The Alcatel OT918N, is one of the most affordable dual-sim android smartphone in the market today, although Alcatel may not be active in the cellphone arena this past few years, It has now made Its comeback with the ONETOUCH logo and along with it, an arsenal of Android smartphones and a guy named Chris Tiu, the new face of Alcatel in the Philippine market. Well, anyway, one common misconception about this brand is, most people think it's made in China but the fact of the matter is; it's actually a European brand, a company owned by the French, I got the info, just recently when I got my Alcatel phone, the OT918N android smartphone, which I got for only P5,999.
I had my first taste of Alcatel product with the OT918N, I've been using it for quite some time now, and honestly I have no regrets whatsoever with this phone, infact Alcatel has gain a new costumer in me. The OT918N maybe cheap but it doesn't look nor feels cheap at all, it also doesn't fall short on features too, some would say there might be a catch, as consumer mentality would suggest, cheap products always fall short on quality and durabilty, that's probably true, but not with the OT918N, I've been using this phone for almost five months now, I already dropped it twice and up until now I still haven't encountered any glitches or crashes whatsoever with this device, the phone is tough enough to withstand multiple drops and the hardware, stable enough to support android 2.3 gingerbread.
Most buyers always look from the outside rather than what is inside, obviously, design play a great role in the success of a product. That's probably what I saw with the OT918N, what's inside, only comes as a bonus. The phone is handsomely built, its rubbery finish gives it a tough and rugged look it also provides additional grip so it won't easily fall off your hands. The OT918N boasts a vibrant 3.2 inch highly responsive capacitive touchscreen, so bright it'll pop your eyeballs out, "just kidding" viewing photos, watching movies, videos and youtube is a wonderful experience with the OT918N, until now I still can't believe that a 5,999 peso phone could provide so much resolution, that's something to "thank to" from Alcatel.
The OT918N is powered by a 650Mhz ARM processor, the figures doesn't show much but it's actually a fast one, once you start swiping you'll immediately feel the speed, it opens apps as fast as you can say "eat my shorts":-) it also provides a smooth web browsing experience, just don't install too many useless apps, like all other smartphones installing too many apps will greatly affect your processor's performance, specially apps that opens automatically every once in a while, Start-up auditor may help, but the application itself consumes memory that is vital to open memory hungry apps like 3D games, it also prolong your boot-up time, with a 256MB RAM, memory conservation is a must, application such as app killer and memory up pro may help in providing extra memory.
Another neat feature that I like about this phone is its 3.0 megapixel camera, it actually take good pictures for a P5,999 phone, but "wait there's more" the OT918N's camera is pack with amazing features like; panoramic mode, face and smile detect, multiple burst up to 16 shots, it also take videos up to 8x digital zoom, the only thing missing is the flash. Below are some photos taken from the OT918N's camera.
The music player is every phone's must have feature and the OT918N's music player is second to none, FM never sound better with the OT918N, sound effects are great, the bass is so loud you'll think its coming from a full size boom box, and you can hear all that clarity, just by using its standard in the box headset, and its not just the FM that sounds great but also the MP3's. Since 2008 when I bought my Creative ZEN MP3 player no gadget in my possession has surpus the ZEN's musical prowess not even my ipod touch 2nd gen, the Samsung Corby 2 had gone toe to toe but lost, with the Alcatel OT918N in my hands, it is now my new music champion.
The phone doesn't pack that much power, but it can run some serious 3D games, infact I got Hero of Sparta currently installed in my OT918N, honestly the game runs a bit sluggish, but with some minor tweaks like turning off live wallpapers, deactivating the antivirus and with a little help from apps like memory up pro and app killer, Hero of Sparta will run at its best, but highly entertaining games like Raging Thunder 2 and Heavy Gunner will cope up for the lag. Alcatel didn't say that the OT918N has HD features, but I got games with HD logo installed in my OT918N, games like Empire Defense HD, and Crusade of Destiny HD, they look sharp enough to make me believe that they are in real HD, but then again, I may be wrong. You can download android games at www.androidgamesroom.com, it's like an apptrackr for android.
Android as powerful as it seem, it too has its "achilles hill", the battery life is android's one major weakness, although android's battery life are improving by the year, consumers doesn't seem to get enough. The OT918N is one of those new android phones that has an improved battery life, with moderate internet, multimedia, call and txt, an hour or two of games and some office work the OT918N's battery will surely last for a day, but if you're one of those guys that prefer to run apps and play games more than the usual, then you'll find it short in juice. The phone has a dual-sim feature I did the test with both sims active, so if you're using only one sim, it consumes less battery.
After using this phone for almost five months, I can definitely say that it is one of the best android phones out there, if I where to rate it i'll give it a 9 out of 10, the phone's price is the winning factor. I got phones Ranging from P4,+++ to P5,+++ that come and go, but this P5,999 phone will surely find a soft spot in my pocket for a very long time.
WHAT'S INSIDE THE BOX?
OT918N android phone
Micro USB cable
Charger
3.5mm stereo headset
Manual
Alcatel 1 yr warranty
Screen protector
ALCATEL OT918N SPECS:
DISPLAY: 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen
RESOLUTION: 320 x 480 pixels
OS: Android 2.3 gingerbread
BANDWIDTH: GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900mhz, UMTS: 850 2100Mhz
DATA: HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE, GPRS, 3G
PROCESSOR: 650Mhz ARM
MEMORY: 256 MB
CAMERA: 3.0 megapixels
FEATURES: Dual SIM slots, GPS, A-GPS, Music player, FM RDS, loudspeaker, expandable memory via micro sd, built in FB, twitter, bluetooth, WI-FI 802.11 b,g,n, USB 2.0, accelerometer, compass
BATTERY CAPACITY: 1300mAh
