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DEVICE REVIEW
Alcatel One Touch 6030D Idol
With its superb screen quality and its excellent camera and imaging software, the One Touch 6030D Idol smartphone can compete with the very best in its class – except for two very unfortunate flaws
Chinese manufacturer TCT Mobile, which makes the Alcatel One Touch phones, has never really elevated the brand beyond the perception that Alcatel One Touch is a low-end product providing cheap and basic prepay handsets to the market.
And while its prospects in this space are unlikely to change completely, efforts have been made to give the firm a greater presence in the market, such as the £ 300 One Touch 6030D Idol smartphone. Indeed, if‘ Sony’ or‘ Samsung’ was written on the front, we reckon the One Touch Idol would be a top seller.
Alcatel One Touch even took the uncharacteristic approach( for them) of partnering with Disney to place the phone in Iron Man 3 – albeit a 20-second cameo ending with the One Touch Idol 6030D being smashed against a wall. Did it really deserve such an ignoble ending?
Slate arrival To look at, the One Touch 6030D Idol resembles any other slate phone on the market, adhering to the now almost classic smartphone look.
The phone has a large 4.7-inch screen, just 0.1 inches smaller than the Galaxy S III. It weighs just 110g, which according to Alcatel One Touch makes it the lightest smartphone. It is also one of the slimmest at just 7.9mm, that’ s thinner than a pencil. The 1,800mAh battery is built in, which also helps keep bulk and weight down.
Despite a low-end price, the‘ Touch Idol’ seems higher quality than the average budget phone, in fact it’ s closer in quality to phones costing three times as much.
There is no Gorilla Glass, instead the phone has the less common Dragontrail glass. This is claimed to be six times stronger than conventional screens in its ability to withstand scratches. It is also coated to reduce fingerprint smears.
Indeed, carrying it around in a pocket full of change and keys left the screen unmarked. The device looks sleek, with nice attributes such as its silver bezel and blue finish. Alcatel offers a range of options including pink, red and light green colours.
The Touch Idol can support dual SIMs, a feature becoming common among low-end devices. Inserting the SIM takes much fiddling for it to actually click in and be recognised. Incidentally, there is no slot for additional memory cards.
There is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the phone, next to the power button, and there’ s a volume bar down the side. The USB charging port is along the bottom.
Screen idol Another area often sacrificed in low-end models is a decent screen. The Idol screen quality is up there with the finest efforts of Samsung, Sony and Apple.
Android Jelly Bean( currently Google’ s most up-to-date software) runs proceedings. There is an impressive panoramic image of New York City, which widens as you slide through the five home menu screens.
Dragontrail glass covers the phone’ s 4.7-inch screen
No expandable memory slot for microSD cards
Standard Android trio of touch buttons
The typical Android and Google shortcuts and widgets are all present and correct( Maps, email, Play store and camera). Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter are also pre-loaded for your social networking delight.
On first start-up the Idol does not run an initial set-up tutorial. Instead, it will offer tips and hints when selecting apps for the first time, such as advice on using the camera controls or sending an email.
Under the hood sits a dual-core 1.2GHz processor. This speeds through menus with virtually no lag – even when downloading apps from the Google Play store.
The auto rotation worked well too, responding almost instantly to the changing movements. It does not end up getting confused like some smartphones( we’ re talking to you BlackBerry Z10).
Accessing the web is fast and easy. In fact the rendering of pages is better than on some more expensive smartphones we’ ve tried.
Streaming videos over Wi-Fi was the same experience as using a PC, backed up by excellent sound quality.
Under control As with most Android devices, there are three touch controls along the bottom of the screen. The back and
“ The large screen makes the One Touch 6030D Idol easier to navigate than many other Android devices”
main menu buttons remain. Instead of the standard search option, you can now view all applications currently open. However, the controls only light up when pressed and are otherwise invisible.
The standard touchscreen buttons range along the bottom of each of the home screens( calling, contacts main menu, text and web search).
The large screen makes the One Touch 6030D Idol easier to navigate than many other Android devices. A big( virtual) keyboard cuts down on typing errors and reduces the reliance on autocorrect.
Key Statistics
Dimensions 133 x 67.5 x 7.9mm Weight 109g Screen 4.66in, 540 x 960 pixels Input IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen OS Android 4.1 Jelly Bean CPU Dual-core 1GHz Memory 512MB Storage 4GB non-expandable( dual-SIM version) / 4GB, microSD up to 32GB( single SIM) Wireless Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 Camera 8MP rear, 3,264 x 2,448 pixels, LED flash, 2MP front Battery 1,800mAh
Camera and video Imaging is handled by a twomegapixel front-facing camera and an eight-megapixel rear camera. The quality produced by both is excellent. Auto-focus is quick and accurate while face recognition kicks in when needed. To focus on a particular part of the image, just press down on it with your thumb or finger.
A useful feature is‘ continuous shot’, which uses the volume control to take multiple shots in burst mode, letting you search for the best one to use. Single shots are taken by touching the capture button in the middle of the screen.
Onboard editing software means you can tweak each picture there and then straight after it has been shot, reducing red-eye, cropping and altering skin tone tints. Even the frontfacing camera is worthy of positive acclaim and will certainly be more than adequate for Skype calls.
The camera flash is powerful enough to capture quality images even in poor lighting. However, the flash does take a second or two to activate and just seems to respond too slowly during the picturetaking process.
HD video recording results in crisp images with surprisingly clear sound and picture.
With the Touch Idol Alcatel has shown it can compete with the top brands for technology, with little compromise on camera quality.
Memory and battery blues Before we get carried away, it’ s not all sweetness and light. The biggest fault of the Touch Idol is the mediocre amount of 4GB storage memory available. For such a feature-rich device packing in so much advanced video and camera technology, having just 4GB on board with no additional option of adding a microSD card is plain ridiculous.
We hear an updated Touch Idol is expected to be available that will substitute one of the dual-SIM slots with space for a 32GB microSD memory card. An LTE / 4G model is also said to be in the works, according to Alcatel.
Another letdown is the battery. Alcatel One Touch says we should expect 7.2 hours on 2G and just 3.2 hours on 3G. As few people would be interested in 2G on a smartphone, this is well below the industry standard. In tests we started the day with a full charge. By early evening a recharge was required. If this is not done, the Touch Idol will be dead the next morning.
Verdict
The‘ Idol’ combines slick design with top-end features that could grace any premium device. But with a Samsung Galaxy S III now costing the same, £ 300( SIM free), it has serious competition and Alcatel One Touch doesn’ t have the brand power to justify this cost, especially as it is listed as $ 299(£ 195) on its US website. If you really want it, check if any of your pals are off to the US. Or take a look at the cost of postage and import duties.
Michael Garwood
MN 2013-0730 Device Review 2. indd 39 24 / 07 / 2013 15:57