Thank the lord for Moore's law. The law that states technology progresses exponentially has made enjoying flagship features in a budget phone a possibility. The dual cameras that were first seen less than a year back is now a repetitive trend. The vast empty space at the back of phones has been screaming for more tech and dual cameras have stepped in to fulfill desires. The Chinese company Coolpad has also taken the bait. In fact, it was the first to bring the technology down to the masses in the form of the Coolpad Cool 1. And now this week, the company has done it again with the Coolpad Play 6. But as the name suggests, dual cameras isn't the flagship feature of the phone. It should have been. For the few days, I got to use the device, the camera indeed stood out among the rest of the features. But Coolpad wanted to pitch the phone as a gaming device. So it put 6 gigabytes of RAM in it and touted it as a game-changing feature.
On paper, it is indeed a breakthrough. For Rs 14,999, the most you get in a phone is 4GB of RAM. Coolpad took it a step further and put as much RAM as the OnePlus 3T which is a premium flagship grade device. That's nice but it remains to be seen if there are any real benefits to that.
But leapfrogging technology is one thing. Whether it's needed or not is something entirely different. It can be argued that one does not need more than 4GB of RAM in a phone for doing day to day tasks. Anything above that is a mere novelty. The RAM on a smartphone, like PCs is for keeping apps open in the background. More the RAM, more apps can remain active. There are also memory intensive apps that require a lot of memory to run smoothly. But those kinds of apps on smartphones are few and far between, unless the phone supports VR and AR in which case, it makes sense to put more memory on the phone. Coolpad's new toy has neither.
More RAM on PCs makes more sense because of software like Adobe Photoshop and the likes which actually require a whole lotta memory to work. But where's the need for so much on a phone if there's no provision to use it all?
Instead, a whole lotta RAM on a smartphone tends to become counterproductive. Unless the software on the phone is optimised correctly, 6GB RAM keeps more apps open in the background than required. Those active apps keep the processor running which drains power faster and the phone runs out of battery quicker than it should. So much for Moore's law, eh? Even the damned RAM uses up more battery.
Now Coolpad wants you to think that its latest device is perfect for gaming because of the massive amount of RAM it has. Instead, if it touted the phone's imaging capability, the phone would have been more appealing. In the few days, I got to test the device, the phone's camera outperformed dual camera phones in that price range. The twin 13-megapixel camera leverages RGB and monochrome optimally to produce well-detailed photos even under poor lighting. Of course, it's nothing like the premium dual camera phones like the Honor 8 Pro or the OnePlus 5, but for those within a budget, it won't disappoint..
The Coolpad Cool Play 6, as a result, is a miscommunication. It's more a camera phone than a gaming device. If you are okay with a heavily modded UI with ample bloatware, the Coolpad Cool Play 6 has the potential to be a dependable phone, especially while preserving memories.
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