Android Games

Coolpad Max vs Xiaomi Mi 5 - Tech Review

Coolpad unveiled its flagship smartphone, the Coolpad Max for Rs 24,999 in an event in New Delhi today. After making waves in the sub Rs 10k smartphone market in India, this is the companys first foray into the premium smartphone segment.

The highlight of the Coolpad Max is its dual-system security feature. The phone is equipped with Dual Isolation technology, which means it has a separate external open system that handles all features normally expected in a smartphone and a secure internal system which encrypts users sensitive data such as calls and text messages. In addition, the smartphone also allows user to have two accounts on services such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger and so on.

At a price of Rs 24,999, the phone goes head to head against the Xiaomi Mi 5, which we reviewed last month. Lets see how Coolpads first upper mid range handset fares against the segment veteran.

Design

The Xiaomi Mi 5 looks very premium and has a seamless design with chamfered edges and a chrome boundary running around the edges of the display. The phone looks a lot like an affordable version of the Galaxy S7 and fits really easily in the hand.

The button placement is very ergonomic, and the device can be used quite easily with one hand despite having a large 5.15-inch display.

The Coolpad Max, with its full metal body, looks and feels extremely premium. The build quality is top notch, with no creaks or rattles to speak of. In fact, the Coolpad Max feels better built than the Mi5.

But where the handset loses out is in in hand feel. The handset is too wide to be comfortably held in one hand. The Mi 5 is undoubtedly better for one hand operation as compared to the Coolpad Max.

Both smartphones feature a fingerprint scanner. However, the location varies between the two, with the Xiaomi Mi 5 integrating it into the home button while the Coolpad Max has it on the back.

The Mi 5 weighs just 129 grams and its dimensions are 151x77x9.3 mm. The device feels very light, but is rather thick at 9.3mm.The Coolpad Max, weighs a rather hefty 170 grams and has dimensions of 152x75.5x7.6mm.

Display

The Xiaomi Mi 5 features a 5.15-inch, 1080p LCD IPS display. The display offers good color reproduction and contrast ratio and is bright enough to offer a comfortable viewing experience in outdoor conditions.

The Coolpad Max has a curved 2.5D 5.5-inch full HD IPS display with a pixel density of 401 ppi. In our initial hands on, we found the display bright and vibrant, and in general gave us no cause to complain.

However, it is to be noted that in this day and age of QHD panels, both smartphones feature only a 1080p display. However, we feel that the tradeoff between a QHD panel and battery drain is not worthwhile, and a 1080p resolution display is more than enough for day-to-day use.

Hardware/Performance

The Xiaomi Mi 5 is powered by a 1.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of non expandable internal storage. The Coolpad Max has a 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 CPU, 4GB of RAM and 64 GB internal storage that can be expanded by upto 64GB via microSD card.

While the Xiaomi Mi5 clearly wins when it comes to the processor with Qualcomms flagship processor of 2016, it loses out to the Coolpad Max when it comes to storage options. Not only does the Coolpad Max have more internal storage as compared to the Xiaomi Mi5 (64GB as compared to 32GB), it also supports expansion via microSD cards while the Mi5 does not.

Battery 

The Coolpad Max is powered by a 2,800mAh battery, which the company claims is good for up to 17 hours of talktime and 310 hours of standby time. The Mi 5 has a 3,000 mAh battery unit, which in our tests managed to survive for 17-18 hours on a day of moderate mixed use.

Software/Connectivity

Xiaomi Mi 5 runs Android 6.0 with MIUI 7on top. Xiaomi has heavily customized the OS, to a point where it no longer feels like Android. During testing, we faced frequent lags during basic tasks such as opening/ closing of the dialer and while shifting from one tab to another in Google Chrome.

MIUI 7 also offers a number of customisation options in the form of themes as well as options to change the functions of the capacitive buttons, display colour tone, audio effects and more.

The Coolpad Max runs Coolpads own Cool UI running on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop. There is no word on the Android Marshmallow update from Coolpad as of now. This is a big win for the Mi5, which comes with Marshmallow right out of the box.

The look and feel of Coolpads UI cannot match up to that of the Mi5. The interface feels unfinished and lacks polish. The icons look rather amateurish and the overall experience is not user friendly. The Xiaomi Mi5, while also heavily skinned, offers better customisation and looks livelier. On the connectivity front, both smartphone support 4G LTE, 3G, dual-SIM, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and GPS.

Camera

The Xiaomi Mi5 has a 16MP rear camera with a Sony IMX298 imaging sensor and a 4 Ultrapixel front camera. The rear camera has sapphire glass for protection and features 4 axis optical image stabilisation and phase detection autofocus. The camera produces amazing shots in well lit situations, though low light images lack detailing and clarity.

The front camera is excellent and better than most front shooters at this price point.

The Coolpad Max sports a 13MP rear camera with a dual tone LED flash along with a 5MP front shooter. Coolpad is definitely using a wide angle lens here, and the images produced are crisp and vibrant, though not as good as those of the Mi 5.


With both smartphones available at a price of Rs 24,999, it is a little difficult to recommend the Coolpad Max on the basis of initial impressions alone. However, we have to wait and see how valuable the Coolpad Maxs dual- system security feature and its space management capabilities are.