Alcatel India has launched two new mid-tier Android smartphones in India, which are priced under ₹15,000. To talk more about these smartphones, the Alcatel A5 LED is priced at ₹12,999, which comes with the complimentary 3100 power bank MOD and a LIGHT UP+ mode with colorful LED panel out of the box. The Alcatel A7 is priced at ₹13,999 which offers powerful specifications compared to the Alcatel A5.
Both devices follow similar design language, but with a twist. As we mentioned earlier, the A5 LED offers a colorful LED back panel and the A7 comes with a standard black color back panel (which looks like the sandstone variant from the OnePlus). However, none of these smartphones offer metal unibody design, which is a bit of a bummer and unacceptable at this price tag. Let’s look at the technical specifications of the same for the further understanding.
Alcatel A5 LED: To begin with the affordable one (comparatively), the Alcatel A5 offers a standard 5.2-inch 16:9 aspect ratio IPS LCD panel, protected by 2.5D curved tempered glass on the top. Under the hood, the device is powered by MT6753 MediaTek Octa-core SoC, paired with 3 GB RAM and 16 GB onboard flash storage with a dedicated micro SD card slot (up to 64 GB).
This device also offers Moto MODS like modular accessories, which offers additional features like the external speaker, battery pack, and a LED back panel with different color tones.
With respect to connectivity, the device offers a dual SIM card slot with 4G LTE and VoLte capability on both the slots. Additionally, the device also supports WiFi, WiFi Hotspot and Bluetooth 4.2 out of the box with the standard 3.5 mm headphone jack as well.
Coming to the camera capability, the device offers a 13 MP rear-facing camera with F/2.0 aperture and 1080p video recording capability with a dual tone dual LED flash. For the selfie camera, the device offers a 5 MP front-facing selfie camera with 720p video recording capability with wide angle lens for the wider selfies.
In terms of operating system, the device offers Android Nougat 7.0 with custom UI on the top, which might receive Android Oreo update in the future. Finally, the device is powered by a 2800 mAh sealed battery with normal charging capability via micro USB port.
Alcatel A7: This is more of a premium smartphone, compared to the A5 LED. The smartphone is equipped with a 5.5-inch FHD 1080p IPS LCD screen, protected by 2.5D curved tempered glass on the top. Under the hood, the device is powered by MediaTek MT6750T Octa-core SoC from MediaTek paired with 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM and 32 GB onboard flash storage with a dedicated micro SD card slot (up to 64 GB).
With respect to connectivity, the device offers dual SIM card slots with 4G LTE and VoLte capability out of the box with support for Jio SIM card. Additionally, the device also offers WiFi, WiFi Hotspot and Bluetooth 4.2 support out of the box and even the old school 3.5 mm headphone jack is also present Alcatel A7.
For the camera department, the phone offers a 16 MP rear-facing camera with F/2.0 aperture and 1080p video recording capability with 1080p video recording capability as well. For the selfie camera the device offers an 84 degree wide-angle 8 MP sensor with 720p video recording capability, so, you can expect better selfies compared to Alcatel A5.
Even this smartphone is powered by Android Nougat with custom UI on the top with an expected software update to Android Oreo in the near future. At last, the 4000 mAh battery is something which has been commonly found in most of the mid-tier Android smartphone in India.
So, to conclude the Alcatel A7 feels rightly priced, though it misses out on the features like full metal unibody design and new 18:9 aspect ratio, it still a great buy if you are into Alcatel. On the other hand, go with the Alcatel A5 LED, if you want to make a different statement amongst the crowd.