Gadgetory

Uncle Tom made some noise last year when they released the OneTouch Idol 3 the 5.5 inch version that is the phone was one of many budget-friendly mid ranges we saw throughout the year but it remained relevant because of its solid performance and $250.00 starting costs well they're not backing down this year either with its successor there's been a lot of heated competition in this mid-range category and we've seen a handful of offerings already so it's going to need a lot to stay in the thick of things as we enter the second half of the year hey guys John be here with Android thority and this is a review of the Alcatel idol 4s I'm very successful 2015 Alcatel sem Bishan to move forward is seen here at the phone it's beautifully designed and far more premium nature than last year's product thanks to its glass meets barrel construction you can see it's somewhat similar to what Samsung has done with its phones but the idol 4s isn't as refined it doesn't have the cohesiveness that we get from Samsung stuff but it's still beautifully designed like for example there's a small lip you don't really see it but you definitely feel it around the display or what kind of meets the metal trim vessel and it does give the phone just a little bit of a sharper feel it's not obtrusive or impedes the way you use the phone but it just doesn't have that uniformity that we get from Samsung's designs it features some interesting design choices for starters they surprised everyone by fashioning a fingerprint sensor on the back which wasn't something we saw back during Mobile World Congress the only issue though relates to how its plush with the surrounding area so I'm sometimes finding myself fiddling around just to find it well it's not much of an issue when you have the included case on just because the placement is a little bit more distinguishable secondly it packs dual three point six one JBL certified speakers that deliver impressive audio they're powerful and sound clean so we're impressed you'll also notice that there are two grilles on the back as well that helps and disperse in the audio to cover a wider range than those typically that are just five towards the front they're so powerful that they even have enough substance in the noisiest conditions take a listen for yourself and lastly there's the boom key which is essentially a shortcut button on its side it's tiny and it's also rather stiff but to be frank its placement is more appropriate for a power button we now have quad HD resolution with this 5.5 inch display they've also switched to AMOLED as well it displays actually the second most attractive thing of the phone it's bright at over 600 nits and it has all the qualities of AMOLED however the screens on the colder side with its 7500 Kelvin color temperature and it tends to produce oversaturated unrealistic colors that's not a bad thing but it's not accurate or true life either but of course all this can be modified to your liking just because you can manually set the color temperature through the display settings for either a warmer or colder tone at the same time - we notice that the screen isn't as responsive as we'd like when it comes to swipes you really have to give a firm touch in order for it to register it could be latency issue of some kind but it simply means that you can't relays if you're swipes either like pulling down the notifications bar can be a hit or miss type thing depending on how firmly you swipe down when the area is where it's going to be scrutinized a lot is in its processing performance it comes equipped with a Snapdragon 650 to chip with three gigabytes of RAM which is more than plans to handle the easy stuff when it comes to other things like gaming it's something you might see hiccupping every now and then for the average user they'll probably be content with its performance but for those who are more demanding its weaker processing performance compared to today's flagships limits its ability to do more Oh at the very least Alcatel is generous and giving it 32 gigabytes of internal storage with expansion via microsd Alka tells Android experience is likable one at the very least since it tries it's best to remain faithful to the stock experience basic users will appreciate its simplicity and straightforwardness but power users will be craving for more it's more like a one step process with the experience here on the idle 4s just because your focus on doing one thing at a time whereas say something like TouchWiz you have all these features and functions at your disposal they do however continue to offer all hotels reversible mode while some might is a novelty it doesn't have any negative implications to the experience hey it just means that you don't have to worry about picking up the phone because regardless if you pick it upside down the interface will adapt the question that remains though is if it'll get the next version of Android in a timely manner this year's camera gets bumped up to 16 megapixels and uses a Sony sensor while the front one is still at 8 megapixels but receives a wider earth 2.0 aperture lens for the most part the camera gets the job done so we can't complain details are sufficient and colors tend to be rich in tone however it struggles with dynamic range as brighter lit areas tend to be overexposed that's all by using HDR which adjusts the exposure throughout the range but then it appears a bit artificial and there's no automatic HDR mode either its weakest area continues to be low-light since images tend to be grainy and more susceptible to blurring the front camera works rather well producing enough details and color to the mix 4k video capture is offered with a camera as well it's a delightful option for those who need the extra resolution to work with and just like it's still shot performance video quality's in the same range it's good when the conditions are ideal but isn't one for low-light situations on top of that the electronic image stabilization doesn't seem to do much as well since shakiness is still apparent as for the camera app itself you have all the staple modes like panoramic HDR and slow-motion you also have added treats like micro video which is an editing feature for short clips as well as fuse that adds a parallax esque like effect to give them just a more interactive look they're all neat but we really wish that the manual mode also worked for video nope it's only good for photos call quality is surprisingly great with this one the volume output is pretty strong through the earpiece and also on the speakerphone but it's made better with the clear tones of its quality voices have strong emphasis which makes it even a breeze to chitchat when there's some ambient noise around we're also impressed by its better than average battery life which is attributed to the 3000 milliamp hour battery in general we're able to get easy 1/2 days of normal usage out of it now that'll vary depending on the user but even if you're the demanding type its charging time is that a speedy 89 minutes and that box is what we call quick charging so while it doesn't claim that title of being the best of the best when it comes to battery life it's still an apart to what we see with all the other five ships out there Alcatel isn't just selling a phone here instead they're selling an experience because when you buy it it'll be bundled with a VR headset so out of the box literally you can experience VR that's a sweet gesture made better by the fact that they're also including a pair of JBL headphones a screen protector and incipio case all this is awesome to include the purchase especially when this unlock dual sim smartphone is only four hundred dollars when it launches on August third yes if you preorder it beforehand you'll get an additional discount to drop it down to only $350 but it's still competing with some other aggressively priced smart phones at around the same cost phones like the one plus three and the ZTE axon seven come to mind at the foreign dollar mark but then you also have even cheaper things like the $250 motor g4 plus to think about while it'll see a price reduction sometime the future here now it's playing to a tough audience that has a lot to choose from last year starting price of $250 was undeniably head-turning with OneTouch Idol 3 but now at $400 with the idol s it's tougher to like that's unless its design and batch of goodies are enough to seduce you everything about the phone is an upgrade from last year from the design to the specs I definitely like it but at $400 it really causes you to think more about what you want to buy so if you guys want to learn more about this handset you can check our website Android Authority comm this is John VIII signing out