Budget smartphone market has always been a playing field for new and established smartphone giants. From Samsung to Meizu, a plethora of companies have cashed in on India’s potential
smartphone market with buffed up smartphones.Having that said, in the entry level segment, a new
player, Coolpad, is posing some serious threats against renowned phone makers. The company has
already launched few smartphones in the sub-10k price bracket, and is growing progressively with its all new Note 3 and Note 3 Lite smartphones.
Equipped with fingerprint sensors and high-end specs, both Coolpad Note 3 and Note 3 Lite pack an ideal deal for budget phone lovers.The younger member of the duo, Note 3 Lite in corporates spectacular features, and promises a pleasure experience with top-notch performance. It ships at a reasonable price tag and takes a dig straight against leading players in the game. So, without wasting any more time, let’s now see how Coolpad Note 3 Lite stacks up against the mighty Lenovo K3 Note
Design and Build Quality
The design language of Coolpad Note 3 Lite is definitely an advantage over Lenovo K3 Note. The 5-
incher device fits nicely in one hand and makes a great first impression with it gold frame and finger
print scanner on the rear panel.It looks stunning in Whiteand features soft touch matte finish on the
back for keeping smudges and fingerprint at bay.On the other side, the box like design of Lenovo K3 Note is not everyone’s favourite. The handset ships in a bunch of colour options, but feels heftier than Note 3 Lite and other players rolling in the sub-10k category.It’s conventional form-factor without added aesthetics fails badly in the design department.
Display and Visual Experience
Like always, Lenovo K3 Note stands out in this category with its razor sharp 5.5-inch full HD IPS
display. The handset incorporates a beautiful 1080p display, and endows one of the best viewing
experiences with rich colours and perfect viewing angles. It gives an exemplary multimedia
experience in all environments, and looks far better than Coolpad Note 3 Lite’s 5-inch 720p scratch-resistant display.The display panel of Note 3 Lite is fairly impressive, but K3 Note takes perfection to a whole new level!
Hardware and Performance
In real life, performance is not an issue with Lenovo K3 Note or Coolpad Note 3 Lite. Both phones
feature powerful innards and deliver seamless performance without any lags or glitches. But on
paper, the difference between the two phones is really big. Lenovo K3 Note powers up by an octa-
core MediaTek MT6752 processor clocked at 1.7 GHz coupled with 2GB RAM, while Note 3 Lite ships with a quad-core MediaTek MT6735 processor running at 1.3GHz with a whopping 3GB of RAM.The former gives you a faster processor for heavy usage,while the latter endows immense multi-tasking power with 3 gigs of RAM!
Software and OS
On the software front, Lenovo K3 Note features Android 5.0 Lollipop with Vibe UI skin on the top.
The highly customized interface of the handset delivers slick performance but comes with heavy
bloatware and no app-drawer. All apps are stacked up on the home-screen which looks quite messy
to deal with. The interface of Coolpad Note 3 Lite is no good either. The handset runs Android 5.1 Lollipop based CoolUI 6.0, and handles multitasking effectively with few pre-installed apps and colourful app-icons. It looks fairly better than Vibe UI, but lack of app-drawer is something that keeps pushing CoolUI back in time!
Camera Performance
For photography, there’s a tie between Coolpad Note 3 Lite and Lenovo K3 Note. Both budget
phones create an ideal ecosystem for photography with their 13-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel
front-facing shooters. Their rear cameras come with f/2.0 aperture and deliver sharp and well-
detailed images in lowlight conditions.They both record 1080p videos at 30fps, and includea slew of
camera features such as,touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, and HDR.
Connectivity options
On the connectivity front, Lenovo K3 Note and Coolpad Note 3 Lite go head to head with a bunch of
options such as, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G, 4G, and micro-USB 2.0. The two dual SIM based phones deliver
blazing download and upload speeds on 4G and include a plethora of sensors like accelerometer,
proximity, and ambient light sensor. They both look equally impressive, but K3 Note does not
include a fingerprint scanner for biometric security.
Battery Backup
In terms of power efficiency, both phones comes with a big batteries and offer sufficient juice for
continuous work and play. The powerful Lenovo K3 Note houses a 3000 mAh battery, while the
smaller 720p display of Coolpad Note 3 Lite is backed by a 2500 mAh battery.No matter what are
your needs, these two handsets will give you at least 10 hours of 3G talk time and 200 hours of
standby after several calls and music playback throughout the day!In a nutshell, both budget phones
make a nice package for wanders and on-the-go users.
Pricing and Availability
Pricing draws the biggest line of difference between the two phones. Lenovo’s biggest hit K3 Note is
hitting the shelves at Rs. 9,999 via Flipkart.com, while Coolpad Note 3 Liteis available for purchase
via Amazon India’s flash sale model at just Rs. 6,999.The pricing of the handset clearly justifies why it sports a 720p display and a slower processor.
Final Verdict
Though Lenovo K3 Note gives tough competition, Coolpad Note 3 Lite bags our title of best budget
phone with its spectacular features and tempting price tag. The handset offers an ideal package for
budget phone buyers, and gives an exemplary user-experience with powerful innards and a snappy
fingerprint scanner. It’s a genie in a bottle that meets all your expectations without ripping off your
financial resources. So, if you’re looking for a phone under 10k, Coolpad Note 3 Lite is a great option to count on!
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