Coolpad Max

We’ve seen so many iPhone clones that we’ve just stopped reacting. And that’s pretty much the same case with the Coolpad Max. That said, this is one of the better copies, and if nothing else, you can at least flaunt an iPhone-lookalike by spending half the asking price. The Coolpad Max looks just like an Apple iPhone 6/6s Plus, even more so because of the rose gold hue its metal body comes wrapped in. If we were to ignore the uncanny resemblance and accept it as being a design ‘inspired’ from the iPhone though, the Coolpad Max does look very stylish and well built.

The 5.5-inch 1080p display is layered with fourth-gen Gorilla Glass for protection, and is quite capable in terms of brightness, sharpness and colour reproduction. However, we feel it’s a tad too reflective and is more eager than the cops when it comes to collecting fingerprints.

Android N is coming soon, and it’d not be too unreasonable to expect a new phone to offer Marshmallow these days. However, the Coolpad Max is still stuck on Android Lollipop 5.1.1… not that there’s any way for you to find that out unless you dive deep into the settings. The reason for that is Cool UI, the brand’s custom interface that hides most aspects of stock Android.

Shooting is handled by a 13-meg primary camera, with a 5MP sensor facing the front for those all-important self portraits. The app layout is clean and simple, and if you hold the phone in portrait mode, you’ll see a few modes listed at the bottom, along with an option to jump to the gallery, a shutter key and access to colour filters with live previews. The modes on offer include night, video, photo, beauty and pro, with the last one providing options to tweak settings like ISO, white balance, focus, saturation etc.

Horsepower is provided by a Snapdragon 617 processor which is married to 4 gigs of RAM. Overall, it’s smooth going, with the phone handling day-to-day tasks and even intensive gaming well. There’s a hint of lag on occasion, but we have a bigger problem in terms of heating issues. The handset can get noticeably warm during extended use, and the metal body doesn’t help either.