Coolpad Max has been launched recently in India having a stylish metallic unibody design and extraordinary features like the Dual Space that you’ve never heard of before. The smartphone is a flagship device having upper midrange hardware. The Coolpad Max flaunts a 5.5-inch display with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, a big 64 GB internal storage, and 4 GB RAM while running an octa-core processor from Qualcomm Snapdragon 617. Also notable is the fingerprint scanner on the back. Before diving into the full review of Coolpad Max, here are our Coolpad max first impressions.
Coolpad Max Specifications:
- Display: 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS display, 2.5D Curved Edge Glass, Anti-Fingerprint Coating Flim
- Operating System: Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Cool UI 8.0
- Fingerprint Scanner: Yes (FPC1021), on the back
- CPU: 1.5 GHz octa-core processor Cortex-A53, Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 SoC
- GPU: Adreno 405
- RAM: 4 GB RAM
- Rear Camera: 13 MP, Samsung ISOCELL 3M2 CMOS, 6P, f/2.0, PDAF, DUAL Tone LED
- Front Camera: 5 MP, OmniVision OV5648
- Storage: 64 GB EMMC 5.1 ROM, Expandable using a MicroSD card
- Sensors: Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, Magnetic Sensor, Accelerometer, Gyro Sensor
- Network: 4G LTE, Hybrid SIM Tray – Dual SIM or Single SIM + MicroSD
- Battery: 2800 mAh, 9V 2A Charger
- Dimensions: 152 mm x 75.5 mm x 7.6 mm
- Weight: 170 grams
- Colors: Rose Gold, Royal Gold
- Price: ₹24,999
Design
Initially, the phone feels very good in the hands, it has a high-grade metal construction, very comfortable to hold, and looks gorgeous. The phone isn’t too heavy, it weighs just 170 grams being a metallic phone. If you remember the two Coolpad smartphones previously launched in India, this one boasts of a stylish and premium metallic unibody with the 2.5D curved glass on top.
Coolpad Max has a bead-blasted aluminum alloy body and full metal chassis with a matte design thus free from fingerprint smudges. It is sized at a 5.5-inch triggering a full HD display having thin bezels.
When you look closely, the back resembles the Apple’s iPhone 6, however, a few things make it look different such as the camera and an added fingerprint scanner. There is a 13 MP camera with PDAF and dual-tone LED flash and a 5 MP camera on the front side. The best part is Coolpad Max comes with a huge 64 GB of storage and 4 GB RAM.
The bottom has two grills where left is for loudspeakers and the right one is for the microphone. The second microphone is located on the camera side. Coolpad has chosen the on-screen buttons while their previous smartphones were offering the touch navigation buttons outside the display.
Coolpad Max is quite slim (7.6 mm) compared to many phones out there. The right side holds a power button and a hybrid SIM tray and the left side has nothing but the volume control buttons. As it is a 4G enabled smartphone, you can put two nano SIM cards or one nano SIM and one Micro SD if you plan to expand the storage which I don’t think you will require.
Fingerprint Scanner
Coolpad Max comes with a fast fingerprint scanner that resides on the upper-center of the back of the phone. We have used the smartphone’s fingerprint scanner and we were simply surprised. It is fast and unlocks the device pretty quickly. Setting the fingerprint scanner is a no-frills easy task, you just have to verify the fingerprint 6 times to add it.
Software and Camera
Coolpad Max comes with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with CoolUI 8.0 skin on top. We just saw the user interface and it is actually stockish but modified visuals. It does not offer an App drawer and everything you have is on the homescreen. The on-screen navigation buttons below can disappear if you tap the small three dot symbol on it. 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.
Coolpad Max offers a Dual Space that allows the users to keep two separate lives by using BiLogin technology. The user can have two different accounts of Whatsapp, Facebook, Snapchat, or other social media platforms while keeping the photos and other data private. We used the Dual Space and it’s like you have two different home screens on one phone with each having its own apps and storage space. To access the Dual Space, all you have to do is just tap the icon having a key logo on the homescreen to log into the another space.
The 13 MP snapper has a Samsung ISOCELL 3M2 CMOS sensor with phase-detection autofocus. The camera comes with a dual-tone LED flash and f/2/0 aperture. We were just checking out the camera and thought to capture a few shots and it seems the camera is quite good in our initial impressions, the camera took the images very fast. The camera app does come with a neat interface. We will give you a detailed review of the Coolpad Max camera in our full review.
We have captured a few shots initially to show you how the camera captures the scenes in the daylights. Check out the shots taken by this 13 MP shooter below.
We will capture more images from the 13 MP snapper in different lighting conditions including the night shots.
Early Verdict
In our initial impressions, it looks like Coolpad doesn’t disappoint us, we liked the huge 64 GB storage and 4 GB RAM. We also liked the Dual Space feature so one can experience two different lives. You can say Coolpad Max is the best of both worlds. We could hope for a better and powerful CPU for a flagship but Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 isn’t that bad either and does the job quite well and good. At the same price, you have the flagship killer Xiaomi Mi 5 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 but if it’s not about a high-performance CPU, the Coolpad Max gains the spot in the design and features. We are yet to check out other aspects in detail like the hardware performance, camera, gaming and battery life all in our Coolpad Max review. So, stay tuned.
