The name Alcatel brings back memories of a time long forgotten, when the brand had a large presence in the then-handphone scene. It had many quirky phones in the market, and appealed to a niche market, before slowly dying out. In fact, as any teenager these days and chances are they’d not have even heard of the brand (we actually did ask one…and true enough, she’d never heard of Alcatel before).
However, the French company is making huge strides in remedying that, and at CES 2013 it is marking its return to the big time, with the launch of not one, not two…but many new smart devices – including the new slimmest smartphone in the world.
Head on after the break for more.
Let’s start with the entry-level smartphone, where Alcatel has launched three new models under the One Touch Pop lineup. The lowest-specced of the three is the One Touch T’Pop, which features a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 display, 1GHz CPU, 256MB of RAM and will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. There’s a microSD card slot inside, in addition to a 3.2MP camera. However, there will not be a front-facing camera.
Bumping up the specs a little is the One Touch S’Pop. Sporting the same 3.5-inch screen and 1GHz processor as the T’Pop, the S’Pop has double the RAM. It will also run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, as well as adding a front-facing camera. The 3.2MP camera also is retained, as is the microSD card slot.
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Rounding up the bunch is the One Touch X’Pop, which boasts pretty decent specs for an entry-level phone. The screen is larger than the other two in the family, at 4.5-inches, and much sharper too, at a resolution of 960 x 540. The X’Pop also sports a dual-core 1GHz processor paired with 512MB of RAM, and includes a 5MP rear camera, VGA front camera and also a microSD card slot.
The Alcatel One Touch series is aimed at emerging markets and will be sold in Asia, Africa and Europe, and all three models will be available sometime this month. Pricing for the three models, however, was not announced.
Moving up the ranks is the Alcatel One Touch Idol. This mid-range phone sports a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU paired with 512MB of RAM. It will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in has an 4.7-inch IPS 960 x 540 screen. Interestingly, the One Touch Idol will come in two variants: a single SIM version with 4GB of non-expandable storage, and a dual SIM version with 8GB of non-expandable storage. However, the US variant of the single SIM Idol will feature a microSD card slot. The Alcatel One Touch Idol will be released in China sometime this month, but the price has also not been announced.
