(Pocket-lint) - Over on the vainglorious Android booth at MWC there was an absolute plethora of Google-based devices to play with, including all of the big launches from the show. But it wasn't the usual suspects that caught Pocket-lint's eye.

We couldn't help but notice the little-known Coolpad 7990 that we found tucked away in a dark corner of the booth. Literally. We mean, with a 5-inch 960x640 IPS Sharp ASV display shining at full beam, how could we miss it?

The Coolpad 7990 is the overseas edition of the Coolpad 9900 Magview II handset that launched with China Telecom at the end of last year. We were told that this version, which packs Android Ice Cream Sandwich rather than Gingerbread (with a light UI over the top), will go on sale in Europe and the US in the next few months.

Coolpad, in case you're unfamiliar, is a brand owned by Yulong Telecom and, as such, the handset had a very Chinese feel to it. Baidu rather than Google is the main search portal for example.

As a 5-inch device it's impossible not to compare it to the Samsung Galaxy Note and - while it doesn't quite have the wow factor of the 1280x800 AMOLED Note - its display is none too shabby either. In the engine room it actually pips the Note...just. It has a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm CPU although the RAM count falls a bit short at 768MB.

Performance seemed pretty zippy and the build quality on the 7990 is excellent too. This is no cheap Chinese device - it looks to be a serious contender. Especially so when you consider it has a dual-SIM option and supports switching between GSM and CDMA networks.

The black matte finish on the back looks and feels nice, and the soft touch buttons have a reassuring buzz when touched. At 9.9mm thick, it's a bit fatter than Sammy's 5-incher but it isn't noticeably chunky or heavy.

There is 4GB of storage on board, an 8-megapixel camera (no flash though) and it can shoot 1080p video at 30fps.

No word yet as to when exactly we'll see the Coolpad 7990 landing in the western world but, as ever, we'll keep you posted.

Writing by Paul Lamkin.