Alcatel OT-918 Specs and Price in Kenya
Alcatel OT-918. Picture courtesy of Telefoonshop.nl
The Alcatel One Touch -918 was announced in November 2011 and released the same month. Surprisingly, the device packs quit a punch of state of the art features for its low price tag but very little light has been shone on its above average features.
Even with poor marketing, it graces itself as a phantom competitor to other well popularized entry level droids such as the Samsung Galaxy Pocket. It even has an assortment of attractive features to back it up as the best sub- Ksh.9, 000 Android Smartphone money can buy.
The Alcatel OT-918 can be purchased at any Safaricom Shops at an amazing price of USD $100 or about Ksh. 8,499 and is available in Black, White, Cherry Red and Aubergine colors.
Alcatel OT-918 Pros
Bright, crisp display
Although Alcatel engineers mounted a large3.2 inch TFT screen measuring 320 by 480 pixels on this device, the screen clarity was not disappointedly compromised as with the case of other entry level droids. With a screen resolution of 180pixels per inch (ppi), images appear sharp and even tiny fonts are quite readable without a strain on the eyes.
The Samsung Galaxy Pocket, Ideos Ascend Y100 and LG Optimus L3 E400 which are its main competitors are a step back in the display department with poorer screen resolutions.
Battery life won’t disappoint
With such a large and high resolution display, the battery department is expected to be under constant pressure to deliver long lasting power for optimal enjoyment of the features this device offers.
Gladly though, on a full charge, the battery gets this device working for approximately six and a half hours on 3G and nine hours on 2G networks. The talk time however will largely depend on the network reception.
With casual gaming, internet browsing and listening to music, my review copy ran for one full day before asking for a recharge. It was rather satisfactory considering the large, high resolution display.
It is a fully fledged Smartphone
Alcatel OT-918 is capable of viewing as well as editing office documents. It can also act as a wireless internet router for your office or home using the Wi-Fi hotspot feature.
It ships in with Android Gingerbread (v.2 .3.5) which is well known for its intuitive user interface and battery saving ingenuity. It also comes with a 650 Mhz processor, 256 MB ram, 150 MB internal memory and a microSD slot which allows up to 32 GB cards.
Multitasking on Alcatel OT-918 is quite practical especially for the learners of Android though users moving from high end droids like the Samsung Galaxy S3 might experience the lag between switching apps being more magnified.
Superb Connectivity
For your USD $100 or about Ksh.8,499, the Alcatel One Touch 918 offers a plethora of modern connectivity options ;Wi-Fi b/g/n capable of hotspot tethering, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP profile, micro USB v2.0, assisted GPS and download/upload speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps and 5.76 Mbps respectively.
The fast data speeds that characterize this device is suitable for the Kenyan market since Safaricom and Airtel are already offering theoretical speeds of up to 41 Mbps.
Alcatel OT-918 Cons
Although it feels like bullying to write about the shortcomings of a well-engineered budget smartphone, it should not come as too much of a surprise given the cost. The Alcatel OT 918 has several blatant flaws stuffed in its closet:
Internal memory allocation was a flop
Alcatel OT-918 has a meager 150 MB allocated to the user. This memory is barely enough to store thirty medium quality MP3 files. Some games and apps from the Google Play Store come in sizes of as much as 20 MB which could see the device run out of internal memory after installing just a few of these.
There is however an optional microSD slot which supports cards of up to 32 GB. Apps and games can also be set to install directly on the external memory.
Weak processor
Although most of the components on this device are modern, the 650 Mhz processor visibly struggles to execute common tasks like switching between apps and viewing photos in the gallery. Some graphics intensive games might be rather choppy due to the low processing speed.
With a little searching on forums like XDA for example, the processor can easily be overclocked to 800 MHz which should offer more fluid responsiveness.
Video for Alcatel OT-918
Conclusion
The Alcatel One Touch918 is for anyone in need of a budget smartphone but doesn’t want to settle for less both in appearance and functionality. Its sibling, the Alcatel OT-918D offers dual SIM functionality for those who would wish to kill two birds with one stone.
