Alcatel Idol 4 Review

Alcatel Idol 4 Review

Yes, a well-known smartphone brand Alcatel from China has jumped in Pakistan’s smartphone market, the official distributer of Alcatel device is i2 Pakistan. Alcatel has couple of device with upper mid-range specs and no doubt, the quality of device is same as other international brands, most of their device at based on Qualcomm SoC. So it was short Introduction about Alcatel and its distributer. Let’s start Alcatel Idol 4 Review .

We have received Alcatel Idol 4 6055K smartphone for review. Its 5.2-inch device with FHD LTPS IPS screen resolution, the innards includes Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 octa-core chip, 3GB RAM, 16GB ROM and powered with Latest in market Android v.6 (Marshmallow). Alcatel Idol 4 6055K sports 13MP lens on the back and 8MP selfie shooter on the front with LED flash at both side. It is a 4G LTE supported smartphone and sufficient battery capacity i.e. 2610mAh Li-ion technology.

To give a new design and feel, Alcatel Idol 4 comes with an interesting which it names Reversible and Boom Key is a kind of new adventure from Alcatel. The Idol 4 is a light weight smartphone with 7.1mm thickness and metal frame are few key features added to distinguish the phone from other brands.

Alcatel Idol 4 Unboxing:

The Alcatel Idol 4 comes in an ordinary box that contains all accessories. The Idol 4 is kept at top while you unbox, the beneath compartment has (5.0V/2.0A) Quick charging adopter, Headsets, and good quality USB data cable.

Alcatel Idol 4 Price and Specifications:

Pros :

• Sleek and compact design
• 13MP back camera and 8MP front camera
• 3GB RAM
• Android Marshmallow 6.0
• Fast Charging

Cons :

• No Wireless Charging

Display of Alcatel Idol 4:

The Idol 4 6055K is equipped with a 5.2” FHD LTPS IPS display having 1080 x 1920 pixel resolution. Further the display shines with 424ppi which help to represent the display graphics properly. The display colors are cool and tint too while not much sharp and shady. The display looks more blackish that make it more attractive.

The display brightness is high than the normal smartphones display that would definitely improves the visibility to display in sunlight however it also hit eyes in low light, so be careful with that.

While being a mid-ranger, its supports 5-point multi-touch screen, its smooth and soft touch sense and quick though while using keypads.

Design and Display of Alcatel Idol 4:

There is no other phrase in mind but simply “Wow” at first glance, it’s quite cool and handsome phone with metallic body frame. The Alcatel Idol 4 is well engineered smartphone with reversible feature and especially the placement of four stereo speakers are just perfect piece of engineering.

The body dimensions are 147 x 72.5 x 7.1 mm -a compact dimension to accommodate 5.2” capacitive panel, the screen to body ratio is 69.9% – very well designed and screen to body ratio shows it clearly.

The Alcatel Idol 4 has 5.2” FHD panel that spread on the front with elevated nature and clothed with Gorilla Glass on. The thick plastic lip around to provide extra protection to display.

The area except capacitive display carries 8.0MP selfies snapper along with sharp LED flash that also works as notification LED. The dual role of LED is interesting. The couple of vital sensor are there for being an upper mid-range device. The Alcatel Idol 4 is kind of complex design to describe in word it more worth to see and feel, well the powerful speaker out of 2 amplifiers is situate at top of front. Which is at same time functions like earpiece during call. The Amplifier sound speaker is outside the Gorilla Glass panel.

The bottom side has nothing, the function keys falls inside the 5.2” touch screen, and the due to reversible nature, another amplifier is at bottom.

The edges of the Alcatel are chamfered and sharp too. Its matte gray color looks decent and attractive. The top edge is home to 3.5mm audio jack and secondary mic for noise cancellation.

At right edge, its busier edge as it has volume key at top, a BOOM key, an extra button to perform certain function without going into other tweaks. The Last one is SIM tray is also there at right edge of Alcatel Idol 4. The SIM 1 slot accepts Micro SIM while the SIM2 slot takes Nano SIM and MicroSD card upto 256GB.

The power button is only the button that has been placed on left edge that was a bit irritating for those used to use button on right side, and also make difficult to use the phone single handedly.

The bottom edge is dedicated to carry microUSB port 2.0 as well as USB Host and primary mic for voice modulation.

The back cover follows the same pattern as front. The Alcatel Idol 4 has same Glass finishing and elevated with thick black bezel around. The outer area at top and bottom has pinholes for stereo speaker. The sound is clear and distortion is almost negligible. Alcatel Idol 4 has employed Smart PA (Power Amplifier) TFA9890 and their power consumption is 3.6V.

The 13MP rear camera is fixed at left corner and Dual LED flash is below the camera point. And lastly the Alcatel logo is on the back shows the property of Alcatel.

Memory for Alcatel Idol 4:

Alcatel Idol 4 is upped with 3GB RAM and 16GB ROM with 10GB usable space, the internal memory is enough for a midrange device, and you can expand it upto 512GB (Wow). Usually the midrange devices are equipped with 2GB ROM, but Idol 4 distinguish itself with 3GB RAM in given price segment.

