Coolpad officially launched the Cool 1 at a price of Rs. 13,999 and is currently the cheapest dual camera phone in the smartphone market in India.


It comes with a 5.5 Full-HD IPS display along-with 4 GB of ram, Snapdragon 652, a mirror finish fingerprint scanner and a beefy 4,060 Mah battery. Having spent the last 4 weeks with the smartphone, here's my full review :
 

Camera - 9/10


 Cool one comes with a dual 13 + 13 MP rear camera with f2.0 aperture and my experience with its camera has been amazing to say the least. While one of the 13 MP camera takes monochrome shots, the other 13 MP sensor clicks the same shot in colour. The software algorithm then merges both the shots which gives great details. Thus the details are outstanding and color reproduction is natural. The highlight is the monochrome camera which is a clear winner in low light photography with very low noise.
There is hardly any shutter lag and I actually left my DSLR at home as I loved clicking pictures on this device <3 Here are some of the best one that I clicked :)



As you can see, the focus is sharp thanks to PDAF [ Phase Detection Auto-focus] and the colors are vibrant due to dual 6P lens. I even managed to click light trails up-to 8 seconds without a tripod and that itself is a proof of what's possible with dual cameras these days. The front camera is a 8 MP shooter and manages to click decent images. 

 The camera app is very easy to use but packed with advanced features in Pro mode for all the shutterbugs out there! Manual Focus, Shutter Speed, ISO and even Manual White balance is offered right in the camera app. The Cool One also features a SLR Bokeh mode but I would suggest to use the Manual Focus in Pro Mode instead for blurred background as it's much faster and accurate.

 There is also 4K video recording in colour mode and Full HD recording in monochrome mode. The front camera is also capable of making Full HD videos.




Design & Feel - 8/10

Coolpad is known to make sturdy smartphones and even Cool One features a metal build which is similar to the one on LeEco 2 but is made of magnesium alloy with chamfered edges which is a delight to hold in hands and looks premium.

In the front, there's a Full HD 5.5 inch display which is one of the best in its class when it comes to colour reproduction along-with capacitive buttons which are back-light. On the right, there's a power button and volume rockers, both of which are also made of metal.
 

The highlight of the design though is the beautiful Dual Camera setup along-with Dual-Tone flash on the back which is an eye catcher and don't be surprised to find strangers asking which mobile is it ;) Just below the Dual camera is the mirror finish fingerprint sensor which looks great but is prone to fingerprint marks.

Performance & Software - 8/10

Cool One is powered by Snapdragon 652 clocked at 1.8 GHz along-with Adreno 510 GPU and 4 GB ram. Performance is a bliss with EUI's good memory management which is based on Android Marshmallow 6.0 and the overall performance is really snappy. It comes with 32 GB non-expandable storage and supports OTG . Thankfully, there's a 3.5 mm audio jack. On the connectivity front, there's dual sim with 4G (VoLTE supported), WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, and USB Type-C port.




Thanks to Snapdragon 652 and Adreno 510, Gaming is smooth and we tried multiple high end games including Asphalt 8, Modern Strike, Bully, GTA SA, etc. with no lags or heating whatsoever! Multi-tasking is also smooth and apps don't close automatically due to 4GB ram. The mobile scored 81562 in the Antutu benchmarks.




The fingerprint sensor unlocks within 0.1 seconds and supports up-to 5 fingerprints! With the ability to lock apps in EUI with fingerprint, it also doubles up as a shutter button in the camera app which is super convenient to click selfies. EUI also has the option to enable on-screen buttons just in case you don't like the on-screen buttons. There's also 4 display colour modes to play with, so be assured about customizing it as per your preference.  

Battery Life - 9/10

Powered by a 4060 Mah battery, Cool one easily manages to survive 2 days on a single charge for normal users and a day for power users, which is really impressive. Even after heavy gaming and photography on full brightness, Cool one managed to survive the day with 37% charge left which is incredible. It's easy to bet that most users will be happy with such great battery life. The mobile also supports fast charging and comes with a 2A charger with USB Type-C cable.

Verdict 

At a price of Rs. 13999, Cool One is the best you can get in the below 15k smartphone market, especially when it comes to camera, battery and performance. Give it a pass if you are the user who can't deal with 32 GB on-board storage but there's OTG just in case you need extra data.

 The powerful battery backup along-with fluid performance and metal build easily makes it among the the best in its price segment and the only one with a Dual-camera setup. Be assured about enjoying smooth gaming for long hours on this one thanks to a beautiful display plus a snappy fingerprint sensor. It is a complete package that can be easily recommended, especially for smartphone photographers on a tight budget.