Alcatel OneTouch Idol Ultra User Reviews

The latest to join the bandwagon back to the top is TCL Communications (the company that makes Alcatel mobile phones). Once a brand name back late 90’s, Alcatel steadily vanished from the mobile scene just as Apple and Samsung began rising up the ranks. Alcatel also happens to be the official partner for the latest Iron Man 3 movie installment trying to hype up Hollywood franchises by promoting the phone used by Tony Stark in the movie.

The Alcatel Idol Ultra Is a little over 5 inches tall and about 3 inches wide, the Idol is medium-size by today's standards. On the top you have the micro USB port and power/lock key although they are switched around compared to the usual layout on top of smartphones – with the lock key on the left which just felt wrong when we came to unlock the Idol Ultra. The speaker grille at the bottom tends to muffle when listening to audio. One of the major disappointments in terms of design of this smartphone comes from the fact that it has no 3.5mm jack. The company has bundled in a USB to 3.5mm jack in the pack but it is a little inconvenient to carry the small jack at all times.

The Idol Ultra sports a 4.65-inch AMOLED display with a 1280 x 720 (HD) resolution. The Idol Ultra relies on a predominant Blue setting. The display doesn’t have any scratch-resistant coating, but it sports a Dragon Trail glass as well as Oleophobic coating.
The smartphone comes with 16GB of internal storage, of which 13.3 GB is user accessible. However, one cannot expand the storage any further and that might be bummer for some users.

The Alcatel One Touch Ultra is a single SIM quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G handset. Yes, 3G, there is no HSPA+, 4G or LTE. It lacks the speeds of its high-end competitors.

The 8MP camera manages to capture decent indoor and outdoor shots under varied lighting conditions. The flash isn’t too powerful, but it is just ok for close subjects. The front camera has a 1.3MP sensor, but the frame rate is quite choppy. Pictures clicked with the 1.3-megapixel front camera are very grainy. The camera user interface is like that most stock Android smartphones. Overall, on the camera front, this smartphone leaves a lot to be desired. Shutter speed was pretty quick with the One Touch Idol Ultra letting us take shots in quick succession, although the results were not quite as stellar.

Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra is a nice looking smartphone for the mid-range consumer, which has almost all the design elements that most premium smartphones offer. It lacks the 3.5 mm audio jack and carrying the bundled jack with you is inconvenient. Also, not being unable to utilize a SD card slot to expand memory. I think the front camera needs improvement and be able to support 1080p HD.