French telecom company, Alcatel-Lucent, set up a mobile phone joint venture with Chinese tech firm, TCL Corporation, back in 2004. The partnership, however, did not last long, and was dissolved the very next year. Subsequently, TCL acquired Alcatel’s entire stake in the company. As a brand, Alcatel OneTouch functioned as a wholly-owned subsidiary of TCL, and was the force behind devices such as the OneTouch Idol and the OneTouch Pixi. Earlier this year, however, in a major re-branding exercise, the company decided to drop the ‘OneTouch’ moniker from its brand. That being the case, its products are now termed just ‘Alcatel’ instead of Alcatel OneTouch. Some of its latest products are the Alcatel Idol 4 and the Alcatel Idol 4s that are available in many markets around the world, including the U.S.
The company has now announced a new entry-level smartphone for the U.S. market, called the Alcatel FIERCE 4. The device is targeted mainly at the pre-paid market and is already available for MetroPCS customers across the country. It costs $129 plus taxes, but MetroPCS is currently offering a $10 discount on it. Some customers may also get it for as low as $69 “with eligible phone activation or upgrade”. The FIERCE 4, of course, is not the only Alcatel device available on MetroPCS. Earlier this month, the Chinese-owned vendor had launched the Alcatel TRU, which also happens to be a fairly affordable device that is available as an option for MetroPCS subscribers. Another entry-level smartphone called the Alcatel Dawn, was also launched last month on Sprint’s prepaid brands, Boost and Virgin. As for the FIERCE 4, the press release from Alcatel says that the handset will also be available at T-Mobile this fall.
Taking a look at some of the key hardware specs of the Alcatel FIERCE 4, the device features a 5.5-inch 720p IPS display and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 (MSM8909) SoC. It also comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage and can officially support a 128GB microSD card for capacity expansion. The phone carries a 2,500mAh battery, supports 4G LTE on bands 2, 4, and 12 and runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box. Last but definitely not the least are the two cameras. While the rear-facing primary camera is an 8-megapixel shooter with auto-focus and LED flash, the front-facing unit happens to be a 5-megapixel unit with an 84-degree wide angle lens.
