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The latest Alcatel smartphone will ship in a virtual reality headset

Most companies aren’t all that creative when it comes to packaging. In the best case scenario, you can expect a cardboard box decorated with some uniquely crafted art that might look pretty on a shelf. Going where few tech makers have before, Alcatel is making itself an exception by shipping its latest smartphone, the OneTouch Idol 4S, in a box that doubles as a Virtual Reality viewer.

This news comes from VentureBeat, who says the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 4S will be encompassed by a hard plastic box that can be used as a VR viewer in a similar vein as Google Cardboard. With it, you’ll be able to slip your phone into a fitted slot and look into its eyepieces to see into virtually rendered worlds. A single button located on the side of the device can be used to interact with the various games and apps supported.

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While this can easily be deemed innovative, the OneTouch Idol 4S itself is little more than your basic mid-range smartphone. With a 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED display, an eight-core Snapdragon 652 SoC, 3GB of RAM, and 16GB of built-in storage space, it might be impressive if it had arrived a few years prior. At least if it’s stuck in the past, however, it’s stuck with expandable microSD storage too. Its photography capabilities are a little more impressive, though. The rear camera captures a sharp 16-mexapixel image using an f/2.0 aperture lens while the front-facing camera can manage 8 megapixels and even features flash.

Alcatel is targeting a price-point of under $400 for the OneTouch Idol 4S when it arrives in May, which should make up for the less-than-impressive tech specs. The combination of a low price point for the phone, a QHD display, and a package that doubles as a VR headset could make the OneTouch Idol 4S a poor man’s GearVR.

Gabe Carey
A freelancer for Digital Trends, Gabe Carey has been covering the intersection of video games and technology since he was 16…
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