Australians are about to have more choice when it comes to mobiles, as Alcatel revs up for a local launch of a few phones seeing the light of day at the Mobile World Congress in Spain.
If you’ve heard the name Alcatel before, it’s not a surprise: the brand has previously been available in Australia, but mostly with corporate telecommunication technology, older modems, and even a few feature phones here and there in the category we now refer to as “dumb phones” or put more simply, handsets that didn’t rely on a common web-friendly operating system.
But Alcatel isn’t new to the mobile game, and overseas, has been producing smartphones for a while, with a view to bringing them to other places.
This year, Australia appears to be on that list, as Alcatel shows off a phone that will be here — according to sources — in a matter of weeks.
Called the “Idol 3”, it’ll be another Android phone, but this one aimed squarely at people keen on mid-range value, packing in 4G LTE with Category 4 speeds (150 down, 50 up), a 13 megapixel rear camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, 32GB storage with a microSD slot, 2GB RAM, an eight-core processor, and a 5.5 inch Full HD display.
“We held nothing back when we were designing the new Idol 3,” said Dan Dery, Chief Marketing Officer at Alcatel OneTouch. “The premium features go head to head with the best in the industry and set a new performance standard.”
Some unique features have been included, such as JBL being used for the sound, two front facing speakers, a colour enhancing screen technology to help out with reading the phone in sunlight, and even the ability to use the phone any side up making it one of the only phones you can use upside down.
Pricing in Australia hasn’t been announced, though availability will be mentioned shortly, with Alcatel’s local people sending word that we’ll know more about this at its launch on March 19, with pricing likely then, too.
