App and game reviews by Mobilism's Android Reviews team
Jun 2nd, 2015, 8:35 pm
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App: Cool Tool Pro v5.7.0
Developer: Deviant Studio
Category: System
Price: $2.99
IAP: N/A

Cool Tool Pro is a "simple" real-time hardware and data monitoring application. It differs from other Android resource monitors because it has an option to stay on top of other windows, allowing you to monitor full-screen applications such as games, video players and browsers. So, view your system information in an always-on-top floating window (no root access required) - or, by using the infamous Xposed framework, inject Cool Tool into the status bar (root access required). It monitors your processor, battery, RAM, storage, most resource-intensive processes, network, GPS and much, much more! This is a must-have application for me and my geek self. I know exactly what is going on with just a glance at the top of my screen.

Cool Tool is extremely useful to detect bad-behaving processes. It is also extremely customizable; every single gauge, graph or label can be turned on or off. Color, size and position of everything can be set to your liking. Create your own custom labels or customize existing ones; possibilities are endless! Furthermore, you can black and white list apps to configure in which apps Cool Tool will show and in which it won't. A backup of your preferences is automatically stored on your device. The user interface of its settings is decent--nicely ordered in tabs--but looks a bit outdated; it could use a makeover.

For further improvement: I would love it to have custom fonts, have hex values for colors and be able to monitor GPU frequency and FPS. Cool Tool is regularly updated, so who knows, somewhere in the near future ...

Pros:
  • Has a small footprint (under 1 MB).
  • Doesn't require root access.
  • Can stay on top of other windows.
  • Has hundreds of customizable display options.
  • Can monitor almost any metric available on your phone or tablet.
  • Works on almost any phone or tablet, going back as far as Android v2.1 (Eclair).
  • Has several themes built in.

Cons:
  • Is aesthetically lacking. It's not the prettiest system monitoring app out there.
  • Can drain the battery when having too many gauges and labels.
  • Takes some time to properly configure the app because of the hundreds of configuration options.

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Reviewer rating: Image
Device/OS used: LG G3, Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G / Lollipop 5.1.1, KitKat v4.4.4

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Mobilism: Cool Tool Pro v5.7.0


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Jun 2nd, 2015, 8:35 pm