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Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 (4.7 inch Model) Review

The Good: Sleek design paired with compact size. It offers a pretty good performance considering the price. Great front-facing speakers.

The Bad: The camera app it comes with is extremely bad. The battery is not user-replaceable.

The Verdict: The Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 is a good choice for people looking for a low-cost, but solid Android phone that features a somewhat smaller screen (4.7 inches). It has some flaws, but its good features definitely outweigh the bad.

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Design and Build Quality

The Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 is really thin and light, and easy to hold. It's made out of plastic, but the rim shines with metallic gloss. Thanks to the phone's 4.7-inch display it is really compact and feels great when you slip it into a pocket. The back of the device has a brushed metal appearance and is non-removable.

Software and User Experience

The Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop installed, and it features Alcatel's custom skin. Some of Alcatel's tweaks are nice, but some are confusing and hamper quick navigation. User experience isn't very intuitive, but you get used to it after a while. It's not a big deal, but it may irritate some people.

Camera

For a budget phone, the 13MP rear camera offers pretty good image quality. Outdoor photos and indoor photos in good lighting look great, while low-light snaps are somewhat grainy, but this is to be expected from a phone camera in this price range. The camera also records full HD video in 30 fps. Our biggest beef with One Touch Idol 3 isn't its camera, it's the native camera app, which could definitely be more user-friendly. 

Technical Specifications:

  • Display: 4.7 inches (1280x720 pixels)
  • Processor: 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410
  • Memory: 1.5GB
  • Storage: 16GB (expendable via microSD)
  • Camera: 13MP
  • Battery: 2,000mAh
  • OS: Android OS, 5.0 (Lollipop)
  • Dimensions: 134.6 x 65.9 x 7.6 mm (5.30 x 2.59 x 0.30 in)

Conclusion

It feels like there are less and less smartphones under 5 inches these days, even when it comes to budget phones. If you are, however, looking for a cheap phone that's also very portable and can easily slip into a pocket than the 4.7-inch Idol 3 is a good choice. It certainly has its flaws, but it's a decent phone with a nice camera, great speakers and sleek design.

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Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 (4.7 inch Model)