Alcatel 5 Unboxing and First Impressions

Alcatel has re-entered the Philippine market with a new line of phones after for more than a year of absence locally.

Meet Alcatel 5

The Alcatel 5 features a dual selfie camera made of a 13MP f/2.0 and 5MP f/2.4 120-degree super wide-angle with LED Flash and 1.5GHz 64-bit MT6750 octa-core processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage

It is priced at PHP 8,490 with the ageing Android 7.0 built-in. Let's see if it is worth it!

Unboxing/Accessories

Inside the box of the Alcatel 5

Inside the white and blue box are the phone, power plug, USB Type-A to USB Type-C, earphones, documentation, SIM ejector tool and polycarbonate case.

Build Quality/Design

The polycarbonate backplate

The Alcatel 5 is made of glass front with a polycarbonate frame and back plate that both garner fingerprints easily. It feels lightweight and easy to hold. The back plate has a somewhat unique texture that makes it less slippery than similar build phones. It has no mention of Gorilla Glass or other glass protections though.

Mic and 3.5mm headphone jack slot on top

Speaker, USB-C, and another mic below

Hybrid SIM tray

Textured power button and volume rocker

The design is somehow unique and we like its texture at the back. You will also find the single primary camera, LED flash and fingerprint scanner behind.

Quite stylish!

In front, it features a 5.7-inch 18:9 screen with HD+ resolution. The side bezels are slim. The chin bezel is also surprisingly small for a phone at this price point. The top bezel in front looks quite thick, but it houses the dual-selfie camera, earpiece, sensors, and LED flash.

On top is the 3.5mm headphone jack and a single microphone while the bottom has to speaker grills and USB Type-C port.

Only the right speaker has audio output while the other grill is more likely for the second microphone.

The right side has the volume rocker and the power button while the sim card tray is on the left. 

The volume rocker and the power button have a somewhat plasticky feel to them when pressed but both respond satisfyingly with just enough feedback.

The phone is made of polycarbonate and glass but it is one of the few phones in its price range to have USB Type-C and super thin side bezels which gives us mixed feelings about this phone.

Initial findings

Geekbench single-core and multi-core score

1. The Alcatel 5 gave us mixed feelings because of its glass front and polycarbonate build materials, but redeemed itself because of the USB-C port and dual selfie cameras. 

Though the polycarbonate build at first glance looks good but after a closer look it is a fingerprint magnet despite the texture.

The display is a 5.7-inch 2.5D curved IPS screen w/ HD+ 1440 x 720 at 282 ppi under a glass panel with a ridiculously thick top bezel but thinner chin bezel and super thin side bezels.

2. Inside is the 1.5GHz 64-bit MT6750 octa-core processor with the Mali-T860 MP2 graphics processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM. It however kept failing when benchmarked with AnTuTu. It did however work with GeekBench with single core score of 608 and multi-core score of 2521. MT6750 is an ageing chipset compared versus the chips found on similarly priced phones.

3. It is using a modified version of Android 7.0 with Alcatel's own icons, logo and UI elements. 

It is visually different from stock Android but after using it for a week, it is easy to learn and get used to. It is quick and responsive without any hitch so far. 

There are some added features like Face Unlock and a three finger screenshot gesture but not much else.

4. The rear camera is a 12MP f/2.2 with AF, EIS, and dual-tone LED flash that is capable of shooting 1080p with electronic stabilization while the front facing camera is a 13MP f/2.0 and 5MP f/2.4 120-degree super wide-angle with LED flash.

The camera app has the usual modes of Auto, Pano, Time-lapse, Social, Light trace and Slo-mo. 

The Light trace mode is like the light trails mode from Huawei cameras while the Social mode takes multiple shots and organizing them into one.

5. There is LED notification support, face unlock and fingerprint scanner. It supports OTG and it has a proximity and gyroscope sensors.

It comes in metallic black and metallic gold.

Note: Stay tuned for our camera samples soon.

Alcatel 5 Specs

Display: 5.7-inch 2.5D curved IPS screen w/ HD+ 1440 x 720 at 282 ppi 

CPU: 1.5GHz 64-bit MT6750 octa-core processor 

GPU: Mali-T860 MP2 

RAM: 2GB 

ROM: 16GB expandable via microSD card slot up to 32GB 

Back Camera: 12MP f/2.2 w/ AF, EIS, and dual-tone LED flash 

Selfie Camera: 13MP f/2.0 + 5MP f/2. 4 120-degree super wide-angle w/ LED flash 

Battery: 3,000mAh 

OS: Android 7.0 Nougat 

Connectivity: WiFi, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, FM Radio, OTG, GPS, A-GPS, dual SIM (hybrid) 

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic 

Others: Fingerprint sensor, face unlock, USB Type-C, Colors: metallic black, metallic gold 

Dimensions: 152.35 x 71.1 x 84.5 mm

Weight: 144 g 

Price: PHP 8,490 (PHP 6,990 new SRP)

As of the moment

The Alcatel 5 is made of a glass and polycarbonate that houses a 5.7-inch 720p display with the ageing MT6750 octa-core processor, and 3,000mAh battery running on Android 7.0.

The RAM and ROM is a bit low at 2GB and 16GB, respectively.

It supports OTG and LED notifications. It has OTG and gyroscope support with USB Type-C all for the price of PHP 8,490 which depending on your needs may be justifiable if basing on specs alone.

For our review: Alcatel 5 Review - Dual selfie cameras under PHP 9K

What do you guys think? Will you be getting one?