Review: Coolpad Revvl Plus for T-Mobile
Lock Screen
The lock screen is the standard, stock Android tool. The Revvl Plus doesn't offer anything like an Active / Ambient Display. Press the screen lock button on the right edge to wake the display, which will then reveal the lock screen.
A clock with the date underneath is positioned in the upper half of the screen and notifications line up dutifully below. Two shortcuts are available on the screen: the phone in the lower left corner and the camera in the lower right. The Revvl doesn't allow you to pick your own shortcuts.
The rear-mounted fingerprint reader works very well. I had no issues training prints and it recognized my finger consistently and quickly.
Home Screens
You won't find any fancy or fun features on the Revvl's home screen. The phone runs Android 7.1 Nougat and Coolpad left Google's interface alone.
Home Screen
Several home screen panels are active when you first boot the phone. They contain a number of folders and shortcuts, mostly for T-Mobile-branded apps and services. You can, as always, do whatever you want with these panels, including Android widgets and contact shortcuts.
The quick settings panel and main settings menus are standard Android. I appreciate that you can rearrange the quick settings toggles. The green text of the user interface is easy to see on the white screen. The Revvl does allow you to reduce the font and icon sizes, which lets you cram tons of stuff onto the screen. This is clutch for multitasking.
A Snapdragon 625 provides the Revvl Plus with processing power. It is paired with 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. 3 GB of RAM would be better, but the 625 is a good chip. The phone ran well. I didn't notice any performance glitches while testing it. It was smooth across the board.
Camera
Double-press the screen lock button to launch the camera. This is the quickest way to open it, though there's also a shortcut from the lock screen. It opens in a blink.
The viewfinder is simple to digest. Quick settings for the flash and HDR are on the left (on, off, auto), as is the user-facing camera toggle and settings menu. The shutter button and access to filters, shooting modes, and the gallery are on the right.
The main shooting modes include photo, video, beauty, and portrait. Slide the selector tool left or right to jump between modes. Each mode functions as I expect. The portrait mode makes use of the Revvl Plus' two cameras to blur the background when taking shots of people. It's best to stand within 6 feet of your subject to get this to work properly.
The settings button offers access to even more shooting modes, including slow motion, panorama, GIF, night shot, and pro (manual) mode. Pro lets you adjust white balance, ISO, exposure, focus, saturation, and contrast, but not shutter length. The rest of these shooting modes do their job. I'm sure plenty of people will enjoy the GIF maker. It's fun.
I found the camera app ran smoothly. It was quick to open, quick to fire off shots, and quick to let me get back to taking more photos.
Photos/Video
The Revvl Plus has two cameras on the rear. The main shooter has a 13-megapixel sensor, while the secondary shooter has a 5-megapixel sensor. This second sensor is what gives the phone its portrait (bokeh) powers. In general, I was pleased with the images I captured with the phone. Focus was mostly sharp, white balance was mostly accurate, and exposure was typically spot on. Pictures I snapped outside under the sun looked best; indoor shots were somewhat grainy. It's a fine camera for a phone of this price.
As for video, the Revvl Plus captures footage up to full HD and does a decent job of it. The samples I shot appears to be sharp and colorful. Exposure sometimes looked a bit low, but otherwise the results are passable.
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Coolpad REVVL Plus
