Alcatel held their press conference this evening in Barcelona, being the first of the Android hardware makers to announce a new smartphone at Mobile World Congress – with the others taking place tomorrow. Last year, Alcatel announced the Idol 3 in Barcelona, which really put them on the map. The Idol 3 came in two sizes and got praise in basically every review, including our very own reviews. Alcatel has seen some pretty decent growth since that announcement last year, seeing a 30% increase in market share in Europe and 14% globally in just a year. Now they are back with two new smartphones.
The Idol 4 and Idol 4S are their new “flagships”. While they aren’t as high-end as the two major smartphones being announced tomorrow – the LG G5 and Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge – they are well priced and are in the lower part of the high-end range. They are featuring the Snapdragon 617 and the Snapdragon 652 respectively. Both of which feature Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology. Allowing users to charge their devices quickly (Alcatel stated that the Idol 4 can be charged within an hour and the Idol 4S at about 1.6 hours). The Idol 4 brings a 5.2-inch IPS display here along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. While the Idol 4S has a 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED display with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Both devices can use a microSD card slot – both of which are launching with Android 6.0 Marshmallow which means adoptable storage will be available.
After Alcatel’s event in Barcelona this evening, we were able to go hands-on with their two new flagship devices, as well as their packaging. The packaging of the Idol 4 and Idol 4S is unlike any other packaging for any other smartphone. The box doubles as a virtual reality viewer for the device. Meaning that when you buy the Idol 4 and Idol 4S, you automatically have a VR viewer. A pretty big deal as virtual reality is gaining more and more traction lately. Alcatel hasn’t announced exact pricing yet (although in Europe they are saying between €279 and €449 depending on configuration) nor have they announced when it’ll be launching. It’s likely going to launch sometime in April, but that has yet to be confirmed.
Alcatel Idol 4
Alcatel Idol 4S
