The Alcatel One Touch Pop S3 is a low-cost LTE Android smartphone (hands-on)
Packing a 4-inch display as well as a quad-core processor is this budget LTE handset from Alcatel that won't break the bank.
BARCELONA, Spain -- Fancy a smartphone that you can change colors anytime you want to suit your mood or outfit? That's the premise behind the Alcatel OneTouch Pop S3. It's the lowest end device of the Pop S range, but the handset comes with five colorful interchangeable rear covers and has LTE for fast download speeds.
The build quality seems decent, but it does give that plasticky feel that I don't quite like, especially when compared to the metallic finish of the company's Idol 2 range.
As it's not meant to be a high-end device, the 149 euros Android smartphone is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz processor, which I found adequate during my hands-on time with the device. The UI (a lightly skinned version of Android) ran smoothly though I didn't get the chance to run performance-hungry 3D games.
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The 4-inch display of the Pop S3 has a resolution of 800x480-pixels (WVGA), which is fine, but you will find fonts and icons not as sharp.
The smartphone packs a rear 5-megapixel camera, and I'll be honest here, don't expect to take great pictures with it. It should be adequate for shooting in bright light, but I doubt it'd be your go-to camera for important shots.
The Pop S3 comes with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of onboard storage which you can expand up to 32GB via a microSD card. It runs Android 4.3 and will get an upgrade to 4.4 KitKat sometime May and June. It has a removable 2,000mAh battery.
Outlook
Alcatel OneTouch plans to ship the Pop S3 in Q2 to China, Europe and the US for 149 euros ($204).