Hands on: Alcatel One Touch Idol review

The Alcatel One Touch Idol is one of a trio of new smartphones from the French firm which are pushing towards the top end of the mobile market.

A less powerful understudy to the One Touch Idol Ultra, the Idol slides in with a 4.7-inch IPS LCD display, 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, 8MP camera and Android Jelly Bean.

This is all squeezed into a slender 7.9mm chassis and Alcatel is claiming the One Touch Idol is the lightest smartphone in the world in its category tipping the scales at 110g.

We're not too sure what category Alcatel is referring to, but we can confirm that the handset does feel very light – shocker.

It also feels pretty cheap thanks to the low quality plastic which has been used to keep the weight down, and that detracts from the experience as it's like having a toy in your hand.

On the right side there's a volume rocker switch and a microSIM port, while on the flip side there's a slot for a microSD card to build on the lack lustre 4GB inside the One Touch Idol.

Up top you'll find a headphone jack and the power/lock key which required quite a bit of pressure to register our prod, meaning we had to tightly grip the One Touch Idol to stop it popping out of our hand.

Android 4.1.1 looks good on the 4.7-inch, 540x900 display and while it's not HD it is bright and colourful – although Alcatel has tweaked the icons to its own design which we're not big fans of.

The Alcatel One Touch Idol couldn't make up its mind if it wanted to offer a fluid or laggy user experience with Android running smoothly most of the time, but broken up by short periods of unexplained slow down - making it all a bit jarring.

Thankfully Alcatel hasn't stuck its own keyboard on the One Touch Idol opting to stick with the default Android offering which is a decent input method, especially with the responsive touch screen on the phone.

Round the back of the Idol you'll find the raised 8MP camera with single LED flash which will allow you to record full HD video.

The One Touch Idol sports the stock Android Jelly Bean camera app complete with panorama and photo sphere modes allowing you to have some fun.

Shutter speed is good and we were able to snap photos in quick succession without issue. Image quality is acceptable, but the results won't blow you away.

There's a non-removable 1,820mAh battery inside the One Touch Idol which should offer a reasonable amount of life, but we reckon heavy users will still be reaching for the charger before the day is out – we'll find out in our full review.

Alcatel was not forthcoming on the One Touch Idol release date or price, but we were told that it would be available worldwide when it does finally launch sometime this year.

Early Verdict

It's difficult to tell how much exposure the Alcatel One Touch Idol will get in various regions and it could well fall under many people's radar.

The One Touch Idol doesn't blow us away, nor does it completely disappoint – it's a middle of the road smartphone which will struggle to stand out in the crowded mobile market, even with its array of nine colour options.