14 DAY TRIAL // Alcatel is the next Chinese company that plans to launch an Android smartphone in India. Owned by TCL Communications, Alcatel has just started sending invitations for a launch event that’s been confirmed to take place in India on May 29.
As AndroidOS points out, Alcatel plans to launch its high-end One Touch Idol X+ in India, and it appears that the smartphone will be exclusively available for purchase via Flipkart.
The online retailer has already scored other exclusivities with Motorola Mobility and Huawei for the launch of Android smartphones, which is probably one of the reasons Alcatel decided to go with Flipkart as well.
It’s unclear whether or not this exclusivity will eventually end after a few weeks or Flipkart will remain the only authorized seller to offer the Alcatel One Touch Idol X+.
While there’s no word on price and availability, potential customers may want to know the Alcatel One Touch Idol X+ has been priced in China at around 2,000 yuan outright, which is about $330, €235 or Rs 18,850.
We expect the price in India to be slightly different, but we hope it won’t go past the Rs 20,000 ($340 / €250) threshold, or if it does it won’t be by much.
Alcatel One Touch Idol X+ is a unique device that offers high-end hardware specs, but runs an older version of Android. The smartphone is equipped with a true octa-core MediaTek MT6592 processor clocked at 2GHz, a Mali-450MP4 graphics processing unit and 2GB of RAM.
These specs are usually included in a high-end smartphone, but the fact that Alcatel One Touch Idol X+ is powered by Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box drags down its desirability.
Hopefully, Alcatel will announce that the smartphone will receive an Android 4.4.2 KitKat update soon after release; otherwise, it might not become so popular among Indian customers.
The good news is Alcatel One Touch Idol X+ comes with dual-SIM support and other connectivity options such as 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS with A-GPS.
Alcatel One Touch Idol X+ also sports a stunning 5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports full HD (1080p) video recording and features Corning Gorilla Glass 2 coating.
Another downside of the smartphone might be the fact that it lacks microSD card slot for memory expansion, so users will be stuck with the 16GB of storage included by default. Stay tuned for more updates on the Alcatel One Touch Idol X+ launch in India.