Alcatel believes that everybody should have access to an affordable smartphone and that is why they design some of the best values you can find. Alcatel is a very popular brand in Canada, and they have just announced that the Alcatel PIXI 4 will be available this month from Bell, Telus, Videotron, WIND Mobile, Virgin Mobile Canada, and Koodo. Pricing will vary from vendor to vendor, but Koodo has it on their site for $100 no contract, and it comes in our favorite color, Black. Alcatel calls it a “perfectly simple and easy to use smartphone able to handle any everyday task.”
The Alcatel PIXI 4 was announced at the CES 2016 show and is a compact 4.5-inch device that measures 132.2 x 65.1 x 10.05mm and weighs in at 136 grams. It sports a 4.5-inch FWVGA TFT display with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. It uses a Snapdragon quad-core processor clocked at 1.16GHz and packs 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card. An 1800mAh removable battery powers the device. The primary camera is a 5MP affair with an LED flash, and it comes with a 2MP front-facing camera (FFC) for selfies and video chatting. It has the usual suspects – WiFi, Bluetooth v4.1, and GPS. It is running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with 4G LTE capability. There is no NFC or fingerprint sensor on this entry-level device, so no mobile payments are possible.
Alcatel is the number four manufacturer of smartphones in the US and has always dedicated themselves to entry-level style smartphones that get the job done at a reasonable price. Having said that, they tend to pack in the hardwre specs that keep the devices competitive without charging a huge price tag. They are the devices that are typically sold as a prepaid model on a sub-carrier. They offer a value way to text, email, search the web, keep caught up with social media, or make phone calls. Alcatel includes Polaroid editing software that allows you to add frames, borders, or filters to your photos before you post them on the internet. No exact day of release was in the press report, so it may be a couple of weeks before we see the Alcatel PIXI 4 on all of the carriers.