ZTE isn’t the only company offering a smartphone with high-end specs and a less-than-high-end price. Alcatel’s Idol 4S smartphone goes up for pre-order July 15th for $350 and ships starting August 3rd.
First unveiled in February, this phone features a 5.5 inch, 2560 x 1440 pixel AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery.
It’s also designed to be used as a VR headset using Google Cardboard-style accessories… and Alcatel ships the phone with a box that can be used as a set of VR goggles, as well as a set of JBL in-ear headphones.
Other features include 3.6 watt JBL certified stereo front-facing speakers, a fingerprint sensor, a 16MP rear camera with phase detection auto-focus and auto HDR mode, and an 8MP front-facing camera with an 84-degree wide-angle lens.
The phone supports 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and NFC and has dual SIM card slots. You can use one of those SIMs as a microSD card reader.
While the phone is priced at $350 during the pre-order period, once it officially goes on sale August 3rd, the price goes up to $400.
That makes it the same price as an entry-level ZTE Axon 7, which has a similar display but more memory and a more powerful processor. The Axon 7 doesn’t come with a VR headset though.
