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Coolpad Mega 2.5D smartphone with a focus on selfie camera has been launched in India. The device is Amazon exclusive and costs Rs 6,999. Its first flash sale will take on August 24, registrations for which begins today at 5 pm. Here’s our first impressions of Coolpad Mega 2.5D.
So let’s start with the selfie camera, since this is the focus of the Coolpad Mega 2.5D. This one comes with an 8MP front camera, which is a higher resolution what most other rivals offer in this price bracket. There’s a wide 83.6 degree field of view and f/2.2 aperture. The front camera comes with Smart Beautification mode, and detects your age automatically.
Apart from telling a user’s age, the front camera also gives them names like McDreamy, Heartthrob and Nymph. The age and the names appear on top of user’s face. A bit creepy, at best, I’d say. Interestingly two pictures – one with age, name and another without them – are saved in the gallery. This can be changed from settings. The rear camera is also 8MP, which is again decent for the asking price. The pictures did look grainy dues to lack of proper lighting in the room, but we’ll spend more time on these once we get the device for review.
Coolpad Mega 2.5 features a 5.5-inch HD display, which is makes this one of the bigger smartphones in this price range. The screen size looks even bigger, thanks to thin bezels on the sides. The smartphone is extremely light at 143 grams, despite the big display. We didn’t get a chance to take the smartphone out to see how the display performs in bright sunlight, but expect more on that in our review. Coolpad Mega 2.5D has a plastic back, and metal frames running along the edges. The overall design is minimalist and neat, which makes it look way more premium than its price.
In terms of memory, specifications, Coolpad Mega 2.5D is powered by 1GHz quad core Mediatek MT6735P processor with 3GB RAM and 16GB internal memory (expandable up to 32GB via microSD card). Coolpad is again one of the few players offering 3GB RAM in a Rs 7,000 smartphone.
The battery in Coolpad Mega 2.5D is 2,500 mAh and the company claims to provide up to 9 hours of talktime with it. The smartphone comes with features to optimise battery usage. This is a dual-SIM smartphone with hybrid SIM slot. The smartphone either supports two micro SIM cards or a micro SIM in one slot and microSD card in another. Battery is another feature we’ll have to text extensively in our review. Let’s not forget Xiaomi’s latest budget phone is Redmi 3S, which offers a 4100 mAh battery that lasts 2 days, and is priced the same as the Coolpad Mega 2.5D.
Coolpad Mega 2.5D runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow on top of Cool UI 8.0.The Cool UI has a host of new features including single hand unlocking, Screenshot 2.0, rectangular icons and neater tabs. The settings menu can be drawn from down below. The ability to take a single screenshot of multiple scrolls isn’t new. The feature was earlier announced by Xiaomi for MIUI 8. Nevertheless, the features does come in handy at times.
At a price of Rs 6,999, Coolpad Mega 2.5D sounds like a perfect budget phone. It’s got Android M, has a bigger 8 megapixel camera, and comes with a bigger 5.5-inch display, even if it’s not a full HD resolution. Given that budget phones from the company like Coolpad Note 3 Lite and Coolpad Note 3 have done well in the past, performance shouldn’t be a problem with this one. The Rs 7,000 price-segment has tough competition now, especially with Redmi 3S being launched, and it will be interesting to see how the Coolpad phone holds up.
