Coolpad Cool Play 6

Some of the biggest controversies and conflicts in the mobile business are usually centred around a smartphone’s design. Coolpad’s Cool Play 6 actually looks like a clone of the Cool 1 Dual (review) launched a while back by the same company. Although I do understand that there’s only so much a manufacturer can do with a limited budget, there are still some tweaks one could make to a smartphone’s design. Chamfered edges instead of rounded, or a glass back instead of a brushed metal one are just some of the changes Coolpad could’ve implemented.

Dual-camera smartphones aren’t a rare sight in the affordable segment anymore. There have been plenty of devices which offer two sensors at the back and depending upon the type of the assisting shooter, the cameras can either offer you a wider shot of the subject or sharper details. In the case of the Play 6, it’s the latter and the smartphone comes equipped with a pair of 13MP sensors on the back, one of which is an RGB sensor while the other is monochrome. The dual-camera setup also allows the Play 6 to capture images in bokeh mode, which blurs the background of the subject to add more depth to it. The front camera of the smartphone bears an 8MP sensor. Naturally, I stepped into the review with high expectations from the camera and to the company’s credit, the Play 6 didn’t disappoint me. But before we get into the actual performance, let’s look at the smartphone’s camera UI.

As I mentioned in the beginning of my review, the Coolpad Cool Play 6 is about as loaded as an affordable smartphone gets. Think about it - which other manufacturer is offering a Snapdragon 653 octa-core processor (a really powerful chip, btw) which works in tandem with 6GB of RAM? Most smartphones today come equipped with the older Snapdragon 625 chip which isn’t a bad processor by any means, but the SD 653 is just better. The difference in performance is evident in day-to-day scenarios too and despite running a heavy skin, the Play 6 felt snappier than the Moto G5s Plus I recently reviewed. Apps opened quickly, multitasking was fluid and over the course of my review period, I didn’t miss my OnePlus 5 at all, which speaks volumes about the smartphone’s performance. I did run some games on the device too to further gauge the capabilities of the processor. I was able to run Asphalt Xtreme with the graphics set to ‘better quality’ without any hiccups and casual games like Clash Royale and Leo’s Fortune didn’t slow the smartphone down either.