Quietly unveiled by Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, the Alcatel Dawn is the latest Android phone in the lineup of each carrier that promises not to break the bank — or even come close.
On the outside, the Dawn features a 4.5-inch, 854 x 480p resolution display, with a 0.3-megapixel selfie shooter sitting above it and a 5MP main camera around back. The phone forgoes on-screen buttons for big capacitive buttons that sit below the display, though the keys themselves are not backlit.
Under the hood, an unnamed quad-core 1.1GHz processor and 1GB RAM power the Dawn, with only 8GB of native storage out of the box. You can augment the anemic storage through the MicroSD card slot by up to an additional 32GB, however. Meanwhile, the 1,780mAh battery keeps the lights on, and given the low-end specifications of the Dawn, the phone will likely last longer than you might think.
Finally, and most interestingly, the Dawn runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. Combined with the phone’s $70 price tag, it is impressive to see such a budget-conscious phone run the latest software, though keep in mind it might not receive Android updates down the road.
If the Dawn has piqued your interest, the phone is currently available through both Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, Sprint’s official prepaid carriers.
If you are unfamiliar with these carriers, Boost Mobile focuses on “growing data” plans, which increase the amount of monthly data you have by 500MB for every three on-time payments up to a maximum of 3GB. Virgin Mobile’s plans, meanwhile, start at $35 a month with 1GB of high-speed data and unlimited talk and text while offering something similar to T-Mobile’s Music Freedom, which lets you stream music from several services without the streaming counting against your monthly data allowance.
