Alcatel's Hero 8 is an aluminum tablet with LTE
Alcatel is back with a new 8-inch tablet with a grown-up design.
Alcatel's newest tablet, the One Touch Hero 8, breaks free from the company's usually colorful designs with a sleek aluminum body in black. The tablet was announced at IFA 2014 Thursday.
At just 0.28 inches (7.3mm) thin and weighing 10.9 ounces (310 grams) the Hero 8 is the thinnest Android tablet we've seen from Alcatel in recent years. It has a rounded design that stands out among today's more rectangular models, such as the Sony Xperia Z3 and The Lenovo Tab S8 . While the tablet has an aluminum chassis and metal edges, the back cover features a matte black finish.
True to its name, the Hero 8 has a 8-inch full-HD screen with a 1,920x1,200 pixel resolution. That means the screen should look much sharper than its predecessor, the 8-inch One Touch Pop 8, released at CES 2014. The bezels are also thinner, giving the appearance of more screen space.
Inside, there's a MediaTek 2.0GHz octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. With that processor and RAM, you shouldn't experience any hiccups using the device.
For power, the Hero 8 relies on a 4,060mAh battery, which is a little on the low side for today's tablets, but it'll suffice for playing games and watching video for several hours.
The Hero 8 ships with Android 4.4 KitKat, the newest version of the operating system. It's also running a custom UI from Alcatel that gives icons a minimalist design. There's no word yet on whether the tablet will get an upgrade to Android L, due out later this year.
Other features include a 5-megapixel back camera and 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting. It also supports 4G LTE with a data plan. The Hero 8 can also use Miracast to send photos, video, and audio to a compatible TV or monitor.
The One Touch Hero 8 is slated to go on sale this month in parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. There's no word yet on pricing, but with its size and specs, it'll need to stay around $200 or less to compete with other tablets on the market.