CoolPad Cool 3 Plus review: A budget phone with good looks, decent camera

Priced at Rs 7,999 for 3GB/32GB variant, the Coolpad Cool 3 Plus is a good-looking device with a decent display, but underperforming hardware tempers performance

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Coolpad recently launched the Cool 3 Plus in India at a price starting Rs 5,999. This budget smartphone has a 5.7-inch HD+ display with a dewdrop notch at the top, a capacitive fingerprint sensor on the back, and a 3,000 mAh battery. For its price, the phone seems to be a good proposition in its segment. But is it an all-round quality product? Let’s find out:

Design

The Coolpad Cool 3 Plus is a good-looking smartphone with a durable build. It comes in two colours -- cherry black and ocean blue. The ocean blue colour variant, which we have reviewed, has a plastic unibody, with a two-tone gradient design which reflects shades of blue and violet. Though the phone’s design looks good, the glossy profile makes it a fingerprint magnet, dulling its reflective glass-like properties. Thankfully, the phone comes with a protective case inside the box which helps protect the phone from unwanted fingerprints and accidental falls. Overall, the phone feels light and has a comfortable fit. These make operability smoother.

Display

The Cool 3 Plus has a 5.7-inch HD+ screen of a 19:9 aspect ratio. The screen has thin bezels around it, but a thick chin at the bottom. It has a tiny notch at the top (dewdrop-shaped), accommodating the front camera. There is a provision to turn off the notch view, but that reduces the phone’s overall usable screen area. The screen has a good viewing, and its sunlight legibility is also satisfactory.

Performance

The Cool 3 Plus is powered by a 2.0GHz MediaTek 6761 (Helio A22) quad-core processor, paired with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. It boots the Android 9 Pie operating system. The phone’s performance is about average — a little sluggish while switching between apps. It also takes time to unlock using either the face-unlock or fingerprint-unlock mechanism. It also shows some lag while opening apps and closes the apps running in the background. The phone has some thermal issues, too. It gets hot while playing games or streaming multimedia content via internet.  Powering the phone is a 3,000mAh battery, which lasts for about a day on moderate usage.

Camera

The Cool 3 Plus has a 13-megapixel shooter on the back and an 8MP selfie camera on the front. The rear camera takes decent pictures in daylight but struggles in lowlight conditions. Photos come out undersaturated and may look a bit dull. Although the camera has multiple features, such as the portrait and bokeh modes, they barely improve the overall camera performance. The front camera has a similar story. It takes good selfies in daylight, but has a sub-par performance in low light.

Verdict

Priced at Rs 7,999 for the 3GB/32GB variant, the Coolpad Cool 3 Plus is a good-looking device with a decent display, but underperforming hardware somewhat mar the overall experience. Consider this phone for good design and display in the segment where it competes with good products like like Realme C2, Redmi 7A, etc.