Looking for a cheap phone that does everything you need, but doesn’t put a huge dent in your wallet? Then you might be interested in Alcatel’s newly released super-budget phone, the Alcatel 1. With a super-low price of just $80, and running on the low-impact Android Go operating system, here’s everything you need to know about the Alcatel 1.
Take a quick look and you’ll probably agree the Alcatel 1 shares a lot of its style points with the Alcatel 1X — but there are differences. The Alcatel 1 comes with a smaller 5-inch LCD screen, though it keeps the 18:9 aspect ratio and 960 x 480 resolution from the 1X. The back panel comes with the same soft touch texture, but the camera lens has been moved from the center of the phone to the top-left of the rear — and there’s no fingerprint sensor.
Don’t expect a powerhouse of a phone either. The Alcatel 1 is powered by a quad-core A53 processor with just 1GB of RAM. The Alcatel 1X had a similar setup, but with slightly more power, though it still exhibited sluggish performance, so don’t expect too much of this hardware.
There’s not much room on the Alcatel 1 either, with just 8GB of onboard storage available. However, you’ll be able to expand that by up to 32GB with a MicroSD card — and since cloud storage is so popular these days, you might not need to store much on your phone anyway.
You likely won’t be storing too many high-quality snaps on the Alcatel 1, as it’s equipped with a single 5-megapixel lens on the back, and a 2-megapixel selfie shooter around the front. Alcatel’s camera tech isn’t bad, especially the Social Square option — but don’t expect this to be a phone for shutterbugs, as the lack of optical image stabilization will make it tough to get good shots without being as still as possible. Still, it shouldn’t be a terrible camera — we got some decent shots from the Alcatel 1X during our time with it, so the Alcatel 1 may surprise you from time to time.
You’ll find Android 8.0 Oreo on the Alcatel 1, but as the stripped-down Android Go. Android Go is a version of Android specifically made for lower-powered phones, and it comes with a smaller install and smaller apps to compensate for the smaller storage options on such phones. Our initial impressions of Android Go haven’t been great — but don’t rule out optimizations and improvements from Google changing that over time.
The Alcatel 1 is powered by a 2,000mAh battery that should power the phone for at least a day with these low-powered specs. It’s charged by a MicroUSB port at the bottom, and you won’t get any fancy fast-charging or similar tech.
The Alcatel 1 is currently available from Amazon for just $80, and is compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks. Don’t expect this phone to set the world on fire, but if you’re on a budget, or just need a decent secondary phone, the Alcatel 1 could be the right phone for you. Otherwise, check out our list of the best cheap phones for more options.
