Alcatel One Touch 916 Review

 

Feature set summary for Alcatel One Touch 916 review

Nice to see a 3.2-megapixel snapper for this price – plus the 2.4in display is impressively sharp. The square aspect ratio doesn’t lend itself to games, media and surfing the net though.

 

Style and handling summary for Alcatel One Touch 916 review

Nice to hold, even if it is a tad wide and rather chunky.

 

Battery power summary for Alcatel One Touch 916 review

For average use running some apps and surfing the net, expect a good day or more out of a full battery. Video playback will see the battery last a few hours.

 

Performance summary for Alcatel One Touch 916 review

There’s only a basic processor under the hood, which couldn’t always cope, and we saw games and apps freeze up.

 

User friendliness summary for Alcatel One Touch 916 review

The combination of touchscreen and keyboard is great for working on the move and sending emails.

It’s not just BlackBerry handsets that boast physical keyboards – there are a few Android phones that boast this addition. And the Alcatel One Touch 916 is not the first handset the French phone maker has produced with this feature. The One Touch 255 came in at a good price but was lacking when it came to features. So here’s another good text and email device, although it does have a few performance issues.

 

Good combination

So the standout feature for the One Touch 916 is the fact that it has both a 2.6in touchscreen and a real keyboard. It’s pretty chunky and has quite a wide girth, but still manages to be nice to hold for long periods. Under the square screen sit shortcut keys, along with a touchpad that lets you browse through websites, menus and messages, and a large call/reject key.

 

The keyboard has nice round buttons that make it easy to type up long emails – and if you make an error, you can tap on the suggested words bar to get some alternatives. There is also a Function button, which makes it easy to enter in symbols and numbers, plus a torch key that lights up the snapper’s flash.

 

We didn't often have to use the touchpad because the touchscreen does such a good job. Playing with apps and scrolling through websites worked smoothly – and the keyboard and touchscreen proved a good combination when typing up messages.

 

Being square

 

The square aspect ratio of the display can prove troublesome when playing games as they are often designed for a rectangular display. We also found we had to hold the device in landscape mode to play some games, because of the way the keyboard sticks out – and of course that means the accelerometer doesn't work as it should.

 

It is also an issue when watching video – which gets squashed into a letterbox frame. Having said that the display is impressively sharp for the price – it’s even readable when viewing in bright sunlight.

 

Elderly OS

 

Because the One Touch 916 fits into the budget handset price range, you only get a single core chip to provide the power. It also means you get an old version of Android in the shape of Gingerbread – still a decent usable OS, but a tad outdated and missing some of the great features included in the later versions.

 

However, Alcatel has added some neat tweaks of its own. For instance, there’s a blue light that flashes above the display when you have a waiting message, and it is possible to drag the notifications tab down from the top of the display to see a list of texts, emails and other events.

 

It’s quick to toggle on and off features such as Wi-Fi and GPS, and easy to change your profile. You’ll see call, apps and message shortcuts on the side of the screen, leaving the rest of the space for other widgets and shortcuts. Not that there are many widgets included – many of the pre-installed apps on the phone are actually only placeholders that just send you to the Google Play shop.

 

Keen gamers are likely to find themselves thwarted by stutters and freezes even Angry Birds – which mostly ran at an okay framerate – suffered from the odd freeze – and we found even some standard apps (Facebook for instance) also freeze up. We couldn’t even support Temple Run at all, as it wasn’t supported.

 

 

Getting social

 

 

There is support for Facebook, courtesy of Alcatel’s special Facebook button. Hit this and you’ll head off to the Facebook app. It is possible to quickly share the snaps you take on the 3.2-megapixel snapper. Indoor snaps come out dim and grainy, although there is a flash to add some light – but daylight images come out crisp and bright. 

 

Our conclusion

The Alcatel’s One Touch 916 is a nicely priced handset aimed at those who want to email, text and run social media. Plus you get a physical keyboard without going for a BlackBerry. It has some performance issues, but the screen and snapper are great for the price – and we love the neat touches Alcatel has made to the somewhat dated Gingerbread Android operating system.

By Simon Thomas on 20th August, 2012

Tags: Alcatel, Alcatel One Touch 916, Alcatel OT-916