Alcatel might have released its Idol 4 and Idol 4S flagship phones, but that does not mean the company forgot about how to make extremely affordable options, which is where the Fierce 4 comes in.
Starting on the outside, the Fierce 4 features a 5.5-inch, 1,280-by-720 resolution display under a sheet of Dragontrail glass, an uncommon material given how Gorilla Glass is the industry standard. Above that display sits a 5-megapixel camera with an 84-degree wide-angle lens for group selfies, while an 8MP sensor can be found around back.
Under the hood, a 1.1GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 chipset and 2GB RAM power the Fierce 4, with the 16GB of native storage expandable by up to an additional 32GB through the MicroSD card slot. Keeping the lights on is a decently-sized 2,500mAh battery, which, when combined with the low-power processor and lower resolution display, should allow you to use the phone from morning through the night.
Alas, the Fierce 4 runs Android Marshmallow out of the box, with no word as to whether the phone will receive an update to Nougat sometime soon. Even so, keep in mind that everything on paper points to the phone being an entry-level phone at most, so if it is the latest and greatest that you are looking for, you might want to look elsewhere.
For those who are interested, the $70 price tag is more than enticing, particularly if you are looking for either a secondary phone or a first smartphone for a loved one. Keep in mind that price seems to apply only because potential customers get a $60 rebate, which means they will have to fork over $130 at checkout. Furthermore, the phone will not be available unlocked — you will need to go prepaid on either MetroPCS or T-Mobile to get your hands on the Fierce 4.
If none of that has deterred you, the Fierce 4 is currently available through MetroPCS, with T-Mobile getting dibs sometime this fall.
