications
- Camera: Dual 13 MP PDAF, f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash
- Camera Sensor: Sony Exmor IMX258 (RGB/Monochrome)
- Optical Image Stabilization (OIS): N/A
- Features: Geo-tagging, Tap to Focus, Classic Monochrome (Photo), SLR Mode, HDR, Pro, Night, Beauty, Panorama, Long Exposure, Classic Monochrome (Photo), Slow Motion, GIF, Watermark, Color Filters, Burst Shot
- Video Recording: Up to 4K video recording, 2160p@30 FPS, Slow Motion 720p@120 FPS, Monochrome Support
- Front Camera: 8 MP, f/2.2
- Video Recording: Up to 1080p video @30fps
- Front Flash: N/A
Though the camera software is identical to EUI-based smartphones, it is much more featured with various options. Yes, there are a few more options like SLR mode, Classic Monochrome, Pro mode, Night Mode, GIF, and Watermark.
Coolpad Cool 1 Dual Camera Samples
If we just talk about the overall quality of the image, the daylight performance is very good, has good colors, contrast, and enough sharpness while the low light performance is average. Overall the camera offers pretty decent quality images with daylight being the most satisfying. The camera focuses quickly and captures the image in no time in daylight scenes.
Upon using its Monochrome feature, it definitely looks much better than the phones that offer a B/W filter. See the image taken from Le 2 camera filtered as Monochrome and the image from Cool 1 camera using Classic Monochrome. The bokeh effect is no good when captured improperly. It is processed by some software algorithms to put the blur effects. But if captured properly, it gives you a nice depth of field and you can manually focus on the objects and adjust the focal length to get the desired effect. The camera can give you a similar experience of using HUAWEI P9 and Honor 8.
Apart from SLR mode and Monochrome, it also offers Pro mode, Night mode, Panorama, and Long exposure. You can also make GIFs and put stickers as a watermark right from the camera app.
It shoots 4K videos at 30fps and slow motion at 120fps. I remember not all phones offer 4K video recording in this price range. The Classic Monochrome is also supported in video mode, isn’t that cool? In addition, the front camera works like a charm. It takes great selfies in daylight. The front camera would be even better if it had a LED flash. So, the overall camera package here is the best you can get at this price.
Call Quality and Audio
The voice quality on Cool 1 Dual is very good and crystal clear, you will find the voice loud enough and better than any other existing Coolpads. On the other hand, the loudspeakers are decent that does give a good sound quality, but not the best we have heard till now. It uses a mono speaker but the two grills may fool you to believe it has two stereo speakers.
Battery Runtime
The battery life is the second best thing we liked. It delivers extraordinary battery life from its 4,000 mAh battery. It went straight two days on moderate usage and a day long on very high usage. Our high usage includes using the camera, playing games, prolong use of 4G hotspot, GPS with Google Maps, long duration calls, surfing on Google Chrome, some social apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and a few hours of SoundCloud music. You can see the screenshots below that gives you an idea how frequently I have used the phone.
Since the battery is 4,000 mAh large, the charging takes a while, almost 2.5 hours to go from zero to hundred. The power supply seems to be the same one that is provided with other Coolpad smartphones. It has a 5V 2A output which is average nowadays.
For power saving traits, it features the a battery power management as seen on LeEco smartphones. The power management offers great stuff like Lockscreen Cleanup and Align Wake Up for saving the battery.
We tested some apps to check out how its battery performs. Here are the battery tests.
Coolpad Cool 1 Dual Battery Test Results
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Pricing and Variants
Coolpad Cool 1 Dual is priced at ₹13,999. It is available exclusively on Amazon. There are two color variants, one Silver and other is Gold, however, Silver variant is available for now and Gold variant will show up soon.
Verdict – Is It Worth Buy?
Keeping everything into the consideration, Coolpad Cool 1 Dual has the best in class performance, a strong metal chassis. Its dual camera is better than most of its current competitors out there. The bokeh effect gives you DSLR-like experience, not to mention it has a dedicated Monochrome camera. The camera is the most satisfying for this price. The battery life is another aspect to look for. It gives you ample time to stay up without charging. In regards to all the above aspects, this is the best bargain if you are planning to buy a smartphone under ₹15,000.
Strength
- Dual Camera Works Great
- Fast App and Games Performance
- Fast Fingerprint Scanner
- IR Blaster
- Great Battery Life
- Decent Front Camera
Weakness
- No MicroSD Support
- No CDLA Support
