Alex Yarde puts Alcatel’s latest tech offerings through their paces during NYCC2015!
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I received an #LiveUnlocked Contract-Free Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 Android smartphone and an Alcatel OneTouch watch in exchange for a fair review. Since upon reciept it coincided with New York City Comic Con (NYCC), I used the Idol 3 paired with the OneTouch watch pretty exclusively to cover the event and here are my findings.
One caveat is unlocked cell phones are compatible with GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile as well as with GSM SIM cards (e.g. H20, Straight Talk, and select prepaid carriers). Unlocked cell phones will not work with CDMA Carriers like Sprint, Verizon, Boost or Virgin. So keep that in mind.
Astetics: It’s a good-looking phone. It’s slim and about the size of an Apple Plus. The gunmetal grey I enjoy but I’m unsure of other options. I put my review phone in a case with a kickstand to make it easier to watch video anyway. I set up my phone upon receipt, inserted my SIM card & memory and in 20 minutes I was good to go. The Wi Fi was active and instantly logged in whenever a recognized source was opened. Plus it has that nifty back to back info swaping feature that all the latest Androids phones have which was helpful networking with other press.
Memory: I’m no fan of Cloud storage so I appreciated the easily expandable storage option. The IDOL 3 comes with a bit less than 16 GB of internal memory as some of that storage is for system use but you can expand via micro SD cards. I stored my entire Anime collection that I watched at leisure while commuting daily to Penn Station (no charge for streaming was a bonus) I shot full HD video using my tripod during many roundtables as well as took photos of cosplayers and selfies with talent and creatives during the con without any fear of image quality or running out of storage. $20 for a 128GB card or $300 for additional storage on an Apple 6s? It’s pretty easy math.
Sound: Listening to music without headphones the front facing JBL speakers make this a solid rival to higher end Android phones and left my Apple 6s in the dust. True to life music featuring JBL audio with award-winning JBL speakers delivers crystal clear sound and it kicks cranked up with zero distortion. The excellent JBL headphones actually fit in my ears and delivered 5.1 surround sound while gaming or watching video. The IDOL 3’s FM radio uses far less battery than music streaming and is a nice touch. The best thing is because you have speakers on both ends it makes the phone ambidextrous. You can speak and listen on either end!
Screen: The full HD 5.5 inch display is a winner. Side by side it looks as good as phones that cost three time as much. The colors are rich and vibrant. Deep blacks and high brightness. Technicolor Color Enhance technology gives the IDOL 3 a vivid cinematic color experience. I got a clear view of pictures and video from any angle, even in direct sunlight. IDOL 3 comes packed with a 13MP main camera and wide-angle 8MP front camera with a full-featured camera application, including time-lapse, HDR, panoramic and manual mode.
Battery: The typical battery life is respectable on stand by and like any phone the more apps you run the faster you eat your charge. It has a low battery mode you can engage when the battery runs at about 20%. With the screen at auto brightness, and GPS at high accuracy under moderate use, the 2,910 mAh battery performed extremely well. I got about 20 hours with around 25% battery left. This was with about 3 hours of screen on time, and I could have squeezed another hour with juice to spare. You could easily get a work day out of one charge with heavy use. There is no quick charge option. Alcatel claims full charge in 2 hours if the phone is dead. From around 25% battery, it took 90 minutes for a full charge. The internal battery isn’t replaceable so if that’s a factor for you there is a heads up. Any average phone battery lasts about 500-600 cycles a bit more than two years at which point people are buying new phones anyway.
Processor: An Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, the IDOL 3 delivers ultra-fast 4G LTE connectivity, powers the IDOL3. It didn’t lag and felt robust churning graphics when I played heavily graphic games and it performed surprisingly well against my Apple 6s which is a much more expensive phone.
Bottom line: The extremely attractive $250 purchase price for the IDOL3 is a game changer. When I compare it to my Apple6s there are some bells and whistles that the I phone has and a lot of my movie collection I’ve already purchased with I Tunes but is my I Phone $400 better? It really isn’t.
ONETOUCH Watch
Asthetics: The ONETOUCH Watch has a customizable face. Once you synch it to your phone you can use any stored image to customize it. I naturally opted for “Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters” as my own. It turned alot of heads as I waited in the Press lines. I like the fact that the ONETOUCH watch looks like an actual watch. It’s sleek and stylish. It’s comfortable and quite durable. I’ve showered, swam, washed dishes, played racquetball and it’s taken it all in stride.
Functionality: Elegant in its simplicity. Raise your hand in a natural motion and the watch wakes up and displays the time automatically. The Move app makes this watch a solid alternative to a FitBit. Once you download the Move app and it’s synched via bluetooth, the ONETOUCH watch shows your step count broken up into walking and running, with a timeline and any heart rate readings on your phone. The rest of the info mimics what you see on the watch. There is a sleep tracker as well but you must set it manually. You can also customize your goals, and the watch face from the app. While at NYCC2015 The ONETOUCH watch automatically tracked my activity including steps (easily made my recommended 10K by mid afternoon)
heart rate, calories used and I got a five-day weather forecast. It’s Android and iOS compatible so along with my NYCC app and Calendar My ONETOUCH watch vibrated when I had panels, interviews or appointments and flashed my phone notifications. I rarely needed to take out my phone to check my scheduale. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen will take you to the notifications app, which can be configured to show notifications from text messages, email, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and LinkedIn.
One feature I found to be a lifesaver was the ingenious Phone finder. The watch and phone are in constant contact via Bluetooth so whenever I started to move out of range the ONETOUCH watch would buzz me and flash “Don’t forget to take your phone.” At the touch of a button on the watch face menu it will make your phone ring even if it’s on vibrate or shut off!
Other handy features are the music control it allows you to control volume, track up and down, and shows the track info on the watch. Perfect to use when working out or going on a run. And the automatic shutter for group selfies with a snap or shake of the wrist means no selfie stick required.
Battery: The other wow feature for me was the built in USB charging and the battery life is amazing! You simply plug the watch in any USB port and in less than an hour you have a charge that will last (with brightness and alerts set at a minimum) 4 1/2 days! I average about 3 1/2 days on a single charge.
Bottom line: I’m still wearing and using this combo. I own a Apple 6s but I find that my Alcatel “Dynamic Duo” is my goto on a day to day basis. Frankly, with hardware like Alcatel ONETOUCH IDOL 3 5.5″ Factory Unlocked Phone ($249 on Amazon) and ONETOUCH Watch ($149.99 on Amazon) around, it’s getting hard to justify spending three times as much for similar high end products. They are tough, simple and get the job done.
So if you are in the market for an unlocked, solid smart phone /activity tracker watch combo, Alcatel One Touch IDOL3 and the ONETOUCH watch are a terrific value and they may be just the droids your looking for! Find out more from their website: http://move.alcatelonetouch.com
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