There is no doubt that Android is scalable — from tiny phones to large
tablets the OS has been shoehorned into anything with a screen. So it
should come as no surprise that manufacturers are taking the free
software and putting into devices in the same price range as some
feature phones.
The Alcatel OT 908 is one such device. For $120 outright you get a
full-featured, limited-capability Android smartphone, more than enough
for most users looking to make that step up to a smartphone without
spending too much or signing a commitment. Is it worth the meagre
investment? Let’s find out.
Specs:
- Android 2.2 Froyo
- 2.8″ 240×320 pixel capactive display (256k colours)
- 600Mhz processor
- 384MB RAM, 150MB internal storage
- 2MP camera
- WiFi (b/g), Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS
The Phone
There isn’t much to the OT 908. It’s round and stout
with a plastic construction that is by all rights more sturdy than some
devices twice the price. At 12.4mm thick its pebble design sits
comfortably in the hand.
All the ports you’d expect from a modern smartphone are present: a
3.5mm headphone jack on top next to a microUSB port. There’s a volume
rocker on the right side and a power button on the left, with a slim
chrome bezel circumnavigating the perimeter. On the front, below the
screen, are three capacitive touch buttons and a physical home button.
There is no haptic feedback on the buttons, which is odd, so at times
we found ourselves unsure whether our presses were accomplishing
anything.
The screen is cheap, to put it mildly. With only 256,000 colours and a
paltry 143ppi pixel density, it is the phone’s biggest shortcoming.
Colours are washed out, viewing angles are mediocre and text is grainy.
There is visible aliasing and ghosting when scrolling caused by the
cheap LCD panel; it is a combination of high latency and poor image
quality. At the same time, due to the small physical size of the
display, the Android interface seems pinched together and difficult to
navigate.
On the back of the device is a 2MP camera, sans flash, which takes
decent shots at a 1600×1200 resolution. The OT 908 uses the standard
Android camera UI to good effect.
Where the Alacatel goes right is with its connectivity features. It
has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and A-GPS, with support for Google’s free
turn-by-turn Navigation software. It can also play music via
A2DP-enabled Bluetooth headphones, making it an affordable media player
with microSD expansion up to 32GB.
What’s Good
With a 600Mhz processor and 384MB RAM, the Alcatel OT 908 runs
Android 2.2 extremely smoothly. For many users this will be their first
smartphone purchase, and will need to take a while to get accustomed to
the Android interface. There are five home screens, each of which are
preloaded with app icons and widgets. Unlike many other Android devices,
there is no software layer or bloatware to bog down the operating
system.
While the processor isn’t fast enough to run the latest games, with
access to the Android Marketplace it’s not going to be hard to find a
few that play just fine. We loaded the ubiquitous Angry Birds and found
that while it was a little cramped it played smoothly. And for browsing
the device supports multitouch pinch-to-zoom.
We found that music sounded great on the device, and though it comes
with just a 2GB microSD card it can be expanded to 32GB, making for a
relatively cheap media player. Videos from the YouTube app loaded
quickly over Wind’s 3G+ network, and we had five service bars in most
areas around Toronto; it’s clear that the carrier has done some serious
upgrades to its infrastructure in recent months.
Calls sounded excellent through the headset and even the mono speaker
near the camera made for an excellent speaker phone. If talking is
something you like to do, we’re pleased to say that battery life was
astoundingly good. The 1300mAh battery takes up nearly the entire back
of the phone, and we got nearly a week of minor usage from a single
charge. Normal use should net you two to three days without issue.
If you’re into texting, the OT 908 wisely comes preinstalled with the
excellent Swype keyboard, which allows you to move your fingers from
one key to the other in a single movement to form words. It’s intuitive
and fast, and really the only full QWERTY keyboard suitable for a device
this size.
Wind has included some useful apps for the average user: Facebook,
Twidroyd and Shazam are three well known apps, along with PicSay photo
editor, Ringdroid ringtone creator, OfficeSuite for content creation,
Layar for augmented reality and Accuweather. There’s even a fun game
called Bebbled which requires you to join three or more bubbles of the
same colour for points. The phone also comes with an FM radio app.
The Not So Good
For $120 there are inevitably going to be a few sacrifices, and the
Alcatel OT 908 has a few of them. From the screen to the size to the
speed, this is dated technology. And while Android was meant to be used
in many configurations, it doesn’t scale particularly well to a 2.8″
display.
This phone is not for those who do a lot of web browsing, as there
isn’t enough screen real estate to accommodate large web pages. Despite
having a relatively speedy data connection, many sites took twice to
three times the length to load as on our Nexus S. While the Android
browser supports Flash, pages with the plugin tended to crash the app or
failed to load. If video is your thing, we’d stick to the dedicated
YouTube app.
Another clear cost-cutting measure is the camera which, at 2MP,
produces shots we’d compare to that of a Motorola RAZR, not a typical
smartphone. Photos lack detail or depth, and colours are muted.
Low-light shots are a smudgy blur. The lens is also fixed-focus, making
macro shots impossible. Video too, which maxes at 800×480 WVGA
resolution, fares no better. Results are grainy and low-fidelity,
producing video that is barely YouTube-ready.
As for internal storage, of the 150MB inside the phone only 75MB is
available for applications. While it is possible to transfer any of them
to the SD card, the limited storage space will inevitably cause trouble
to those who want to fill their devices with the latest apps and games.
Finally, we had a lot of issues with the screen registering our key
presses. While there is, ironically, haptic feedback available to screen
presses, we found that when we had to manually type on the keyboard, or
click a link to a web page, it would take two or three tries for our
touch to be registered.
Conclusions
Wind Mobile has curated a fine line of low-cost Android devices, and
the Alcatel One Touch 908 is a good example of that. With excellent
build quality and a robust featureset, it’s an excellent alternative to
buying a feature phone on another network. It’s a great gateway
smartphone, too; for $120 it’s an effective way to dip your toes into
Android without breaking the bank.
As a phone it performs ably– calls are clear and loud, and it’s
relatively easy to respond to text messages and IMs quickly. Paired with
one of Wind’s reasonably-priced data plans, it can be used as a WiFi
hotspot and a turn-by-turn GPS navigation unit. It gets the job done in
many other respects, and where it fails it can fall back on its low
price.
We’d recommend the OT 908 as an entry-level smartphone for
first-time users and teens, or anyone looking to bring down their total
cost of mobile ownership.
Rating: 6/10
Pros:
- Excellent build quality for the price
- Superb battery life
- Works great as a basic call and texting device
- Robust connectivity featureset including WiFi hotspot and GPS
- Extremely attractive price point for an entry-level smartphone
- microSD card slot expandable to 32GB, makes for a great music player
Cons:
- Screen is small and aliased, with high latency and low colour fidelity
- Camera produces blurry, washed-out shots
- Video results are similarly bad
- Sluggish performance
- Can’t play many games from the Marketplace
- Small amount of app storage
- No haptic feedback on the capacitive touch buttons
via:
Mobilesyrup
