Alcatel One Touch Idol S - Discuss...

[kration]

I've just come across a reference to the 'Alcatel One Touch Idol S' on another thread and it seems like the budget phone I've been looking for.

I'm upgrading from a 'HTC Sensation' and was waiting for a budget phone that can use 4G and has an SD Card slot. I was waiting for the next version of the Moto X in the hope it does what I need?

My requirements compared to my 'HTC Sensation' in no particular order are:

• Decent Battery life
• SD Card Slot
• 4G
• Decent camera (compared to my HTC Sensation - which has an OK camera)

The 'Moto G' would have been perfect for me re. battery, but it misses on everything else.

The 'Alcatel One Touch Idol S' fills all of the points except 'battery life' -but is it that bad on battery?

I'm on the '3' network, so is there a problem re. that?

Any feedback on the 'Idol S'?

 

[Neil King]

I'll give you my plus's of both the Moto G and Alcatel One Touch idol S,


Moto G plus's.


Splash Proof Coating

Quad Core Snapdragon Processor as opposed to Dual Core on the Alcatel, same GPU though,

Sturdy Build Quality,

Longer battery life, though still good on the Alcatel,

Sky Go Compatible,

Android KitKat 4.4 as opposed to 4.2 on the Alcatel which is very unlikely to get updated,

Bloat free android.



Alcatel One Touch Idol S plus's


Larger 4.7` screen even more noticeable with hardware home buttons instead of on the screen like Moto G, slightly better quality screen, also with tougher Glass.

4G, which to me will be massive when 3's unlimited data 4G network gets rolled out around the country,

Micro SD slot,

Very thin and light only 110g as opposed to a thicker heavier Moto G 140g,

GTA San Andreas works beautifully unlike on the Moto G for some reason

8MP camera and 1080p for video's as opposed to 5MP and 720P video's on the Moto G,

DLNA Support.

 

[kration]

Thanks for the feedback Neil.

Apart from battery life, the only real plus for the Moto G for me is the Android version update - but even then I'm not too bothered about that.

I'm now convinced to buy this phone, my only questions are:

• Where's the best place to buy one?
• How easy is it to unlock?
• What SD cards does it use (and where can I buy them)?
• Will it work with a '3' sim card and on the '3' network once unlocked?

Compared to the hype about the 'Moto G' why aren't people shouting about this phone from the rooftops?

I suppose I'll just need to buy one and find out...

 

[thep02]

We bought it via quidco off the ee site, if the cb goes through it'll be £30 back off a £99.99 purchase, lad's using a 3 payg sim in it with no probs the unlock cost a quid off ebay.

Aesthetically I love the phone it feels great in the hand but I can't give any user feedback as only my son has used it but coming from a Note he has commented on how much he loves the Idol's screen and he gets 4g in the same places I do with my s4 we get equal speed test results.

 

[Swissy]

Don't these only have 4 gig of on board memory though ? I think that's why i passed this by and got 2 16 gig moto g's

 

[austinpowers]

I have a Moto G as a work phone.. It doesn't have dc-hspa, so is slow on 3...

Hence why i wanted this phone as i use 3 for my internet, the Moto G isn't anything special tbh..

Plus these have a msdcard slot, so a lot bigger than the poxy internal memory on the "G"

 

[jcr]

Like the look of this phone and need to upgrade to a 4g handset but the battery is too small for my usage. Will prob go for a moto x

 

[emu]

Alcatel One Touch Idol S Storage
Our only major concern is the Idol S's small amount of storage. It comes with 4GB of internal space, but only 1.96GB is available to the user. This doesn't leave much space for photos or video files, but the phone does have a microSD card slot that can take up to 32GB cards. You'll definitely need to fit a memory card if you intend to install games or carry your music collection around with you. At least Android's storage settings make it easy to switch between onboard and external storage when downloading and installing app


is that right you can move apps and games to the sd card?

 

[Orcvader]

As long as the app allows it, but there are some apps which refuses to be moved on the SD card without rooting. Still, it doesn't leave much space for apps and app data (which stays on the internal), and this can be very fustrating. Also, from my experience, apps on the SD card tends to feel slower when compared to being on the internal memory.

And also, they don't use the same GPU, the Idol S uses a PowerVR SGX531 GPU while the Moto G uses an Adreno 305 GPU. Not sure which one performs better though.

Also, the Idol's CPU uses the better performing A9 CPU compared to the Moto G's A7 CPU, which means they'll perform better on apps which are poorly multithreaded.

Another thing to consider is the Idol's SoC is based on a 40nm process as compared to the G's 28nm process, so it theory it could use more power hence less battery life.

 

[kona786]

Also, the Idol's CPU uses the better performing A9 CPU compared to the Moto G's A7 CPU, which means they'll perform better on apps which are poorly multithreaded.

Another thing to consider is the Idol's SoC is based on a 40nm process as compared to the G's 28nm process, so it theory it could use more power hence less battery life.

The A9 based SoC in the Idol is probably a very old design and I wouldn't be surprised if the newer SoC in the Moto G comfortably outperformed it with the added bonus of less power consumption. The G's newer SoC will have improved bus performance and all sorts which mean it'll be the better performer. And 28nm vs 40nm is just plain better for everything to do with batterylife.

Then throw in the G's better upto date software for even better performance.

 

[thep02]

Yeah don't get me wrong this is Defo a good cheap phone option not an actually good phone, it's in the £60 to £110 range of phone for those using Aces, Apollos or other sub Samsung s2 phones but with an HD large screen, modernish android and 4g it's tough to beat certainly at the £70 new I hope to have paid.

