Alcatel’s $180 Idol 3 4.7 Is a Direct Shot at the Moto G
The Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 is a great Android smartphone that only costs $250, but it’s also a huge phone. That’s fine if you want a 5.5-inch screen, but not everyone does. For smaller hands and people who want a phone that actually fits into their pockets, Alcatel’s just announced the $179.99 Onetouch Idol 3 4.7.
The Idol 3 4.7 is unequivocally the Idol 3’s sibling. It’s got the same slim and high-quality plastic design that resembles metal in some places, right down to the poorly placed power button on the upper left side of the device.
As its name indicates, the phone has a 4.7-inch display with 1,280 x 720 resolution (HD). The Idol 3 4.7 is a 4G LTE phone runs Android 5.0.2 Lollipop and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and 1.5GB of RAM. There’s a 2,000 milliamp-hour (mAh) battery that’s not removable.
In my brief hands-on with the phone, the device felt snappy. Like on the Idol 3, the Android experience is mostly stock Android with no bloatware and Alcatel’s own cartoony icons.
Camera wise, there’s a 13-megapixel camera on the back and a 5-megapixel camera on the front. I didn’t have much of a chance to test these out beyond taking a few snaps in the office under fluorescent lights, so I can’t say much for the image quality. The shutter appeared fast, though.
The Idol 3 4.7 comes with 16GB of internal storage, which can be expanded via the microSD card slot up to 32GB.
You’ll also notice there are a pair of front-facing stereo speakers located on above and below the screen. These JBL-tuned speakers sounded pretty good in my quick hands-on time with the phone.
I really liked the Idol 3 and judging by a lot of other reviews and customer experiences, a lot of other people do too. If the Idol 3 4.7 is every bit as good as the Idol 3, Alcatel could have another hit on its hands.
But more than anything, the Idol 3 is going up against the third-generation Moto G, which also starts at $180. It’ll be interesting to pit them against each other since the specs are so similar; each phone also has its own advantages as well.
The Idol 3 4.7 will be available in the U.S. and Canada starting on Aug. 14.