We’re going to admit that when we first learned about the Alcatel A5 LED, our first thought was that it was hella tacky. Could you blame us? The phone’s multi-color, LED back is definitely not for everyone, and is useless outside of throwback rave parties. But as Phonearena showed, the LED rear hides something more substantial under the hood – a way to get modular accessories into budget devices.
Alcatel A5 LED specs
- 1.5GHz  MediaTek octa-core processor
- 3GB RAM
- 5.2-inch HD IPS display, 1280 x 720 resolution
- 32GB internal storage, expandable via microSD
- 13-megapixel rear caemra, Â AF, aperture f/2.0, dual tone flash
- 5-megapixel fixed focus camera, LED flash
- Dual SIM
- 3G, LTE
- WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, fingerprint sensor
- 2,800mAh Battery
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow
See, the connector that controls the A5 LED’s back can also be used for other accessories down the line. And while it’s not as elegant as say Motorola’s Moto Mods, the connector still allows you to connect other accessories to the rear, like a speaker for example, or whatever Alcatel cooks up in the future.
What’s interesting is that the connector is relatively flush to the body and uses the case of the phone to keep the accessories on, unlike Motorola’s solution that requires the gigantic camera bump as additional support aside from the magnets on the lower half of the body. This means the solution can easily be adapted to any other phone in Alcatel’s inventory, though right now it seems that the system is present in just the A5 LED.
As a phone, the A5 LED isn’t too interesting though. A 5.2-inch display, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage as well as a 1.5GHz octa-core processor, 8-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front isn’t anything to get excited about. But the addition of the modular accessory option on a budget smartphone has captured our attention – hopefully we can catch this little thing on the show floor in the coming days.
