Coolpad Mega 2.5D: The best budget selfie phone

After days and days of excited waiting, I finally have the Coolpad Mega 2.5D in my hands. Watch this for my initial reactions.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BI_5GZ4D8P2/?taken-by=ankitashreeram

At 6,999 rupees for each device, I wasn't expecting the moon from this latest new baby from the Coolpad stable. But the phone exceeded my expectations on two crucial fronts - look and camera.

Appearance

Available in black, white and royal gold, I was hoping to get my hands on the gold device. I've only ever owned phones in black and white and gold seemed really special. I wasn't wrong. The phone looks and feels like a high-end phone with curved edges - slim, sleek and incredibly light. In fact, I wasn't sure if the battery was in the phone - that's how light it felt (143 grams). Check it out.

The screen size at 5.5" is the best that you can ask for and I was glad to see that clarity and brightness were not compromised. The touch sensitivity is not spectacular but reasonably good. The back of the phone is made of plastic and there are metal frames on the sides.

Camera

The number one USP of this budget phone is its 8MP front camera with a wide 83.6 degree field of view and f/2.2 aperture that seek to provide you with stellar selfies and grofies (group selfies). I've reviewed selfie phones before and let me tell you - this one really works wonders. Apart from the excellent results from the smart beautification mode, the editing options are completely cutting edge although they bring down the resolution of the photo drastically. You can soften your skin, slim your face, add a becoming blush and make your eyes bigger in quite a natural way. Of course, the results are unnatural if you take them to the highest level. I'd recommend using each effect to a maximum value of 15. Here are a few examples.

With no editing

With the slimming effect - there is some loss of quality

One feature which is quirky but unnecessary is the camera's ability to guess your sex and age. So I got 'nymph' (girl) and ages varying from 16 to 19. That was great for my ego but not exactly accurate. The back camera also has a resolution of 8MP which is not great but pretty decent for a phone of this price. However, when I actually tried it out, I was stunned by the clarity and detailing. The camera performed particularly well with close-up images. In wide angle images, there was focus only on the subject - everything else got a bit blurred. I am yet to test it in the outdoors but I'll do that tomorrow and you can expect a review on my travel blog soon. The only cons are the camera's tendency to shake while clicking selfies (your hands have to be really steady) and thus produce blurry images and the lack of a front flash in low-light conditions.

Indoor photograph with Coolpad Mega 2.5D

Close-up photo with the Coolpad Mega

Performance 

The phone promises to be fast, considering that it comes with a 3GB RAM (astonishing for this price category), 1GHz quad core Mediatek MT6735P processor and 16GB in-built memory (expandable up to 32GB). With a 2500 mAh battery, the phone should last for up to 9 hours and at the time of writing this post, the battery had barely dipped in 8 hours, although with minimal usage. This dual-SIM phone offers Android 6.0 Marshmallow as an OS with Cool UI 8.0 which includes several interesting features like single hand unlocking and screenshots of multiple scrolls. Coolpad Mega 2.5D comes with a hybrid SIM slot (you can use two micro SIMs or one micro SIM and a micro SD card) and 4G compatibility. Since I've only used the phone for a day, I'll be able to advise you better on these aspects in my "a day with the Coolpad Mega 2.5D" review, coming up soon on Trail-stained Fingers.

At a glance

OS	Android Version	Android 6.0
	OS Name	Android
	OSVendor	Google
Chipset	Type	MT6735P
	Frequency	Quad-core 1.0GHZ
Hardware	Form Factor	PDA
	Network Mode(GSM2G+GSM 3G (Video Calling)	4G+4G
	PCBA dimension(in mm)	68.7*52*7.8
	Processor	MT6735P
	Antenna Type	Bulit-in
Battery	Battery Type	Li-ion
	Battery  (in Volt)	4.35V
	Battery Capacity	2500mAh
	Talk Time	>9hrs
	Standby Time	>200hrs
Charger	Charger Input and Output voltage/Ampier	200~240V/5V/1.5A
	Charger Certification (CE or others)	BIS
	Charger PIN type (2 or 3 Pin)	2
Storage	Expandable Memory	32GB
	ROM	16GB
	RAM	3GB
	Sensors	Proximity, Light and G sensor
	Memory card HOT Swapable	Yes
Design	Form Factor	PDA
	Weight	140g
	Dimensions	76.8*153*7.85mm
	Screen type (External or Internal)	Internal
	Screen Resolution	HD, 1280X720
	Touchpad technology(Capacitive/resistive)	Capacitive
	Screen type	HD
	Colour Depth	16M
	Screen Size	5.5"
	Multitouch	Yes
	Audio Formats Supported	aac, amr, awb, mka, mid, mp3, m4a, ogg,wav, flac, imy, mp2
	VIdeo Formats Supported	webm, ts, mp4, mov, mkv, m4v, flv, f4v, avi, 3gpp, 3g2
	Video Resolution	1080P
	Video Frame Rate	30fps
	FM	Yes
	FM (MTK/others)	MTK
	FM radio (Supported freq. band)	87.5MHz-108MHz
	Frequency Band	WCDMA:900/2100MHz, GSM:900/1800/1900MHz FDD:1800/850MHz                  TDD:2300MHZ
Camera	Rear camera (Pixel Size core brand)	8.0MP
	Front camera (Pixel Size core brand)	8.0MP
	Rear camera description(auto focus/FF/auto focus with flash)	AF
	Multi Shot	Yes
	Night Mode	Yes
	Video Recording	Yes
	Video Storage Capacity	limited by user space
	Wide Screen Video	Yes

Coolpad Mega 2.5D is available exclusively on Amazon.in and comes with a pair of earphones, charger and USB cable. The first flash sale is on August 24, for which registrations began on 10th August. Don't forget to follow Trail-stained Fingers for the second detailed review.