 

[kona786]

Agree with you there just pointing out which will perform better speed and batterylife wise.

If you want 4G and an sd slot - Idol is a bargain.

 

[thep02]

just pointing out
.

And rightly so, all faults on all phones should be freely discussed, the psychology of purchase justification is a vendors delight.

 

[dun]

Spoke to some chap on the ee.co.uk online chat today who said they won't be having any more of these in. He said to wait for the 'kestrel' which will be out soon. Had a quick look online and seems a bit worse than the Alcatel if anything?

 

[Neil King]

Thanks for the feedback Neil.

Apart from battery life, the only real plus for the Moto G for me is the Android version update - but even then I'm not too bothered about that.

I'm now convinced to buy this phone, my only questions are:

• Where's the best place to buy one? - Phone up EE and ask if they have any left( I got mine for the bargain price of £90.99 including delivery by just saying I couldn't find one in my local EE shop), if not try Ebay.
• How easy is it to unlock?.... Very easy, Get unlock code off ebay very cheaply.
• What SD cards does it use (and where can I buy them)? Any Micro SD card upto 32GB
• Will it work with a '3' sim card and on the '3' network once unlocked?

. Yes it will work with any network including 3 when unlocked.

Compared to the hype about the 'Moto G' why aren't people shouting about this phone from the rooftops?

I suppose I'll just need to buy one and find out...

I think the reason it hasn't got as much attention is mainly because of the mod community like XDA and the Alcatel hasn't the brand name of Motorola, I think it was also expensive when it first came out last Sept/Oct, it is very strange indeed why the net isn't full of much more information about this great smartphone, it really feels great in the hand, love the thinness/feel and the screen is fantastic, really its the smartphone you are looking for, snap it up before it's too late, the Idol S 2 hasn't a release date over here yet and might be £200+ of course this time next year it will be in the position of the Idol S 1.

 

[mame]

It does look good but can't see me changing from my Moto G until my proper upgrade in October.

It is probably the start to the end in some ways with these phones. In a couple of years when they are clowning around with phones with a 3960x2160 screen, 6 gig of RAM and a brain monitor, there will be £99 phones with 1080p, 2gb RAM and many people will stop bothering to keep up.

 

[kration]

I think the reason it hasn't got as much attention is mainly because of the mod community like XDA and the Alcatel hasn't the brand name of Motorola, I think it was also expensive when it first came out last Sept/Oct, it is very strange indeed why the net isn't full of much more information about this great smartphone, it really feels great in the hand, love the thinness/feel and the screen is fantastic, really its the smartphone you are looking for, snap it up before it's too late, the Idol S 2 hasn't a release date over here yet and might be £200+ of course this time next year it will be in the position of the Idol S 1.

Thanks for the feedback. To be honest I'm not bothered about feel/thinness as I always put a gel case and screen protector on my phones. Functionality is the key for me.

My one reservation about this phone is what is the battery life like? If anyone can speak from experience (rather than just looking at the specs) then that would be great.

To set my decision in context, I'm looking for a stop-gap 4G phone.

My 'HTC Sensation' has been great but keeps crashing. I'm also really frustrated with the memory and battery life of the Sensation (even with an upgraded battery).

The 'Moto G' is great but isn't 4G and has a poor camera and no SD slot.

The Alcatel Idol S could tide me over until more functional lower-mid-range-phone comes out (SD slot, 4G, decent camera, decent battery life)

It's £120 at Tesco with a potential £20 off...

 

[kration]

It does look good but can't see me changing from my Moto G until my proper upgrade in October.

My dilemma exactly.

What 4G phone with an SD card slot and decent battery can I get until my proper upgrade in a few months time.

 

[Swissy]

Why not try one of the Chinese clones with the same 4G chipset ? For around the same money you get a bigger screen and more memory . Its a bit left field i know but for around £100 it might be worth a punt if its only a stop gap.

 

[lsve]

I've had the idol s for a few weeks (was either this or a moto g) - by far the worst aspect of the phone is the battery life. Its fine with the screen off (about 5-10% loss every six hours). Last charge 12 hours ago with an hour of calls, an hour of browsing and some texts, I've got 65% battery remaining.

I bought this as a stop gap phone, expectations were fairly low but very surprised by other elements of this device.

It seems to handle all apps fine - note that a lot of review sites do not contain the correct info about the SOC - its definitely a Qualcomm MSM8930 dual core with Adreno 305 GPU (28mn lith) - not the mediatek and powerVR combo.

Camera is better than expected - daylight photos are surprisingly good indoors a bit less so. Full HD vids are fine too.

Speaker is a bit quiet. Oddly enough, earpiece is fine and sound quality is good - phone supports HD voice and does have secondary noise cancelling mic.

Screen is very good indeed (aside from destroying battery life). Comparable to some phones costing a lot more. Personally prefer the buttons below screen rather than the on screen buttons (back menu etc)

The phone itself feels very solid; I was expecting it to feel cheap and very low budget - it doesn't at all. Feels a lot better than some mid range samsung devices.

Not on a 4g plan but DC-HSPA works fine. No issues. Ditto Wifi - both faster than old phone.

GPS works fine (and does support GLONASS)

Has wifi direct and can screencast which was a surprise for a budget phone.

Only other downsides are that its likely to be stuck on 4.2.2 and there's unlikely to be any custom roms (device can be rooted). Really surprised this phone hasn't received any real attention/reviews - its a cracking bit of kit for £110.

If you want latest and greatest android version and a decent battery - get the moto g.

If you want a thin, light phone with very good screen, better camera, decent data transfer and an sd slot, get this.

Sim unlock on ebay for £1 as other posts have mentioned.