Review: Coolpad Quattro 4G for MetroPCS
Camera
The Quattro uses the stock Android 2.3 camera. The camera itself can be launched with a long press of the dedicated camera button or from a home screen shortcut. Using a home screen shortcut is faster than pressing the button, because the button needs to be held for at least two seconds before it will start the process of opening the camera.
As far as camera software goes, it's not bad, but it's not great, either. The viewfinder consumes the left 80% of the display, with the right 20% offering access to all the controls for the camera app.
There are six options floating within the viewfinder that offer access to the more specific camera controls, such as overall settings (focus mode, exposure value, image size/quality, effects, etc.), location, white balance, flash, zoom, and which camera is being used (front/back).
Though the on-screen controls are speedy enough, the actual picture-taking process is far too slow. There's a significant delay between pressing the shutter button and seeing any sort of reaction from the phone itself. The viewfinder freezes, waits a second, then snaps the picture, then freezes again, and finally goes back to the camera app. I couldn't tell you where in that process the shutter actually fires.
Photos
The Quattro has a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, but not autofocus. It's not that good. I'd say only about 50% of the images I captured were usable. The biggest problem is white balance. The camera barely gets it right. Poor white balance afflicted many of the photos, which you can clearly see below, rending them garbage. I was surprised that the white balance had trouble not only indoors, but also outdoor under direct sunlight. Any camera should be able to slam-dunk sunlit photos. Not the Quattro. Focus and exposure were consistently decent.
Video
The video is absolutely horrible. If you watch the clip below, you can see the white balance freak out as I pan the Quattro around. The real deal breaker is the audio quality. My voice sounds like it was recorded by a 1960s-era piece of equipment. Not only does the audio sound like it is 50 years old, it sounds like I'm talking through a tin can. Terrible. The focus is pretty soft, but exposure is OK.
Gallery
The Quattro's gallery is the boring old stock Android option. Photo albums float in stacks in the main gallery view and the Quattro syncs with your online accounts such as Google+ and Picasa, so you'll see those photos, too.
The Quattro includes only the most basic editing functions (crop and rotate.) There are no other editing tools, nor is there any third-party software for editing photos pre-installed. You have to download one yourself if you're interested in making changes to images. You can, however, easily share photos to the social network of your choice via the standard Android gallery tools.
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Coolpad Quattro 4G
