A new Alcatel smartphone bearing the model number 5049G has received its mandatory certification from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). While the listing is referring the upcoming device using its model number, for the most part, there is one section where it has been mentioned as the “A3 Plus”. If this is actually the commercial name for the phone, it seems like it is the middle ground between the already announced Alcatel A3 and A3 XL.
The FCC listing shows that the Alcatel 5049G (A3 Plus) is powered by the quad-core MediaTek MT6737V processor and has a 2,900mAh battery to keep the phone juiced up until the end of the day. Now comparing this information with the A3 and A3 XL models, these phones feature the MediaTek MT6737 SoC with a 2,460mAh battery, and the MediaTek MT8735B chipset with 3,000mAh battery, respectively. Other than this, the listing does not reveal much information regarding technical specifications except that it will be LTE/UMTS/GSM compatible. However, from what we can gather from included images, the phone has a rear camera with LED flash and a front-facing camera. It has been shown in Black color with Golden frames which do look good. While Alcatel is yet to announce the device officially, a smartphone bearing the same model number is currently listed on its official website (U.S. region) under the Mobile & Health section showing SAR values of devices meant for the North American region. It is worth mentioning that it has been mentioned alongside another model number 5149G which can also be found in the FCC listing for SAR values which are 0.94 and 1.07 W/kg for head and body respectively.
This suggests that Alcatel might actually be releasing two variants of the A3 Plus phone. While it is hard to tell what could be the difference but the best guess for the moment seems to be that there is one unlocked model and one carrier-specific model. Alcatel started the year by announcing devices like A3, A3 XL, and A5 LED (it’s a phone with a ton of LEDs on the back) but did not mention anything about the A3 Plus. This is our first encounter with the upcoming smartphone and with FCC hurdle cleared, a formal announcement from Alcatel should not be too far away.
