Alcatel at MWC 2018

alcatel 3V hands-on

In some ways, the 3V is the premier phone in alcatel's new line-up, never mind what the numbers say. The 6" 18:9 screen has 1080p+ resolution - putting it in the company of Huawei Mate 10 Pro and OnePlus 5T. This is the highest resolution screen of the four new phones and we quite liked the image quality.

An 18:9 screen with a respectable 1080p+ resolution

And it runs Android 8.0 Oreo, we have no complaints about that. The chipset we will complain about, however, a quad-core processor is not okay even in the sub-€200 segment. Not to mention the limited RAM - 2GB.

Anyway, the phone is attractive enough. We got to handle the Spectrum color options, which have a glossy metallic paint. It beauty fades as fingerprints quickly accumulate, though. We were surprised to see that the phone weighs 155g, it feels so very light.

alcatel 3V's dual camera is used for bokeh shots

The dual camera on the back relies primarily on the 12MP camera - with f/2.2 aperture and 1.25µm pixels. The secondary camera (2MP) is used for bokeh effects, but our first impression isn't very positive.

Testing the bokeh effect of the alcatel 3V camera

All the main cameras on the alcatel 3-series phones feature Electronic Image Stabilization and record 1080p video.

alcatel 3V uses microUSB and a 3.5mm audio jack

The camera app offers an option to interpolate the image to 16MP, but it defaults to 12MP. You stand to gain nothing from the interpolation, so it's best to ignore that.

The alcatel 3V is launching today at a price of €190.

alcatel 3X hands-on

The alcatel 3X is slightly smaller, but it feels heavier than the 3V - that's an illusion, though, it's actually lighter at 144g. This one will be available with a glossy finish in Latin America, but Europe, Asia and the Middle East are getting the matte versions (no fingerprints, yay).

The screen on this one is smaller, 5.7", but more importantly it drops the resolution to 720p+. We didn't mind it too much, these phones straddle the line between mid-range and entry-level after all. There's no mention of scratch-resistance on any of these.

The screen looks good, but has a lower resolution than the 3X

But then a second disappointment came - this one runs Android Nougat. Even the 1X has Oreo (more on that later). The 32GB version of this phone comes with 3GB of RAM, which feels a bit better. The 16GB one drops back to 2GB again.

Moving past that, the dual camera on this one is different - the second sensor is on wide-angle duties. Specifically, it has a 120° lens (fixed focus). The other camera, 12MP, does have autofocus.

The dual camera on the alcatel 3X is used for wide-angle shots

The selfie camera, 5MP sensor, has an LED flash - just like the 3V. And it can be used to unlock the phone, alcatel calls this Face Key, but it is based on the Android face unlock.

alcatel 3X uses microUSB and has a 3.5mm audio jack

The alcatel 3X will arrive next month for €180.

alcatel 3 hands-on

The alcatel 3 costs the least of these three, but it comes with Android 8.1 Oreo (Nougat, 3X, really?). And it has the same resolution as the 3X, 720p+, although at a slightly smaller size - 5.5".

The smallest screen of the 3-series - 5.5"

It's a reasonably compact phone for its size (alcatel says the screen to body ratio is 77.5%) although it felt the heaviest in our hand. Still, at 145g the alcatel 3 is quite portable and you get the same 3,000mAh battery capacity.

The alcatel 3 charges through a microUSB port and has a 3.5mm audio jack

Note that the alcatel 3 has a single camera on the back with a 13MP sensor. The selfie cam is the standard 5MP shooter with an LED flash (and the accompanying Face Key).

The alcatel 3 has only one camera on its back

The phone comes in Black, Blue and Gold versions with a glossy finish. You can grab one next month for €150.

alcatel 3C hands-on

The alcatel 3C was announced in January, but hasn't gone on sale yet so took the opportunity to spend some time with it. It's a mishmash of features from the other 3-series phones.

It has a 6" screen like the 3V, but with 720p+ resolution like the 3X. It's closer to the base alcatel 3 in other respects. And it has a single 8MP camera on the back (with a fingerprint reader below it).

The alcatel 3C is the junior 3-series phone

You should set your expectations according to the price of the alcatel 3C - €90 in this case. It runs Android 7.1 Nougat on a quad-core Cortex-A7 chipset (yes, really, an A7) and it has only 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.