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back to article Alcatel drives upmarket with Idol 4 smartphone series

Just ahead of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Alcatel has announced the Idol 4 and 4S smartphones, complete with VR headset in the box, and a Windows 10 2-in-1 tablet/laptop. Alcatel, formerly known as Alcatel OneTouch, is a brand of the China-based TCL Communications. At a press event in Barcelona, the company unveiled a …

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  1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Didn't 'Alcatel' used to be a French brand/company once?

    0 0 Reply
    1. Terry Barnes
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      That's Alcatel Lucent - owner of Bell labs. Currently owned by Nokia.

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    2. Fihart
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      Usual tangled multinational corporate story The Lucent we know for making computer chips was formerly an AT&T division (I always confuse it with Conexant which was formerly Rockwell). The Alcatel name was once associated with Roneo which was a Vickers subsidiary and made, among other things, filing cabinets.

      Confused, bored -- you will be.

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    3. JetSetJim
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      It was once a phone manufacturer, and then the French company sold the brand to a Chinese company, who continue to manufacture both PSTN (typically office class phones) and mobile phones.

      But now there's almost no such thing as ALU - all their staffers got a Nokia badge on day 1. Not sure which bits of ALU will be kept. Which is ironic for some in the UK, as they "escaped" Nokia-Siemens after Motorola wireless got bought by them.

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  2. Youngone Silver badge

    I have a bad feeling about this...

    Those phones look OK, not anything to get excited about, but not bad. (Apart from the Windows tablet, they'll 9 of those, if they're lucky).

    Their problem is that they're not much of a brand, they don't have the recognition Samsung or Apple have.

    If they want to sell lots of them, they're going to have to accept lower margins. At 449 of your pounds, they will sell here for about 1,100 of my local dollars, which is Samsung Galaxy s6 money.

    I know which phone people will spend money on.

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    1. Fihart
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      Re: I have a bad feeling about this...

      I think Alcatel made the error of selling budget phones under their own name so brand will, generally, be associated with those.

      Huawaei made cheap phones for others but saved the wider launch of the brand for some more attractive products.

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  3. Charles 9

    What about the batteries: removable or not? Because I will not accept a sealed battery for an everyday phone.

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    1. Dave 126 Silver badge
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      The LG G5 has a removable battery, but doesn't have the waterproofing that its Samsung and Sony competitors do.

      My Alcatel Pixi3 has a removable battery and SD card slot. It has many shortcomings, but since I bought it for £25 unlocked to any network I look upon it charitably. It does the basics well enough. ('Til I get around to getting my Sony Z3 C repaired)

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