Packaging is generally an area of the smartphone world that’s largely ignored. Sure, you have recycled packaging, premium packaging and a few other varieties, but keeping the packaging handy and not in a closet or in the recycling bin is fairly hard to justify in most cases. More often than not, although it often gets mentioned in reviews, a phone’s packaging doesn’t provide much, if any additional value. Of all companies, Alcatel OneTouch is looking to be the one to change that. Known for their budget offerings, Alcatel OneTouch’s Idol 4S looks to be more of the same, although that’s not a bad thing. What will be different is the fact that the mid-range phone will ship inside a plastic box that’s actually a Google Cardboard-esque VR headset, albeit a bit more premium and durable.
This headset in particular is a white plastic affair with a slot up top to slide in your device. A generous opening for your schnoz is present, as are two circular viewports. The headset is just wide enough to accommodate the phone it ships with, though phones with similar dimensions may be able to slip in. The plastic padding at the front is likely to be a tad more comfortable than ridged cardboard during extended use. The only picture available shows a button on the bottom that looks like it may open up the headset, as well as a section on the top that could be a button or could be a slot that opens to take in the phone. Either one may function as the NFC button for clickable actions in the Cardboard API, or the headset could lack one. Beyond that, there’s not much to report; aside from being well-made and plastic, it’s a fairly standard headset.
A quick recap on the specs of the phone it’s included with; The Alcatel OneTouch Idol 4S will sport a 5.5 inch 2560 x 1440 AMOLED screen. An octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor, just a bit lower-powered than the Snapdragon 808, will be running the show in concert with 3GB of RAM. Users will have 16GB of internal storage in total, along with a microSD slot. A 16-megapixel back camera is on board, linked to a “Boom Key” to summon it up at any time for quick shots. The 8-megapixel selfie snapper is equipped with a flash, for vanity shots in even the darkest rooms. A 2160 mAh battery will keep the lights on. There is also a lower-spec variant, called the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 4, which will be 5.2 inches and may or may not come with a VR headset of its own or fit inside the one its bigger sibling ships in.