You might remember, back at Mobile World Congress in March, Alcatel OneTouch announced the Idol 3. But there are two variants. There is a 5.5-inch variant which we’ve reviewed, and has been available for a few months now. But also a smaller 4.7-inch variant. That smaller model is finally becoming available this Friday. Alcatel OneTouch will be selling it exclusively on Amazon in both the US and Canada. Additionally, it’s going to cost just $179, the same price as the entry model Moto G 2015 announced last month.
When we got hands on with the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 back in March, we actually really liked the 4.7-inch model better. Simply because it was a smaller device with still relatively high-end specs. And we also knew that Alcatel OneTouch was going to sell it unlocked at an amazing price. The specs are mostly the same as its larger brother, aside from the display, processor and the battery. On the Idol 3 4.7 you have a 4.7-inch 720p IPS display. Along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 which is a quad-core processor at 1.2GHz with the Adreno 306 GPU and is also 64-bit. Here we also have 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. We also have a microSD card slot inside.
On the camera side, we also have a 13MP camera, which is the same as the Idol 3 5.5’s version. That camera was pretty impressive during our review process. Additionally, there is a 5MP camera on the front for taking selfies and such. Two of my favorite features of the Idol 3 are also present on the smaller model. That includes the front-facing JBL speakers which give you some amazing sound, but don’t take up a whole lot of space, unlike the Boomsound speakers from HTC. The other feature is the fact that it can be flipped upside down and still work the same. That’s right, the phone is reversible. Sure it’s not a feature that would sell a lot of people but still pretty cool.
Alcatel OneTouch has also mentioned that the Idol 3 4.7 will have an update out of the box to patch the Stagefright vulnerability we’ve heard so much about lately.