Alcatel One Touch Idol: First Impressions

When it comes to value for money smartphones, Alcatel is one of the first international brands that come to mind. That perception certainly didn’t change with the launch of their 2013 Android smartphone lineup.

There were a lot of phones that were showcased that night, and now we’ve managed to get our hands on their mid-range Alcatel One Touch Idol. You can find all the launched android devices here.

The Alcatel One Touch Idol is incredibly thin and light. With a thickness of only 7.9mm, It’s hard to believe that it’s actually not the thinnest in their lineup (That distinction goes to the One Touch Idol Ultra at 6.45mm). Yet it doesn’t feel excessively light for its size for some reason, unlike say, the Galaxy S4. In terms of design, it’s certainly one of those phones that can stand its own against any of the more premium models from competitor brands.

Specs are what you would expect from a mid-range phone these days. You’re getting a 4.7 inch qHD IPS screen, a respectable 1GHz dual core processor and Jelly Bean 4.1 out of the box. There’s also 512Mb of RAM, which is short of the recommended 1Gb if you want to maximize Jelly Bean, or so they say. If there’s anything I have to gripe about, it’s the measly 4GB ROM, which only gives you less than 2GB user accessible storage. Thankfully, there’s support for a micro SD card up to 32GB so you could still carry your music library and video files with you.

UPDATE: Here’s our full review of Alcatel One Touch Idol.

Alcatel One Touch Idol Specs

• 4.7” qHD (540 x 960 pixels) IPS display with Dragontrail Glass
• Android Jelly Bean 4.1
• Dual Core 1GHz CPU
• 4GB EMMC + 512MB RAM
• Micro SD support up to 32Gb
• 8-megapixel autofocus primary camera
• 2-megapixel secondary front camera
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.0
• GPS with AGPS
• microUSB
• UMTS 900/2100 and 850/1900, 850/2100
• 3G data up to 7.2Mbps DL and 5.76Mbps UL
• Micro USB
• 3.5mm headset jack
• Dimensions:  133 x 67.5 x 7.9mm
• 1,800mAh battery

I’ll be putting it through the rounds and using it as my primary phone for a week or two and posting a full review at the end of that time. I’ll also be posting a quicker review, sans battery or gaming tests on my own personal blog (try to find it, hehehe). If you can’t wait until then, you can pick up the Alcatel One Touch Idol for an SRP of Php11,990 in stores nationwide.