 "Spice Coolpad Mi-515 Review")
Recently, Spice Mobiles teamed up with Coolpad, a product of a China-based manufacturer Yulong, to bring to the Indian market the Spice Coolpad Mi-515 Android smartphone. The Mi-515 is the first device in the Spice Coolpad series in India and we got the handset with us to scrutinise. It boasts of a quad-core processor with a 5-inch qHD display and runs the Android Jelly Bean v4.1 operating system. Does the handset deliver in terms of features and performance? Let’s find out.
5-inch qHD IPS display, quad-core 1.5GHz CPU, PowerVR SGX544 GPU
Design and build
From the front, the Spice Coolpad looks appealing. At the top are the earpiece and the VGA camera, while the three backlit capacitive buttons for home, menu and back are at the bottom. The rear panel is curved and made of a highly glossy surface that is highly prone to scratches. The rear panel sports the main camera and an LED flash towards the top, a brand logo in the centre and a large speaker grille on the bottom. On the sides of the phone is a shiny violet trim with the volume rocker on the left and the power button on the right. Lastly, the top features the earphone jack and the micro USB interface.
Dual SIM (GSM+WCDMA), hot-swappable microSD card slot, 2000 mAh battery
The rear panel fits very snugly on the chassis and releasing the same to access the SIM, memory card and battery is a bit tough. Once opened, you will find the hot-swappable microSD card slot and the two SIM (GSM+WCDMA) slots present. The entire chassis is very firm and the build quality does not feel like cheap plastic. The Mi-515 measures 73 x 140 x 9.9 mm and, sadly, does feel a bit on the heavier side with a weight of 161 grams.
Android Jelly Bean V4.1, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage
Features
Compared to most quad-core Android-based budget handsets available in the market these days, the Spice Coolpad does not seem to have anything special underneath the hood. The Spice Coolpad is a dual SIM GSM+WCDMA handset and runs off the same MediaTek MT6589 chipset which is based on a quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz. It is coupled with a PowerVR SGX544MP GPU and 1GB of RAM. The total internal storage is 4GB, of which the user can avail of just 1.8GB for his or her use. The display is a 5-inch qHD IPS display sporting a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels with a screen density of 240 ppi.
MicroUSB and earphone jack on top, volume rocker on left
The rear panel sports a 5MP main shooter with autofocus and the front camera is a simple VGA. As per the benchmark utilities run on the handset, they seem to report the main camera being an 8MP and the front camera as a 4.9MP. Unfortunately, the cameras reveal themselves as 5MP and VGA respectively after analysing the photos taken by both the cameras. Moving on, the Mi-515 has sensors for light, proximity, accelerometer and compass while connectivity options are Wi-Fi b/g/n, 3G, A-GPS, Bluetooth and a micro USB interface. The operating system installed is Android Jelly Bean v4.1 and the entire handset is fuelled by a 2000 mAh battery.
Power button on the right, violet trim around the edges
The MediaTek MT6589 chipset is capable of a full HD display panel and incorporates a rear camera of up to 13 megapixels with full HD video capabilities. The operating system it can support goes up all the way to Android v5.0 Key Lime Pie. However, manufacturers tend to reduce the features of the chipset and compromise on the camera, display, operating system and a few other areas only to cut down on the entire cost. Though this might sound feasible, the manufacturer should not compromise on the quality of the hardware included—in this case, the display panel, which is below average, and the Android version, which could have been v4.2.
Stock user interface with custom launcher
Performance
The benchmark tests carried out on the Spice Coolpad resulted in the following scores: AnTuTu – 13002, Quadrant – 4085, Nenamark2 – 45.1 and Linpack – 37.7 MFLOPS and 125.03 MFLOPS (single and multi-thread respectively). The handset has a performance that is at par with most other budget handsets in the category. These include the Xolo q700, Xolo q1000, Celkon A119Q, Gionee E3 and a few others sporting the same chipset and almost identical features.
Pre-installed apps
Display and media
The 5-inch display featured on this handset is not up to the mark compared to other budget phones sporting an IPS panel. The pixels were very noticeable and vertical lines were visible running between the pixels. From a close range, the display gets pretty annoying once you notice the lines. When held in landscape mode, the display tends to lose out on colours and gets a bit inverted, especially when viewed from the top right or bottom left corners. This explains that the IPS panel seems to be of inferior quality. Also noticeable in broad daylight are the transparent conductive lines in the touchpanel—large square blocks are easily noticeable. This speaks of the low quality display panel and touchscreen the device sports.
Visible pixels and lines running vertically can be clearly seen and is disturbing
However, when using the phone for watching videos, the IPS panel’s flaws are not easily noticeable. HD 720p and full HD 1080p videos run flawlessly using third party video players. The onboard speakers are pretty loud and you won’t need your earphones to watch short video clips when you are in a small group. The bundled hands-free are earbuds and sport a very bad build quality. The earbuds also don’t have any foam cushions provided along with the kit, which makes the earphones fit very slackly and uncomfortably. The audio quality of the earphones is also below average—there is a lack of proper bass and highs and we would recommend them only for voice calling. You might have to invest on a better or superior pair of earphones if you intend to purchase this handset.
Outdoor shots are nice; reds are slightly vibrant and bright areas are a bit washed out
Camera
As we mentioned earlier, the rear camera is a 5MP shooter with an LED flash, though the benchmarking utilities report the camera to be 8MP. The images take care of this discrepancy. The resolution states the camera is a 5 MP and not an 8 MP. The camera seems to be pretty good with above average photos. The photos are pretty sharp with a good balance of colours, contrast and brightness. We only found the reds being a tad more vibrant as compared to the rest of the colours and brightly lit areas that are not in focus getting a bit washed out. Check out some of the photos we clicked using the Mi-515.
Another sample outdoor shot
Another outdoor sample shot
Battery life
The 2000 mAh battery fuelling the handset was scrutinised in our tests and we were a bit disappointed by the performance. The battery lasted us just 5 hours with a constant usage of just 3 hours with 720p videos and 2 hours of Internet browsing using the wireless network. However, the usage of the handset is completely dependent on the user and the battery life will last accordingly. You can expect around 8 hours of battery life on a single charge.
Indoor shots are decent and could be better with more lighting
Verdict and price in India
A quad-core processor-based handset with a 5-inch IPS panel selling at a price below Rs 10,000 is certain to raise a few eyebrows. For a phone that is well built, performs decently well and is affordable, the deal breaker is the slight weightiness, below average display quality and the poor battery life. If you’re looking for a quad-core phone under Rs 10,000, we would suggest you opt for the Xolo Q700.
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