Alcatel Idol X+ review: 8-ball game

User interface

The Alcatel Idol X+ runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with some custom Alcatel touches. The most notable are the two special homescreens - one that can be scrolled vertically, the other that shows off your gallery pictures in a rotating tile-like view.

Here's a quick video demo that shows the basics of the interface:

The color scheme and the icons have changed compared to stock Android, but for the most part things are where you'd expect them to be.

In previous versions of Alcatel's launcher, there was support for lockscreen widgets. The default lockscreen on the Idol X+, however, still shows weather and event notifications, but doesn't let you interact with them as before. Instead, you swipe right to get to the homescreen, and left to quickly access the camera.

The lockscreen is simple and does away with widgets

There is also face, pattern, pin, and even voice unlock, or you can disable the lockscreen altogether.

For the homescreen, moving between panes is done with left and right swipes, although they do not loop like on most UIs.

Unique to the Idol X+ are two special homescreens located on the very left of the series. One of them is like a regular homescreen except it can be scrolled vertically as well, while the other displays a tiled view of images from your gallery, which rotate based on customizable settings.

Besides the standard ones, there are two special homescreens onboard the Idol X+

Pinch zooming gives you an overview of all your homescreen panes, where you can disable one or both of the special homescreens. To increase the number of homescreens, you have to add a widget or shortcut to the blank homescreen pane that's only visible from the widget menu.

The widget menu is accessed by holding down on a blank area of a homescreen, and then dragging widgets to the individual homescreens in the resulting interface. There doesn't seem to be a limit on how many you can place on the special vertically scrollable homescreen. Alcatel's custom widgets - clock, calendar, weather, music player - are not resizable, but the default Google ones are.

To get an additional homescreen pane, you have to populate it from the widget menu

The app drawer is laid out across two tabs - all apps and downloaded apps - and the grid can be filtered by name or by installation date. The app switcher is equally as simple, accessed from anywhere by holding down the contextual button. You swipe up apps to remove them and there is a 'clear all' button, but more than half of the screen remains unused - an odd design choice.

Oddly, the app switcher takes up just a third of the screen

The notification area is almost stock Android, and is accessed by dragging down from the top of the screen. Notifications can be dismissed via left or right swipes, and expandable ones can be resized via two-finger vertical swipes.

You can also access quick settings toggles with the shortcut in the upper right - a screen that will display directly if there are no notifications. Holding down on a toggle will take you directly to the relevant menu in settings. Accessing the notification are with a two finger swipe will open up the toggles directly.

The almost-stock Android notification area

You can also control which third party apps get to show icons in the top left of the notification bar, which is great for annoying apps.

Alcatel has added further improvements to stock Android, including some basic gestures: flipping over the phone to silence an incoming call or snooze an alarm, and shaking the device to skip a song.

Annoying apps can be silenced • A few motion gestures

Google Now, accessed by holding down the home button, lets you use voice commands and integrates with your Google account to provide all sorts of information from internet searches to your daily routine, localized traffic, and current weather conditions.

It can also perform organizational activities like directions to locations you've recently searched, or reminders.

Google Now