Alcatel Idol 4 review
This has to be the best audio smartphone that I've seen in a budget segment. The Alcatel Idol 4 has really great audio output but how does it stack up against the competition? Let's find out in this review.
Design: This phone is very elegant. It's very well made with glass on both sides and a 7.1 mm thick metal frame around the phone. On the right side there is a button that fools many to be a power button but it's not! It's a programmable button that you can assign to do some tasks in single or double clicks. The real power button is on the left side along with volume buttons. On the top there's the 3.5 mm audio jack and on the bottom there's a microUSB port with the primary microphone. It has dual front fairing speakers and also dual rear firing speakers on the top and bottom edges!! The design language is really awesome and I love the fact that it's a under budget. My only complaint is that it's a fingerprint magnet and gets dirty very soon and also, the buttons are not very tactile and feel kind of rigid to press.
Display: The Alcatel Idol 4 has a 5.2' 1080p IPS LCD display with 424 ppi. The display is not very bright or vibrant but is pretty good in terms of viewing angles, thanks to that IPS panel. It's sharp and crisp in displaying text and media and those banging loud dual speakers make it ideal for media consumption.
Performance: Under the hood, the idol 4 has a 1.7GHz Snapdragon 617 octacore processor along with 3GB of DDR3 RAM and am Adreno 405 GPU. The performance is actually very smooth but there seems to be a tough ram management issue, like on Samsung devices. The phone struggles to keep apps open in the background even though it should do fine with that significant amount of RAM. Or perhaps the UI on Android 6.0 has something to do with it. It has 16 GB of built in storage expandable upto 512 GB via microSDXC. All I can say is that this package is strictly made for casual use and it's not for heavy users or gamers.
The button on the right side is an action button and it's used to set some task, like launch the camera or flashlight or something. But by default, its set to boom sound. On clicking it whilst playing audio, it boosts the sound by 'that' much. But it's quite annoying and rediculous to click it everytime you want audio boost though! They could've made that boom sound mode, a default sound profile.
Camera: This phone has a 13 mp rear camera with 1080p video capabilities at 30 fps. The front camera is an 8 mp sensor. The led notification also doubles up as a front flash. Both cameras are pretty decent. They take good pictures in bright light with plenty details. But produce a hazy blurry effect on lower lighted scenes. The camera is the only area where I felt the budget price of the phone.
Battery: This phone has a 2610mAh battery. The battery life was fairly good. The phone could last a day on .moderate usage delivering up to 4½ hrs of screen on time. Byt luckily there's quick charge support so that's something to look forward to. Many phones in this price range do not provide that handy feature.
Price: This beautiful phone costs about $180 or 12,000 INR. It's not the best or fastest phone in the world, but it certainly is the best sounding phone I've seen in this price range. If you're someone who craves good quality audio and doesn't care a lot about hardcore specs, this just might be the perfect deal for you👍.
Design: This phone is very elegant. It's very well made with glass on both sides and a 7.1 mm thick metal frame around the phone. On the right side there is a button that fools many to be a power button but it's not! It's a programmable button that you can assign to do some tasks in single or double clicks. The real power button is on the left side along with volume buttons. On the top there's the 3.5 mm audio jack and on the bottom there's a microUSB port with the primary microphone. It has dual front fairing speakers and also dual rear firing speakers on the top and bottom edges!! The design language is really awesome and I love the fact that it's a under budget. My only complaint is that it's a fingerprint magnet and gets dirty very soon and also, the buttons are not very tactile and feel kind of rigid to press.
Display: The Alcatel Idol 4 has a 5.2' 1080p IPS LCD display with 424 ppi. The display is not very bright or vibrant but is pretty good in terms of viewing angles, thanks to that IPS panel. It's sharp and crisp in displaying text and media and those banging loud dual speakers make it ideal for media consumption.
Performance: Under the hood, the idol 4 has a 1.7GHz Snapdragon 617 octacore processor along with 3GB of DDR3 RAM and am Adreno 405 GPU. The performance is actually very smooth but there seems to be a tough ram management issue, like on Samsung devices. The phone struggles to keep apps open in the background even though it should do fine with that significant amount of RAM. Or perhaps the UI on Android 6.0 has something to do with it. It has 16 GB of built in storage expandable upto 512 GB via microSDXC. All I can say is that this package is strictly made for casual use and it's not for heavy users or gamers.
The button on the right side is an action button and it's used to set some task, like launch the camera or flashlight or something. But by default, its set to boom sound. On clicking it whilst playing audio, it boosts the sound by 'that' much. But it's quite annoying and rediculous to click it everytime you want audio boost though! They could've made that boom sound mode, a default sound profile.
Camera: This phone has a 13 mp rear camera with 1080p video capabilities at 30 fps. The front camera is an 8 mp sensor. The led notification also doubles up as a front flash. Both cameras are pretty decent. They take good pictures in bright light with plenty details. But produce a hazy blurry effect on lower lighted scenes. The camera is the only area where I felt the budget price of the phone.
Battery: This phone has a 2610mAh battery. The battery life was fairly good. The phone could last a day on .moderate usage delivering up to 4½ hrs of screen on time. Byt luckily there's quick charge support so that's something to look forward to. Many phones in this price range do not provide that handy feature.
Price: This beautiful phone costs about $180 or 12,000 INR. It's not the best or fastest phone in the world, but it certainly is the best sounding phone I've seen in this price range. If you're someone who craves good quality audio and doesn't care a lot about hardcore specs, this just might be the perfect deal for you👍.