It was just a few days ago when it became clear that Alcatel was sending their new Idol 4 smartphone to Canada on September 30. It was to be a Videotron exclusive for an unannounced time before other carriers would also pick it up. The price was still unknown at the time, but Alcatel cleared things up regarding the Idol 4, as well as announcing their POP 7 LTE tablet would also arrive on September 30. This latest announcement has the two devices landing on Bell and Virgin Mobile in Canada and mentions nothing about Videotron. The Idol 4 smartphone will cost $299.99 on a no-term contract or for as little as $0 on a two-year plan. The POP 7 LTE tablet is available for a one-time payment of $149.99 or for $6.25 a month and no money down. Steve Cistulli, President and General Manager for Alcatel, North America and Blaik Kirby, President of Bell Mobility, are excited about their two companies collaborating to bring these devices to Canada.
The Alcatel Idol 4 looks very much like the Galaxy S6 series with 2.5D glass on the front and the back all bound together with a metal frame. It also features Hi-Fi audio with dual 3.6-watt front-facing speakers and a “Boom Key” that is programmable to handle several functions. It sports a 5.2-inch IPS LCD FHD display that gives it a decent 424 pixels-per-inch (PPI.) Its brains come from a 64-bit Snapdragon 617 octa-core processor with a quad-core clocked at 1.2 GHz and a quad-core clocked at 1.5 GHz. It packs 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage via a microSD card. It has a 13-megapixel primary camera with an aperture of f/2.0, phase detection autofocus (PDAF), and a dual-toned LED flash. It has a large 8-megapixel front-facing camera (FFC) for selfies and video chatting and even includes a flash. A 2,610 mAh non-removable battery provides power and uses Quick Charge 3.0 for rapid charging.
The Alcatel POP 7 LTE tablet can be used as an e-reader, to browse the web, or stream videos or movies. It features a 7-inch LCD 1024 x 600 display and gets its brains from a Snapdragon quad-core processor clocked at 1.1 GHz. It packs 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory that can expand another 32GB via a microSD card. The POP 7 LTE also has a 5-megapixel main camera and 2-megapixel FFC for selfies – a nice feature to have for social media. A large 3,240 mAh battery provides the power, and according to Alcatel, it should give you up to 1000 hours of standby. It is running Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) out of the box.