Verdict
The Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) might be a very flash phone , but even as a value proposition , it ’s painfully lacking . This is literally a speech sound from a different era , with creaky portion that leave it borderline unserviceable for anything other than light calling .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Alcatel make has some claim to fame within the Android ecosystem . The Alcatel 1X was the very first Android Go sound to launch in February 2018 .
I was reminded of this fact when I re - read my revaluation of that telephone ’s follow - up , theAlcatel 1 ( 2018 ) , in preparation for my review of the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) . There are n’t many smartphones that deal for this far Confederate States of America of £ 100 any longer , so I figured the refresher course would rise valuable .
It was more revealing than I anticipated . It turn out the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) is on the button the same headphone as the Alcatel 1 ( 2018 ) , only selling for even less money .
These daytime the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) can be had for around £ 40 from established retailers . That ’s cheap , but is it good value ?
Design and screen
The Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) is so old shoal , it comes out of the box with the rear cover and battery removed . You have to slip the SIM ( thankfully a nano ) into the little expansion slot below the covering , just like you used to do with the Nokia feature phones of old .
This is a chintzily made phone with a thick plasticky body and Brobdingnagian show bezels . One rare benefit of the latter level is that there ’s no pickle - punch display , resulting in a completely unimpeded image .
Despite those expectant bezels , this feel like a unco small phone by modern standards . Even the Asus Zenfone 9 , which is the small Android phone I ’ve used of late , palpate gravid alongside it . The closest comparison I can pull here is the iPhone SE ( though evidently not in terms of timber ) .
Another blast from the past tense is the consummate absence of any biometric authentication . There ’s no fingerprint sensor anywhere to be found , so you ’ll have to bank on a passcode for entry . You wo n’t find NFC here either , so mobile defrayment are out of the question .
I ’ve already mentioned one of the key reason behind this old - schooling feel : the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) is in reality the Alcatel 1 ( 2018 ) . It ’s got the same intent and the precise same measurements : a 137.6 x 65.7 x 9.8 millimeter body with a 134 g system of weights .
That extends to the phone ’s display , which is the same 5 - inch 960 x 480 TFT LCD . In my review of the Alcatel 1 ( 2018 ) I call in this board “ a pocket-size , thudding , hazy and too ruminative CRT screen , which is all but inconceivable to use out of doors on a shiny day ” . Can you pretend what I cerebrate of it here at the starting time of 2023 ?
You have to factor in that humble monetary value tag , of path , but bad is bad . save £ 20 – or even £ 120 compare to a normal ‘ flash ’ phone – does n’t modify that .
regard slant continue to be atrocious , fork up the silver screen almost impossible to see from an angle . Colours are washed out , and there ’s no such thing as ‘ black ’ here , just murky grey .
Just about the only positive affair I can say for the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) display is that it ’s easygoing to use one - hand , which is an alien conception for most modern Android phones . It ’s also unobstructed by any shape of notch , which is always dainty .
Camera
The Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) packs the same television camera circle - up as before , which means a solitary 5MP rearward tv camera and a 2MP selfie camera .
Neither is any adept whatsoever . The main camera take fuzzy , blurry shots in even reasonable outdoor consideration , and really struggles with any large variance in light and nuance . There is no build of HDR compensation whatsoever .
Dropping the light produces even murkier , noisier result , and shooting at night is a Brobdingnagian no - no . gratuitous to say , there is no consecrate night mode .
Often with lesser smartphone cameras it ’s unwashed to graciously issue the caution that it ’s fine for societal media stake , but I would n’t even provide such a damning - with - faint - praise concession this time around . It ’s just insipid - out frightful .
The selfie camera is even bad , produce noisy picture with flattened subjects and dull skin tones . Yuck .
Performance
If it ’s big enough that the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) keep back the poor display of its three - year - older twin , consider the fact that it also packs precisely the same Mediatek MT6739 processor .
“ It ’s another model of a specification that seems to come from the smartphone past , ” I sound out from the wintery depths of 2018 . In former 2023 , this component is practically a fossil .
Unsurprisingly , Genshin Impact wo n’t even instal on the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) . Slightly more astonishingly , nor will Vampire Survivors – a more recent but decidedly less technically ask 2D plot .
The probable culprit for this is the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) ’s stingy 1 GB of RAM . We typically jib when a phone has just 2 GB or even 3 GB of RAM these days , so 1 GB is slightly scary .
Needless to say , performance here is awful in every way . Apps take an age to load , menus creak and groan , and everything appears to move along at a escargot ’s pace . Do n’t expect to jumpstart into the camera app when you spot a film opportunity either .
With that in head , the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) ’s bench mark scores make for surly reading material . An average Geekbench 5 multi - core score of 165 and a single - core score of 79 puts the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) firmly toward the very bottom of the smartphone performance league table .
You get 16 GB of inner storage as standard , which feels almost impossibly small by New standards . Even sub-£200 phones have started to ship with 128 GB of internal memory .
humanoid 11 ( Go edition ) comes install out of the box . This is the main ( and possibly only ) change from the Alcatel 1 ( 2018 ) , which shipped with Android 8.1 .
This is a sporting , seriously stripped - back take on Google ’s OS . You ’ll find lightweight alternatives to the usual fare , like a Gallery app in place of Google Photos . This is manifestly in a bid to keep things move along at an appreciable lick despite the humble ironware .
It ’s a futile motion , as it turns out , because the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) is an rank chore to use . But there ’s no knock the undecorated Android Go OS , which does its sound to rest out of your style .
Battery life
Like its predecessor , the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) only comes with a 2000mAh battery . That ’s less than half the capacitance of most New Android telephone .
Of course , with such an outstandingly small , dim , and pixel - sparse video display , that battery is having to drive a lot less action than usual . With execution so special , meanwhile , you wo n’t want to utilize the earpiece for much more than light headphone calls . On those terms , it ’ll get you through a full Clarence Day without too much result .
However , any configuration of medium will hit it severely . An hour of Netflix streaming sapped 18 % of a full charge , while an hour of YouTube Music streaming play out 7 % . By way of a comparison , theMoto G22(a very typical affordable telephone ) lost 3 % and 1 % severally in the same test .
Continuing the outdated feel of the phone , you ’ll need to recharge using the bundled Micro USB charger . Despite the phone ’s diminutive battery , this take an downright age . I put it on guardianship with 43 % leave in the tank , and it took two hours to hit 93 % .
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Should you buy it?
. There are precious few smartphones that can be bought for just £ 40 . This is the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) ’s whole reason for exist .
. The Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) has a rightfully terrible camera that takes horrendous snap in all lighting .
Final Thoughts
It feels a slight uncanny steering the great unwashed away from one of the cheapest phones on the market , peculiarly in these financially challenging times . But while the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) is incredibly cheap , it is not one of thebest cheap phones .
The phone ’s hamper performance , dismay battery life under loading , and monotonic - out terrible 5 - in display renders it borderline unserviceable for all but the very light of tasks . Web browsing , gambling , and media playback are all badly hamstrung , while the television camera fails to produce acceptable results in somewhat much any lighting conditions .
If you utterly ca n’t drop more than £ 40 on a phone , and only require a handset for the lightest and most periodic of tasks , you could make a case for buy the Alcatel 1 ( 2021 ) . Otherwise , we ’d beg you to save a little extra , drop a small more , and achieve a bare lower limit of all - round usability .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every roving phone we look back thoroughly . We use industry received tests to compare feature properly and we use the telephone as our main gadget over the reappraisal period . We ’ll always tell you what we find and we never , ever , accept money to look back a product .
FAQs
Yes , you ’ll find a battery charger in the box seat along with the speech sound .
