Your humble male reviewers may not be the ideal demographic for the Alcatel OT-808, a pink, social networking device very much targeted at women. But we shall do our best with our large manly hands to give it a proper test-drive.

Style and handling on the Alcatel OT-808

The OT-80 is a clamshell, a style not used as often now as it once was. But this is a clamshell with a difference: a small, slender square shape that resembles a handbag powder compact (so we’re told). It’s a bold move on Alcatel’s part, and has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, the wide shape of the handset accommodates a full QWERTY keypad and a decently sized display. But that shape also makes it feel awkward to hold.

The keyboard is compact but nicely spaced out for quick typing. By necessity of size, there are no dedicated number keys – press the shift key to turn the left-hand side of the keypad to numeric keys – but this is a minor annoyance at worst. One nice touch is that pressing the ‘ctrl’ key and specific letters opens up particular features such as the music player.

A thin strip of an OLED display on the outside of the phone keeps you alerted to missed calls and new text messages. The internal display is an adequate 2.4 inches and is vibrant and colourful.

That screen makes internet pages clear, with quite a large amount of content displayed. The superb Opera Mini browser is preloaded, so you will get web pages especially optimised for mobile that load quicker and show you more of the page. Unfortunately, though, you have to rely on slow EDGE access speeds.

Social networking on the Alcatel OT-808

The Alcatel OT-808 is well equipped for social networking, with Twitter, Facebook and Palringo (a tool that integrates the most popular messaging services on to one platform) on the main menu. But don’t go expecting live updates and tweets: pressing the menu is just a shortcut through to the websites. But once in the sites, you can leave them running in the background and simply press the icon to get straight back in. Running several applications simultaneously doesn’t appear to slow down the phone at all, which is good, but it does appear to drain the battery quite quickly. And with no Wi-Fi, you’ll need to keep an eye on internet usage to cut down on data charges.

As we’ve come to expect from Alcatel handsets, the music player and two-megapixel camera are not really made much of. Of course, a low-cost phone will not carry loads of top-end features, but we would have hoped for at least a dedicated camera key and more than 80MB of internal memory (although you can boost this to 8GB with a memory card). And, disappointingly, there’s no 3.5mm audio port.

The verdict on the Alcatel OT-808

It’s a shame that Alcatel has targeted this so decisively at women. It’s a nice little handset at a good price point with a vibrant internal screen, a QWERTY keyboard and an unusual look. If you’re not bothered by a decent camera, music player or memory, the OT-808 could be just your thing.