New brand, new phone – Alcatel comes of age with the Idol 4

Just days ahead of the opening of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Alcatel OneTouch have unveiled a new look and a new phone in what looks like a line in the sand for the company ready to take their growth to date and step up even further.

Dropping the OneTouch name from the brand makes life easier in marketing, communications and for consumers, but what’s more important in 2016 is just how nice the Idol 4 – their flagship phone is.

This is a slim, light and high quality smartphone running Android and takes the best of Idol 3 and improves each bit.

Seemingly Alcatel are set on being part of the Virtual Reality revolution – there’s no need to buy an expensive headset, or a Google Cardboard – the very box the Idol 4S (the large of the two Idol 4 models) comes in is your own pair of VR goggles.

Then there’s the Idol 3’s reversible screen, a key feature last year – same applies here on the Idol 4 with the addition of sound. Alcatel say the Idol 4 is reversible in three ways – sound goes left to right, front to back and the entire user interface flips up and down.

If the announcement is anything to go by, the marketing will feature the word BOOM – with Alcatel’s “Boom Key” adding a little something across the board.

The Boom Key is a tiny little button on one side of the device – not dissimilar to the dedicated camera button on some smartphones like the Sony Xperia.

But it’s different. It’s multi purpose. In standby mode, the button instantly takes a set of burst photos. When you’re in your photo gallery looking through pictures – press the Boom Key and the gallery will shuffle and show multiple photos. Press it again and you’ll get a new set of pictures.

Watching Videos? The Boom Key generates immediate effects in your videos, while when you’re recording a video the Boom Key has the capability to immediately broadcast live.

When listening to Music the Boom Key enhances Bass, loudness and clarity and switches to surround sound when watching movies.

In games there’s the chance that the Boom Key will add new features, like in the racing game Asphalt – the Boom Key button will release the Nitro while you drive.

That’s the fun feature, the one that will get the attention – but as a user and under the hood the specs are good. The phone is slick and operates fast. One of the things I always test on a phone is how quickly the camera will launch and take photos – and on the Idol 4 is great. Quite frankly it’s comparable to the flagship phones from other manufacturers at double the price.

Wireless ac gives great connectivity, the battery again is on-par with it’s more expensive peers and it also features the Qualcomm quick charge technology.

This device is impressive right out of the box. The screen is impressive, the responsiveness and speed will not disappoint. Critically when the Idol 4 hits Australia later this year it will be priced well below $500 – at around $399.