Alcatel brought some budget-conscious offerings to
the MWC and we were pleasantly surprised to find out they run Android 8.1 Oreo.
The alcatel 1X has a modest starting price of € 100,
but it runs the latest Android 8.1 Oreo. It should be noted that this is
Android Go Edition, due to the low-ish hardware specs. Actually, it's the first
Android One phone ever! The phone has an 18:9 screen, 5.3" in diagonal,
and a fingerprint reader on the back.
The camera is pretty solid, though it varies by
region - you get either 13MP or 8MP. The good news is that both record 1080p
video and have Electronic Image Stabilization (plus Photo Booth and Social
Square modes). The selfie cam is a 5MP shooter with dedicated flash.
That's the good news, but in this price range some
concessions have to be made. The chipset comes with an unimpressive quad-core
processor and the base memory option gives you only 1GB of RAM. You can get an
upgrade to 2GB, but the built-in storage is fixed at 16GB in both cases (there
is a microSD slot).
The screen is nothing to write home about with its
480 x 960px resolution, which is a bit low even in the € 100 price range. The
battery is on the small side with 2,460mAh capacity too. The alcatel 1X will
launch in April in single SIM (€ 100) and dual SIM (€ 110) versions. Some models
will have a soft touch Suede finish.
