Gadgetory

I'll start off with this the ARCA tell here oh is a great looking device the screen is bright colorful 1080p resolution 13 megapixel cameras and one of the best battery life you can find on a phone it also has dual SIM slots but to achieve the price point at $400 sometimes cutting corners are required now do these decisions affect the overall experience well I'm Kevin the tech ninja and we're about to find out let's begin with the aesthetics the hero is a large phone in more ways than once this phone remind you of the note 3 the size the weight and also some of the features the hero is made from soft touch plastic construction the power button and volume rocker is located on the right hand side of the device and that is beneath the SIM slot on the top of the device there is a port for the headphone jack and on the opposite side there is a micro SD card slot on the back of the device we have the 13 megapixel camera flash and the port for the magic flip cover more on that soon the stylus and also the speaker grille are on the back as well the construction of the hero feels ok it's plastic but not glossy slippery plastic that is found with other phones rather it's a matte soft touch plastic as cliche as it sounds this material is also a fingerprint magnet Alcatel found a way to fit such a large screen on a small device comparing it to the note 3 yes again I'm sorry it's 1.4 millimeters wider but the screen is a whole point 0-3 inches bigger which is impressive to see the 1080p screen is bright with vivid colors and the 6 inch screen almost golds bezel 2 bezel the panel is smooth so your finger easily slides around it and at 367 PPI it delivers a crisp image the color reproduction is accurate it doesn't have that over saturation that you see with some phones to portray a beautiful image this phone actually does have a beautiful image and it looks natural the display melts into the device since the bezels are so small and there isn't much else on the front of device so when looking at a black image it's hard to tell where the screen ends or where the bezels begin it's one of those nice features that you really need to see in person to really appreciate it the device also has some good weight behind it it weighs in at 6.25 ounces when holding the phone in your pocket or you hold it in your hand it has some weight to it you can really tell that it's there the speakers are located on the back of the device so when watching a movie or playing a game in landscape my hands cover the speakers this is a common issue on many devices and it makes me wonder how much better with these speakers be on the front regardless the speakers can get really loud and they remain crisp and clear throughout the whole experience even at the max levels calls and the phones sound really good as well the speakerphone although it sounds a little tinny for my liking is still very suitable when doing a few test calls the people I were talking to on the phone told me that I sounded pretty good and nothing sounded out of the ordinary under the hood is running a mediatek quad-core processor at 1.5 gigahertz and it also has 2 gigabytes of RAM the mediatek quad core processor struggles to keep the OS running smoothly simply flipping through the home screens you can easily see some of the shutters this also happens when using in a tense application or game it's not unusable and it may not be noticeable to all users but for enthusiasts who has used a newer phone you can definitely tell the difference this also applies to multitasking a touch slower that I like it to be but still performs all the actions you throw at it as we all know megapixels are not the end-all be-all when it comes to cameras the chips and the optics are equally if not more important when it comes to image quality the 13 megapixel camera on a hero comes out with very detailed images at times the camera images appears to be a bit soft but overall the images are good enough to leave you satisfied the software the camera is very basic to use there are a few different presets like HDR panorama smile night in sport and also for the camera lousiest out there under the hood there are some advanced options to get even more control like ISO levels exposure compensation timer and also resolution size they're not any features built in the camera that are groundbreaking or changes the way you take pictures but overall the cameras suite is serviceable and you have more than enough settings to grab the perfect shot you're truly looking for the hero pax one more surprise and that's the included magic flip cover on the back of the device you'll notice a few holes with metal inserts in them this is where the magic flip covers connect to it this flip cover serves a few different purposes first it protects your device from dust accidental drops or scratches on the screen also it's a smart cover so when opening the flap the screen turns on and when closing it it turns off the last purpose is the most unique the flip cover has LEDs built into the case if you have a notification on your device then it shows on your flip cover it is an elegant way to show your displays and it also saves battery there's no need to turn on the screen since the notification lights up the magic cover which uses low power the magic cover is a great idea and it works well I wish it was more customizable but for what it is it's a welcome addition it's something I use often there are times that the cover comes off the device because it's just using a light magnet hang on to it and I also wish that it was more customizable to pick what type of notifications for example if you use a third-party Twitter application that notification does not come to the Smart Cover the hero comes packed with a large 3400 mAh battery the battery was able to last a full day of 16 hours with around 5 hours of on-screen time and this was a full day of heavy use we have Bluetooth like gaming web surfing and tons of hangout messages the best case scenario with mostly Wi-Fi connectivity and light use will be 3 days with about an hour of on-screen time now this is comparable to the latest flagship phones that have just came out from Samsung and also HTC so right there it's neck-and-neck with all the big dogs the OneTouch hero also has slots for two micro SIM cards the dual SIM card software works well and allows you to easily switch and manage both sim cards independently so if you travel often this may be a feature that can persuade you to get this phone you can have both SIM cards right in your phone at the same time so no matter where you're at you can still have service without fumbling around and replacing cards the hero is running Android 4.2.2 jelly bean it's a heavily modified version of the software and it closely resembles TouchWiz the way the homescreen works the app drawer the feel the transitions and pretty much everything is similar the lockscreen also allows for quick access to the camera phone and messages they even have their own application store that houses about 20 different applications there's no applications that are housed in there that will change the way we use our phone or that will change the rating of this review but it's still nice to have alternatives all in all the software is fine and it's serviceable but a little bit of me wishes we had a stock Android alternative price considering the Alcatel OneTouch hero as a solid phone the 1080p resolution screen that goes pretty much bezel to bezel is a beauty that loud and clear speakers the magic flip cover and the dual SIM slots has the pedigree to be a game-changing phone however the engine that runs it all is somewhat of a disappointment and it really really hurts the overall value of the phone if you can honestly look past at shutters in the time it takes to go between applications and this phone is still a great Buy and it rivals phones like the note 3 that's almost double the price and it actually outperforms it in some of the categories at the end of the day the Alcatel OneTouch hero is the best large screen phone for under $400 and this completes my review of the Alcatel OneTouch hero now if you liked what you saw thus far you want to know more information make sure you check out the description below because I have the written companion piece that goes into things in a little more detail I talked about the stylus and a few other things that I did not mention in the video review and as always guys my name is Kevin the tech ninja you can find me on youtube and on google+ and this is android authority your source for all things Android take care