Today we have an in depth good look at the Alcatel One Touch Windows Phone handset, designed to compete in the lower cost segment it looks to come in around US $226.36.
While much of the attention is understandably on the higher end Windows Phone 8 devices there remains a pressing need to get lower cost devices into the hands of consumers. The Alcatel One Touch brings with it a good specification at a lower price point but stands out as the first Windows Phone without a dedicated camera button. Read on past the break to find out more.
As a Windows Phone 7 device the One Touch comes with a single core Qualcomm MSM7227A 1 GHz CPU but also comes with a no compromise 512MB of system memory. That means that even though this phone is priced aggressively at the lower end there shouldn’t be any issues running Windows Phone 7.5 apps. While much has been done by devs to optimise their applications to run on the 256MB Tango Spec devices there still remains some performance concerns and applications that just will not run, so the Alcatel should be good news in this regard.
The full specifications are as follows
- Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
- Operating System: Windows Phone 7.5
- Processor: Qualcomm MSM7227A 1 GHz
- Memory: 512 MB RAM, 4GB of internal memory, there is no expansion slot
- Screen: capacitive IPS, 4.0 ", 800x480 pixels
- Camera: 5 megapixel with autofocus, single flash, 720p video 30 fps. Front camera VGA
- Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (A2DP), GPS
- Dining: Removable 1500 mAh battery
- Dimensions, weight: 124.2 x 64.2 x 10.75 mm
- Recommended price in Russia: 6990 rubles
The phone has a removable battery but like all Windows Phone 7 era devices the memory cannot be upgraded further so the 4GB will have to do. The One Touch looks like a very well made handset; the colourful back cover is compared to a Sony Experia in one shot and bares more than a passing resemblance to the styling. The detailing does look very good, the earpiece is colour coded with the back for a pleasing effect.
Controversially this handset does not look to have the now familiar dedicated camera button. It does sport a 5MP rear facing camera and a front facing VGA sensor too for video calling duties. The samples in the review look roughly what we’d expect from a 5MP camera but there isn’t much variation in photos to get a good idea on performance.
From the preview the device looks to have a good spec at this price point. What we don’t know is how well the device will be supported by Alcatel, it doesn’t look like any attempt has been made to create apps for their new Phone but that could change. The need remains to create Windows Phone handsets that can reach down into lower cost markets. When Windows Phone 7.x devices receive the new Start Screen update with 7.8 it will bring the look of the two operating systems into line.
We’ll be sure to do a full Windows Phone Central review of this device if we can lay our hands on one.
Source: Hi-Tech@mail; thanks, @JCinWinupd8, for the tip!
