Last week we reported that on July 28, Bell would be adding the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 2S to their lineup of devices and it looks like its time has arrived – $0 down on a two-year contract. Bell was the first Canadian carrier to take a stab at offering the Alcatel OneTouch – perhaps as an experiment to gauge their acceptance to their Canadian audience. Alcatel is known for building a high quality product at an affordable price, so they fit in quite nicely at the lower-end lineup. They do have a high-end finish to them and a good display, as well as a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core 1.2GHz processor.
Bell is claiming that the OneTouch Idol 2S is a refresh of the Idol X, but when you compare the specs, it is certainly no upgrade. For instance, the Idol X had a 1080p display and the Idol 2S goes down to 720p – there are downgrades in the processor, camera, and RAM as well. Looks like a year old flagship was replaced with a new mid-range product.
The Idol 2S is a nice looking smartphone with their typically good built quality. It has a 5-inch IPS HD display with a 1280 x 720p resolution and 294 pixels-per-inch (ppi). It is sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and supported by 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, which is expandable to 32GB with the use of a microSD card. It has an 8MP main camera with autofocus and LED flash along with a 1.3MP front-facing camera for video chatting and taking selfies. A 2,150mAh battery powers the device and it will be running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box – upgradable to 4.4 KitKat. The dimensions are 136.5 x 69.7 x 7.4mm and weighs in at 126 grams. On Bell,the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 2S will have access to “Canada’s largest LTE network.”
Being a mid-range device, it does offer many features, such as HD Sound with premium audio components and you can enjoy the extra nice sound when you use the dual-speakers – place smartly at the bottom of the device – or through the earphones. When using the camera, you can zoom with one finger, it has built-in video stabilization, and you can send your pictures to your big screen TV via Wi-Fi. There are also quite a few accessories to compliment and protect your Idol 2S.
Please hit us up on our Google+ Page and let us know if you are interested in Bell’s new Alcatel OneTouch Idol 2S…as always, we would love to hear from you.