Alcatel Pixi 4 Review
Until that happens, we will have to make many compromises in entry-level smartphones. We had earlier reviewed Zen Cinemax 3 which did not impress us much. We hope that Alcatel’s new Pixi 4 smartphone might do something better.
Alcatel Pixi 4 design and build
This phone is available in different sizes across the world. In India we have a 5 inch variant. The build quality of Alcatel Pixi 4 is good. The phone is made of plastic and the finish is also good. The thickness of the phone is 9.5 millimeters and with a weight of 169 grams it also feels a bit heavy. However, the grip of the phone is good. Pixi 4 will be available in many color variants. We have gold variant available.
Alcatel Pixi 4 features a 5 inch capacitive display with 480×854 pixels resolution. Which is not new for a phone of this price. The quality of the panel is more disappointing than the low resolution. The viewing angle is very poor which causes a lot of smudges on the display. The touch response is excellent but fingerprints on the display surface act like a magnet.
The Pixi 4 has a micro-USB port at the bottom, a 3.5mm audio jack at the top and a notification LED near the front camera. The Alcatel Pixi 4 has navigation buttons that are not backlit. The rear cover and battery of the phone are removable. The phone has separate slots for two SIM cards and one microSD card. Charger, data cable, headset, screen guard and instruction leaflet will be available with the phone in the box. The quality of accessories with the phone is good especially for a budget phone.
Alcatel Pixi 4 specifications and features
This phone has a MediaTek MT6735M quad-core processor running at 1 GHz. The phone has 1 GB RAM and 8 GB storage. The CPU is good for basic tasks but the RAM and storage are very low which is disappointing. Users actually get 3.6GB of storage to use. But the storage can be expanded up to 32 GB through microSD card. Although this does not solve the RAM problem, at least the user will not have the problem of space for the app.
Apart from this, the phone has features like Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi B/G/N, FM radio and GPS. Talking about sensors, this phone has an accelerometer and a proximity sensor. USB OTG will not be available in the phone. Pixi 4 supports all Indian bands and also works on VoLTE. The Alcatel Pixi 4 uses a custom launcher but the interface is very similar to Android 6.0. Some nice visual touches have been incorporated into the interface.
You will get a fold style animation when you open the folder. There are five shortcuts for frequently used apps on the lock screen. And swiping right from the homescreen brings up Alcatel’s OneTouch Stream feature, giving you options for weather, calendar events, news stories and wallpapers. These can be disabled if not needed.
WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, AVG Antivirus, Flipkart and all Jio apps come pre-installed on the phone. Jio welcome offer will also be available with Pixi 4. Apart from this, there is also a Boost app which manages junk files and power saving mode, apps. OneTouch Cloud is Alcatel’s cloud backup service. The Settings app contains controls that support gestures.
Alcatel Pixi 4 Performance
To use all the software provided in Alcatel, Alcatel had to provide more RAM. With 1 GB RAM, you barely get 200 MB of free space, which is not enough for a smoothly running Android smartphone. There is also a lot of problem while scrolling through a list, running an app or browsing. The app takes time to load and even simple tasks like dialing a number are not easy. The phone does not get very hot but we felt the phone getting hot while using the camera.
Talking about the benchmark figures, the phone scored very low as expected.
The video or audio experience on the Alcatel Pixi 4 is also not great due to the screen. However, the phone can play video files up to 1080 pixels. The earpiece can also be used as a loudspeaker. It is fine for alerts but very weak for media files. The audio that comes with the headset is decent.
There isn’t much to talk about the phone’s camera. This phone has an 8 megapixel fixed focus rear camera while there is a 5 megapixel front camera. Both cameras are accompanied by a single LED flash. The quality of pictures coming from both cameras is below average. And since there is no autofocus, forget about good close-up shots. Even in good lighting, photos appear quite dull and washed out, whereas in low light, there is a lack of detailing. Video up to a maximum of 720 pixels can be recorded from the phone.
The phone’s camera interface is easy to use. The Pixi 4 has a shooting mode on the right side and a number of other options on the right side. Alcatel has also provided a Polaroid mode that lets you add effects to photos as well as change the frame. The rear and front flash of the phone are quite weak and when near a subject, such as the face, it does not get illuminated properly.
The Alcatel Pixi 4 packs a 2000mAh battery that lasted 7 hours and 47 minutes in our HD video loop test. During normal usage, we observed that the standby time is excellent and the battery lasts for a whole day and half a day when not very active. Charging is slow and it takes several hours for the battery to be fully charged.
our decision
Alcatel Pixi 4 was launched for Rs 4,999 but is currently being sold on Flipkart for Rs 5,499. This is a good entry-level smartphone that comes with Android Marshmallow and 4G VoLTE. However, be prepared for below-average camera and app performance.
The Karbonn Quattro L50 HD is still a better option at this price. Apart from this there is also Infocus Bingo 21. The problem with the current entry level smartphones in the market is that none of them are all-rounders. You have to compromise with software or hardware in phones of this segment.
The Pixi 4 could have been a good option if Alcatel had given it better hardware. We would also recommend you to try options like Karbonn and InFocus in this segment.
