Archive for the ‘Alcatel’ Category

Look and feel

It’s available in three colours – lilac, cherry red and the brightest of lime green shades. Each has a glossy inside surface while the casing has a half glossy, half rubbery-matt finish and is a darker shade. The cute duck emblem is on the top half of the back of the phone, and splendid it looks, too.

Features

There’s a camera in the lid of the phone, but it’s only VGA. There is also a music player. There are two Java games on board, HeliMinator, where you shoot down helicopters and Rocket Adventure, which is a platform game as baffling as it is thankfully brief.

Ease of use

The smooth, flat keys almost blend into one another and the direction and OK keys at its centre are particularly hard to separate so working your way through the menu isn’t always easy. Alcatel’s operating system has never been the most intuitive, and things don’t get any easier as you drill down into the animated icons, let alone the slim and uninformative instruction manual.

Performance

Music playback seems too likely to go off in your pocket, menus are slow and complex, and performance isn’t remarkable in any direction.

Battery life

The battery life is as unremarkable as the rest of the phone.

Fashion is a peculiar thing. One man’s pinnacle of good taste is another’s baffling out-there statement. So the phone produced by the collaboration of French phone maker Alcatel and fashion company Mandarina Duck won’t be to everyone’s taste.It’s available in three colours – lilac, cherry red and the brightest of lime green shades, displaying the cute duck emblem on the back of the phone. Each has a glossy inside surface while the casing has a half glossy, half rubbery-matt finish, and is a darker shade. There are two discreet side flaps covering the USB/power socket on one side and the memory card slot on the other.

This phone is clearly aimed at women, not because fashion isn’t for men, but because it comes with a little rubber ball (colour-coded to the phone, naturally) on a string to attach to the handset. Then there’s a matching handbag clip which means you can connect the ball to the clip safe in the knowledge that the phone will always be easily to hand at the top of the bag.

This is a good idea and works well, as it means no more frantic searching for your phone. There’s a one-line blue screen down the centre of the lid, which tells you the time, battery, and signal strength when you press one of the buttons.

Troublesome buttons

Things only begin to unravel when you start to use the handset. Firstly, the glossy inside has smooth, flat keys, which almost blend into one another, and the direction and OK keys in the centre are particularly hard to separate, so working your way through the menu isn’t always easy.

The animated menu icons are charming enough, many including versions of the little duck. And there are themes to choose from according to whether you want your screen colour to complement or clash with your handset’s hue.

These themes include noises for closing and opening the handset with the option to turn them off. And the convention of using a downward press on the direction button to find your contacts is adhered to, even if it is contrarily called Directory.

Once you’ve put some music on to your phone, those outside buttons work to change tracks or volume, and to play or pause. However, there’s no easy way of turning these buttons off, and we fear an inadvertent nudge in your pocket or at the top of that handbag could set off playback when you least want it (at church, in the cinema and so on).

Features

There’s a camera in the lid of the phone, but it’s only VGA, so don’t expect great things. Of course, it was hardly likely that a budget-priced fashion phone would have a high pixel count, but this is still a little disappointing.

Alcatel’s operating system has never been the most intuitive, and things don’t get any easier as you drill down into the animated icons, let alone the slim and uninformative instruction manual.

There are two Java games on board, HeliMinator, where you shoot down helicopters, and Rocket Adventure, which is a platform game as baffling  as it is brief.

Mandarina Duck’s phones are something of a disappointment. They look striking, so if you like the style you’re away, and they feel good too. But nearly everything else is less successful. Music playback will more than likely start to play in your pocket, menus are slow and complex, and performance isn’t remarkable in any direction.

It seems the best thing about the phone is its neat way of ensuring it never falls to the bottom of a handbag which may, on balance, not be enough to persuade you to buy it.

Specifications

Look and feel

The mirrored flat keypad gives the Alcatel OT-V770 a real sense of prestige. Its slim build makes it comfortable and light in the hand.

Ease of use

Despite there being no definition among the buttons, the numeric keys are spaced out enough that there shouldn’t be any accidental key nudges. The various menu icons are a breeze to navigate around.

Features

With a built-in music player, Alcatel has also bundled in a 2GB microSD card so there is plenty of space for you to store your media content. The handset also boasts a webcam that can be hooked up to your PC, as well as a 1.3-megapixel camera and Stereo Bluetooth.

Performance

The music player is the handset’s standout feature, with various ways of storing and displaying your tunes. In today’s multi-megapixel market, the camera may disappoint, but this should be compensated by the fact you can record unlimited-length video.

Battery life

An impressive battery life of 210 minutes talktime and 400 hours’ standby time.

