Alcatel as far as I remember, was a decent phone back in 1996 when most phones were those bricks that you used to get. Nokia had the popular brick phones while Motorola used to invest in making flip phones that got very popular. Alcatel used to have very affordable models back then which were targeted at the people with strict budgets and also for those who wanted a simple phone that could do calling and messaging.
Now Alcatel is making itself known to the masses again with a revitalized image and a refreshing range of smartphones called the OneTouch. The Idol 3 is the latest in that range that comes with a unique twist which is 1st of its kind in the industry and that is revealed below along with how its other aspects stack up.
Design:
We at TechPlugged got the 4.7 screen version of the phone. In terms of design there is a bit of elegance in the style the body is visually made. The thing with this particular unit or model is that it is small and compact, sleek and is packed with good performance and has minimal buttons and slots.
The quirky part about this phone which is also its main unique selling point is that it can be used in reverse. So basically if you remove the phone from your purse or pocket upside down the UI will automatically flip 180 degrees over and also you can answer calls and use it normally.
Performance:
The Idol 3 comes with a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 410 processor which is quad core with 1GB RAM. Also there is 16GB storage available to users. Along with that Android 5.0 is supplied as the Operating System which does not have heavy bloatware applications.
Connectivity and Ports:
Connectivity wise there is the Bluetooth 4.0 and the 802.11 Wireless connection standards which are the basic in devices coming out since 2014 onwards. Added to that is the battery hogging but fast 4G LTE data handling capability so count your internet to be quite fast on the data package but be ready to lose a good chunk of battery while you are at it.
There’s a micro USB slot which is for data transfer and charging the phone while a headphone jack on the top of the phone. There is also the functionality of dual sim which is contained using one single slot that quite resembles the iPhone method of adding sim cards to the phone.
The downside of this phone comes is no memory card slot available to the users to expand the memory.
Battery:
2000 mAh does not sound like much but if you were to check the current phones in the market the 2000 mAh is the average value of the battery that is provided with such smartphones. Android 5.0, 4G, 1.2 GHz processor means the battery will take its fair share of pounding so the discharge rates might differ depending on what all is used in the day.
It took about 2 hours 40 minutes to charge and well lasts about more than a day if you are not a power user. But for a power user it might last only about 3 hours especially with LTE on.
The main downside if it really matters to you is that the battery is not replaceable because it’s built in.
Camera and Sound:
The camera is a strong 13 MP for the backside which is quite good for a phone this size. But while it has a Time Lapse feature as an individual part this camera ends up being just sufficient enough for devices in its price range. The camera response is good while clicking when adjustments in auto mode take a while and sometimes can go awry in areas with a lot of light. Colors output is quite good and grain does affect the output in low light. The front camera is a strong 5MP which will mean that selfies will have considerably good quality.
The sound is basically supported by two speakers, one each at the top and the bottom. Both speakers function the same when it comes to calling so that supports the idea of reversibility even more. Not to mention that the audio is supported by a special partner that goes by the name of JBL and after playing some music and a test video the high quality was confirmed with brilliant volume and clarity of the output.
Display:
The display is a compact 4.7 in screen and supported by Alcatel’s partner Technicolor which is the first that I have certainly heard of. After watching a couple of music videos in 720p since this is a 720p resolution screen I was very impressed by the video output. The colors in the phones menus were quite vibrant while in the video also output was quite good. Added to the above the screen at full brightness was clearly visible in heavy sunlight.
Only downside is that probably they could have had the display on this model at 1080p just like the 5.5 inches version since 1080 is becoming the standard and we are moving into the 4K era.
Conclusion:
This phone is good enough for what it is worth and does a sufficiently good enough job for a mid-range market device. This phone is to be available starting this month and the 4.7 inch version is priced at 899 Dhs which is not bad for what this phone has to offer. I will recommend this on the basis of only two things, the first being good sound quality and the second being the unique selling point that is reversible usage.