That is for sure, the multitasking with provided 3GB would be an easy task and processing would also be smooth as it is powered with QUALCOMM Snapdragon 617 SoC.

Camera within Alcatel Idol 4:

The Alcatel idol 4 has great built in cameras combination. It is featured with 13MP back camera and 8MP front camera. Both cameras are accessible with flash lights.

The working of camera is fast enough and very much responsive. The video camera can make video in full HD 1080p quality. Many different modes are available for both front and back cameras.

Rear Camera of Alcatel Idol 4:

The Alcatel idol 4 is featured with 13MP back camera with useable flash light. Camera app has easy to use interface. The main interface is divided into main two layers. Upper layer has setting, flash light and self-timer option.

The main camera has many different modes like Manual, Pano, Auto, slow motion and micro video. We can adjust resolution of image or video according to our situation. If we have memory issue we can reduce the picture or video quality. We have option of Phone/memory card in image storage.

The results are good and pure colors have been observed during testing of back camera. Dynamic range is very well in sunlight and night photography has also good results. The camera has quick focus on selection of object and images are warm and sharp enough to convey more information in picture.

Front Camera of Alcatel Idol 4:

Alcatel idol 4 has 8MP lens on front for selfie with LED flash. The selfie camera has color intensity in picture. Brightness and intake of light is very well in front camera.

There are several effects available by default in camera Application and easy to use. The camera can make 1080p video, too. The captured images are shared below.

 Network / Connectivity of Alcatel Idol 4:

Alcatel idol 4 is equipped with proper connectivity scheme. It supports all the bands of 3G and 4G.  It supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 and FM Radio.

While talking about physical connectivity, it has audio jack and microUSB port for charging and data transferring. By default it only charges the smartphone for security reason, so you have to manually select from smartphone in case you want to transfer data.

Alcatel idol 4 has access of dual Sim option.

Battery Performance of Alcatel Idol 4:

The Alcatel idol 4 is carried with Non-removable Li-Ion 2610 mAh battery which is precisely placed inside the back body frame. The smartphone has 8 cores so the battery will work awesome in video section.

The 1080p resolutions with HD quality can shrinkage the battery quickly. Excessive use of 3G/4G can also deduct the battery storage. It takes almost one and half hour to fully charge the battery.

Interface of Alcatel Idol 4:

The Alcatel Idol 4 using Latest Android V6.0 (Marshmallow) skinned with Precog UI (Touchless control), Live UI and Parallax UI. The interface has new look as compare to other devices. It looks interesting with the new adaptive colors that are bit sharp and colorful. Function keys are present on the front display screen instead of body.

The main screen has colorful dark wallpaper which sounds attractive. Date and time widget are displayed in the center whereas applications are arranged in rows and columns. All things present on the main display are looking very congested because it has main function keys as well as applications.

The Quick settings comes by swipe up from the top side. It has automatic or adjustable brightness setting option at its first and it can adjust almost all the necessary settings quickly. The sensor and touch setting is available by which we can mute incoming calls by turning the phone over.

The Alcatel Idol 4 has many bloat ware applications in it. Let’s look at some of them; Waves max audio is a music application via we can adjust bass, treble, stereo and revive of any sound.

Tizr is installed in it which is used for live streaming video and you can share it with your friends and family via social media.

Fyuse is an application installed in this device by which we can take pictures from different angles. It has many different modes for example manual, pano, auto and many others.

The Alctael idol 4 has Shazam application which is used to identify music that’s playing and see what other people are discovering.

The Boom key feature is accessible which has the purpose to take pictures while the phone is locked. It has many options, you can choose what should happen when the screen is on or off. You can experience live weather animation or create a video with boom key and many other features are accessible in boom key.

Processor of Alcatel Idol 4:

The Alcatel idol 4 is processed with 1.7GHZ and octa core processor with 64 bit type. It is based on the architecture of ARM-Cortex A53 with the chipset of Qualcomm MSM8952 Snapdragon 617. It is designed to deliver efficient performance and connectivity.

The idol 4 has 3GB RAM which is best for running application and games without any lag or delay.

Antutu Benchmarking of Alcatel Idol 4:

The antutu benchmarking of alcatel idol 4 shows good results and managed to score 46010 which is a good score. The Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro is above than the alcatel idol 4 device.

Vellamo Benchmarking for Alcatel Idol 4:

The Vellamo Benchmarking has tested the alcatel idol 4 device in the test series of metal test, multi-core test and chrome browser test. The Metal test has 1279, multi core test has 1831 whereas chrome browser has scored 2568 points.

Conclusion for Alcatel Idol 4:

Alcatel idol 4 is high spec device which can compete the other giants like Samsung. The device is packed with 3GB RAM, 13MP back camera, 8MP front camera and full HD supportive. Most importantly it is available at very affordable price as compare to the other flagship devices.