Alcatel Onetouch is launching two new smartphones in the US, where they’ll be available exclusively through Walmart and/or wireless carrier Straight Talk/Tracfone.
The Alcatel Onetouch Pop Star LTE is a $150 phone with a 4 inch, WVGA display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, and a $150 price tag which is only really interesting because it’s one of the cheaper phones to support a 4G LTE network. The display has poor viewing angles which kind of turns me off that phone.
The company’s new $250 Onetouch Pop Mega LTE, on the other hand, is all kinds of interesting. It’s a 6 inch phone that comes with a small Bluetooth handset called the “buddy” that lets you take or make calls when you don’t want to pull a tablet-sized phone out of your pocket or bag.
The OneTouch Pop Mega features a 6 inch, 960 x 540 pixel display with wide viewing angles, a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a microSD card slot for up to 32GB of removable storage, and a big 3400mAh battery for up to 14 hours of talk time.
The phone features WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and FM radio. It has an 8MP rear camera with auto-focus and flash, and a 2MP front-facing camera.
While there’s no mistaking a phone with 4GB of storage and a qHD display for a high-end device, the screen actually looks pretty good, the device feels pretty zippy thanks to Qualcomm’s quad-core processor, and the Bluetooth buddy seems like an interesting option for folks who like “phablets” because the alleviate the need for a separate phone and tablet… but feel silly holding a 6 inch phone to their face.
Alcatel OneTouch says you should get up to 2 days of battery life from the tiny buddy.
The $250 price tag is how much you’ll pay up front for the phone. There’s no contract and no subsidy. But the phone is carrier-locked to Straight Talk/Tracfone. So while it technically uses AT&T’s 3G and 4G network, you can’t just buy this phone from Walmart and use it with AT&T or T-Mobile… although I’m not sure why you’d want to. Straight Talk pay-as-you go plans offer unlimited data for as little as $45 per month.
Sounds like a good deal for people who dont have an extra $500 to put down on a galaxy or iphone.
I find 4 .5 in screens too small so I want at least a 5 in phone to feel more comfortable browsing the internet or watching videos and playing games.
i wish i could buy a buddy separately! i think the bluetooth handset + phablet design is brilliant. if it can be docked to a full-size display + keyboard + mouse, we are in business.
As I watch people attempt photography with tablets I have to wonder how they could feel silly talking into one.