As 2016 winds down, we still have a trickle of phone launches happening in the mid-range space. After Lenovo’s recent K6 Note announcement, Coolpad and LeEco's joint effort, called the Cool 1 Dual, has made its way to India. The phone was announced back in August, soon after LeEco's CEO Jia Yueting took over as Chairman of Coolpad.
The Cool 1 Dual retails for Rs.13,999 both online and offline. The online version will have 4GB of RAM while the one sold offline will have 3GB of RAM, but the rest of the specifications stay the same. The phone will compete against the likes the Moto G4 Plus (Review) and Xiaomi Mi Max (Review), to name a few. While there’s no one-size-fits-all in the world of tech, does the Cool 1 Dual manage to strike a good balance between pricing and features? We find out.
There are backlit capacitive buttons at the bottom for navigation, and a notification LED on the top. There is a dual Nano-SIM tray on the left, but it isn’t of the hybrid type so you can’t expand onboard storage at all. This wouldn’t have been so bad if the Cool 1 Dual had 64GB of storage space, but 32GB might not be enough for some in the long run. It’s a shame that there isn’t any higher capacity option available either.
The Cool 1 Dual gets an infrared emitter on the top, next to the 3.5mm audio socket. The phone features a USB Type-C port at the bottom, along with the speaker grille. There’s a fingerprint sensor at the back, which is quick to authenticate you. The shape and placement is ergonomic, making it easy to use. The Cool 1 Dual is yet another phone in this price segment to sport dual rear cameras, the most recent one being the Lenovo Phab 2 Plus (Review).
In the box, you get a screen guard, data cable, 10W power adaptor, SIM ejector, and instructions. Barring the generic looks of the Cool 1 Dual, the phone is built well and feels sturdy. We just wish there was a dedicated microSD card slot or at least a hybrid SIM slot to accommodate additional storage.
Coolpad Cool 1 Dual specifications and features
The Cool 1 Dual is powered by the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC, which is the faster version of the one found in the Redmi Note 3 (Review), with two additional ARM Cortex-A72 cores. Our review unit had 4GB of RAM, which is reserved for the online variant, and 32GB of storage, which is common to both units. Other specifications include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, USB-OTG, FM radio, and GPS. The phone also supports 4G LTE on both SIM slots, and there's a toggle in the Settings app to enable voice calls using VoLTE. Our unit wasn’t able to make voice calls over the Jio network, though data was working.
The Cool 1 Dual is powered by the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC, which is the faster version of the one found in the Redmi Note 3 (Review), with two additional ARM Cortex-A72 cores. Our review unit had 4GB of RAM, which is reserved for the online variant, and 32GB of storage, which is common to both units. Other specifications include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, USB-OTG, FM radio, and GPS. The phone also supports 4G LTE on both SIM slots, and there's a toggle in the Settings app to enable voice calls using VoLTE. Our unit wasn’t able to make voice calls over the Jio network, though data was working.
The Cool 1 Dual has a twin 13-megapixel cameras on the back. One has a colour sensor while the other is used for monochrome data, which when used in tandem, should offer better image quality and less noise in low-light pictures. In practise, this combination didn't really produce the desired results all the time. Low-light images had noticeable noise and detail was generally poor. The colours improved when we switched to ‘Night’ mode, but not by much. In daylight, the camera struggled a bit with light metering, and we often found overexposed areas in both landscapes and close-ups. Colours were captured better in daylight, but subjects in focus lacked sharpness and ended up looking flat.
Verdict
The Cool 1 Dual offers good performance for its price. It’s built well, and it has a sharp display, very good battery life plus sufficient power for most tasks. The lack of expandable storage is our only major gripe here as 32GB might not be enough a year down the line. Given a choice, you should buy this phone online as you get more RAM at the same price.
The Cool 1 Dual offers good performance for its price. It’s built well, and it has a sharp display, very good battery life plus sufficient power for most tasks. The lack of expandable storage is our only major gripe here as 32GB might not be enough a year down the line. Given a choice, you should buy this phone online as you get more RAM at the same price.
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