14 DAY TRIAL // The OneTouch Hero 2+ is, or was in fact, a project developed by two companies: Alcatel and Cyanogen. The smartphone built by the Chinese company would have Cyanogen's OS under the hood and should have been offered to customers sometime this year.
Unfortunately, both companies have just issued a statement in which they confirm Alcatel OneTouch Hero 2+ has been scrapped and will not be released on the market anymore.
Officials from both companies cite issues in bringing the newest version of Android onto Hero 2+, since Cyanogen announced that it would now focus on CyanogenOS 12.1.
“ALCATEL ONETOUCH and Cyanogen, Inc. have made a mutual decision to forgo the release of the HERO 2+. At its announcement, the goal of bringing this device to market was to offer the most advanced hardware and software at an affordable price.
“The bar was set high and unfortunately the device does not have a clear Android 5.1 upgrade path. We therefore are committing to refocus our joint efforts on a next-generation product that can exceed the expectations of end users.
“Our teams remain dedicated to releasing an ALCATEL ONETOUCH device powered by Cyanogen OS, and are looking to share an update when we have more details to share,” reads the statement coming from Steve Cistulli of Alcatel OneTouch and Vikram Natarajan of Cyanogen.
A decent phablet gets canned
Specs-wise, the OneTouch Hero 2 could have been a decent phablet probably priced very low to be competitive in the US market and anywhere else Alcatel would have released it.
The smartphone was confirmed to pack a large 6-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen display with Dragontail glass and full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution.
When it comes to hardware, the smartphone was powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6582 processor clocked at 2GHz, accompanied by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD card).
Last but not least, Alcatel OneTouch Hero 2+ was packed with a 13-megapixel camera in the back with optical image stabilization, autofocus, LED flash and video recording, as well as a secondary 5-megapixel camera in the front.