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Alcatel crams flagship features into its affordable smartphones
When I first saw its 2018 phone lineup, Alcatel was clear: Its plan for this year was to make premium smartphone features available for much less than typical flagship prices. In this case, Alcatel means giving 18:9 screens, fingerprint sensors, and elaborate camera setups to as many people as possible. Based on some hands-on time here in Barcelona, Alcatel seems to have done a fine job democratizing these features; the real question is how the phones will stand up to the rest of the impressive low-cost devices we expect to see as the show goes on.
Alcatel's redesigned low-cost phones get 18:9 TCL screens
Although CES 2018 has almost every electronics company in the world announcing new devices, most phone makers are saving their big reveals for the upcoming Mobile World Congress in February. It's no surprise, then, that Alcatel didn't have new devices ready to unveil. But the company did give us a preview of the low-cost handsets it plans to give more details about later this year. The new phones will not only use (parent company) TCL's screens with 18:9 aspect ratios and feature sleek designs but also use a simplified naming system. We saw prototypes of the Alcatel 1x, 3v and 5 -- which are potential models of the sub-$100, sub-$200 and sub-$300 series, respectively.