There will always will be a market for entry-level handsets. We don’t all want the latest five-megapixel, HSDPA-enabled, sat nav-boasting super phone. Firstly, you might not be willing to pay through the nose for one or sign up to a long-term contract. Secondly, you may have no desire to use your handset for anything more than taking the odd snap, sending text messages and of course making phone calls.

French-Chinese manufacturer Alcatel has long been at the forefront of producing such handsets. The Alcatel OT-V770 is the newest member of its ‘Flavor’ family, but will it prove to be the big daddy of the clan?

Alcatel OT-V770 mirrored keypad

The OT-V770 is an impressively thin candybar at just 10mm. This is a move away from Alcatel’s more recent delve into the clamshell market (a la the Mandarina Duck) and we’ve got to admit the handset is quite striking. This is in large part due to the mirrored flat keypad that dominates the front fascia. As it catches the light, the keypad gives off a sparkle, with a touch of prestige not often associated with entry-level handsets. It’s available in a glossy white or soft-touch black, although we much prefer the black version, but perhaps that’s just down to our own gothic taste.

The keypad is described as being touch-sensitive, which often sets off alarm bells here at Choice Towers. There’s nothing more infuriating than a handset that launches into a function with the slightest accidental brush of a finger. Thankfully this is not the case with the OT-V770. The keys require a degree of pressure for a command to be acknowledged. Although there is no definition between the keys − except for the navigation wheel found under the screen − they are large and spaced out enough so there shouldn’t be any problems keying in the correct digits, even for the larger thumbed among us. The navigation wheel, as well as guiding you through the various menu options, also accesses various shortcuts, which can be altered to your preference.

The OT-V770’s screen is not the biggest at 1.9 inches, but this is compensated with a bright display that can showcase up to 256,000 colours. When in the menu interface, the various icons are well spaced out, transforming from a cloudy grey to a colourful display when you move the cursor on to it.

Alcatel OT-V770 unlimited video recording

The phone only offers a miserly 10MB of internal memory, but there is a microSD card slot found on the right-hand side of the handset. Alcatel has kindly bundled a 2GB memory card into the box, providing plenty of storage for all your media content. This is especially good news as the OT-V770 has a built-in video player that can capture an unlimited length of video, as long as you have the battery power and sufficient memory, of course.

The camera is 1.3-megapixels, but in today’s market when two-megapixel cameras are becoming standard even for entry-level handsets, it may disappoint some users. However, there are a few features to help you capture half-decent snaps, but if you’re looking for a phone with a good camera, this is probably not the handset for you.

Alcatel OT-V770 music player

At the heart of the OT-V770 is its music player. As well as MP3 songs, the phone supports AAC and AAC+ formats. While playing your tunes in the music player, you have the option to choose between three dazzling graphic displays. The navigation wheel acts as the media player’s controls; press to the left or right to skip or rewind tracks, up and down to alter the volume, while the middle key acts as the play/pause button.

The ‘My Star List’ allows you to add 100 of your favourite songs by simply pressing the * key when playing that track. You can also view your tracks via album, artist or genre. There’s no 3.5mm

jack port, but the OT-V770 does support Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP).

When trying to pair a Bluetooth device to the handset, you have to wait a couple of seconds for the search to come to an end before you can select the relevant device, which can take up to a minute. This can prove a minor irritant, especially if the device you’re looking for is the first to be found. We managed to pair our OT-V770 with a Sony Ericsson T650i without any problems and were consequently able to transfer music to and from each device. However, when we tried to pair it with a Motorola KRZR K1, we were unable to do so, despite numerous attempts.

Alcatel OT-V770 connectivity

The OT-V770 is the first tri-band handset to be produced by Alcatel. It is also GPRS enabled so can be used to surf the internet via your PC. Simply hook up the phone to your computer with a mini USB lead and hey presto. However, with most PCs hooked up to broadband or Wi-Fi anyway, it’s difficult to see when you might use this function.

One feature that may be utilised more is the built-in webcam. Plug your handset into your PC and the OT-V770 will be transformed into a webcam, enabling you to view and broadcast live action over

the internet – in theory. Unfortunately, as our review model was hot off the manufacturing line, we didn’t have the relevant lead. Alcatel assures us though that this function will be included in the box when it starts hitting retailers.

Alcatel OT-V770 verdict

Alcatel has really hit the low-end jackpot with this handset. The music player is a real plus, as is the bundled in 2GB microSD card, not to mention the phone’s mammoth battery life. Yet above all, the Alcatel OT-V770 looks the business. This is one prepay handset you won’t be ashamed to pull out in front of your friends and colleagues.

Specifications