Alcatel One Touch Idol Unboxing: Best looking smartphone under Php12,000?

Alcatel One Touch Idol officially unboxed!

The Alcatel One Touch Idol is the younger brother of the Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra. It has slightly lower specs than the Idol Ultra, has almost the same form factor, and sells for considerably less at just Php11,990. We were able to get our hands on a unit and we’d like to share our initial impressions as well as unboxing experience.

Alcatel One Touch Idol Spec Sheet

1GHz Dual-core Processor, MTK 6577+ Chipset
512MB RAM
4GB Internal Storage, expandable via microSD up to 32GB
4.66-inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, Dragontrail Glass
960×540 resolution, 236 pixels per inch
8.0-megapixels rear-facing camera with autofocus and LED flash
2.0-megapixels front-facing camera
WiFi b/g/n, WiFi Direct, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/aGPS, 3G, FM
1,800mAh Battery
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Let’s get the ball rolling on this one!

Packaging: Hello Iron Man!

Just like the One Touch Idol Ultra, the box of this phone has a plastic slip-on with Iron Man on it. I don’t know how they could afford it but Alcatel was able to sponsor Iron Man 3 and their phones even appeared in the movie, hehe. Anyway, we removed the slip-on and found the normal One Touch Idol box. Product print at the front and details at the back.

Time to take a peek and see what's inside! — Time to take a peek and see what’s inside!

We removed the tape on the side and popped open the top lid. As expected the first thing we saw was the Alcatel One Touch Idol. The device had front and back adhesive printed protectors on it. We peeled them off and took a few moments to marvel at the design. This is probably the best looking sub Php12,000 smartphone in the world today. We kid you not… this phone, like the Idol Ultra, looks fantabulous. Yes, I just used “fantabulous” to describe a smartphone, lol.

Here are a few photos of the unboxing for your appreciation. Don’t forget to read the captions!

Screen is quite big at 4.66-inches. Display is also good (qHD)

Back has a brushed metal silver finish making it look incredibly classy

Over-all we’re very impressed with the quality of the materials used as well as the design philosophy behind the One Touch Idol. If Alcatel continues to make phones like this one they’ll definitely get more market share from other manufacturers.

What else is in the box

Inside the box we also found earphones, micro USB to USB cable, wall charger, manuals, certificates, and a screen protector.

Initial Impression on the Software

The Alcatel One Touch Idol runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box. It definitely feels smoother and more seamless compared to overpowered ICS devices. However there are still noticeable lag spikes ande delays. This is probably caused by the underpowered 512MB RAM.

We’ll do more tests on the capabilities of the One Touch Idol throughout the weekend. Hopefully we can get back to you guys with our full review in the middle of next week.