For the past year or two, the French phone
manufacturer – Alcatel is trying to re-establish itself as a player in the
Philippine’s mobile phone market by creating a number of phone models that cater
not only to those on a tight budget but also for those who are looking for
handsets that provide performance with reasonable prices.
And until recently, Alcatel has jumped on
the Android bandwagon with the addition of several droids in its line-up. One of the many Android devices that the
company offers to consumers is the mid-range Alcatel 916D. Unlike most devices
in its class, the 916D is a touch and type device running on Google’s Android
OS with a below P10,000 price tag. But with other affordable models from other
brands such as those from MyPhone, Cherry Mobile and Lenovo, is the Alcatel
916D has what it takes to be the smartphone of choice to those looking for a
mid-range QWERTY android device?
I recently got myself a 916D from my
post-paid line and since I noticed that there aren’t many reviews about this
phone on the internet, I decided to share my take on how the phone stacks up to
veryday use and how it performs on different real life situations.
BASIC
SPECS
Before we dive any deeper with this review,
here’s a quick snapshot of the Alcatel 916D Spark FB’s specifications. (Taken
from Alcatel One Touch website)
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
The box of the 916D follows the same look
and feel of most mid-range devices in its class. The box is made out of glossy
durable cardboard where all the different images and features of the device are
printed. Once you lift the wrap-around cover of the box, you are immediately
welcomed by the phone.
The accessories, which include the charger,
USB cable, battery, headset and the phone’s documentation are individually
wrapped in plastic are all stashed under the paper cradle where the phone
initially sits on. For the clumsy user, Alcatel has also included a plastic
screen protector, although using it means you have to put it on your own.
DESIGN
AND BUILD QUALITY
For a phone that costs below P7,000 the
916D offers above average build quality compared to other devices within the
same price range. Although the phone is completely made from plastic, it
doesn’t exude a cheap plastic feel, which is probably because the phone has a
sophisticated design. It also feels pretty dense which adds more to its premium
feel. In fact, the box of the 916D indicates that it has been awarded a 2012
Reddot design award.
The unit that I got was coloured white with
silver and grey accents. The back cover of the phone is made from glossy white
plastic which gives it a very chic look, but at the same time may cause trouble
as it could be very prone to scratches and dirt. When it comes to the front of
the device, almost half of its façade is occupied by the QWERTY keyboard, four
capacitive buttons below the screen and the optical track pad that sits just
below it.
At the bottom of the phone is where the
micro-USB port for syncing and charging is located. At the left of the device is
where you will find the dedicated camera button (quite large, if you ask me),
at the right side you will find the volume rocker and at the top is where the
3.5mm audio jack and the lock/unlock button are placed. The 5MP camera is found
at the back as well as the LED flash and the audio grille. The top of the
screen is where the proximity sensor is located alongside the company’s logo.
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| Side by Side comparison with Samsung Chat 222 |
To sum it all up, the overall design of the
916D is pretty good; however, one would definitely notice the resemblance of
its design to other popular phones in the past such as the Blackberry Curve and
the HTC ChaCha. In fact this phone has the same “Facebook” button found on HTC’s
messenger phone.
SOFTWARE
The Alcatel 916D runs on Android
gingerbread v.2.3.6 with minor skinning from Alcatel, including that of the
launcher, the messenger, camera, dialer and the contacts app. Majority these
apps are highly customized for the phone’s uncommon screen resolution and
dual-SIM capability. The messenger, dialer and contacts app for example have
special options that allow users to choose which SIM card to use whenever
sending text messages and making phone calls. This makes it very difficult to
users to use third party software for messaging and telephony since most
developers only create apps for single-SIM devices.
The camera app on the hand uses a very
similar UI as the stock vanilla android, with only minor revisions. Aside from
controls to take a shot or start recording a video, a single tap on the screen
while the camera app is active will reveal several customization options. These
include scene mode, picture size, timer, white balance, flash and the digital
zoom. The camera can be launched from the app drawer or through the dedicated
camera button at the left side of the device. The only thing I wished that the phone
camera had was options for zooming in and out using the volume rocker, instead
of just the controls on the touchscreen.
The phone also features a customized
launcher and lockscreen app. The launcher app has very few customization
options for users. The only thing it can do is change the number of homescreens
from 3, to 5, to 7. That’s it! (Seriously, that’s it). You can’t even change
the size of the widgets, the appearance of icons, screen transitions or the
speed of the transitions and the app drawer. And if you’re planning to get
yourself a third party launcher, there are only three apps I’ve tried that
works with the Spark FB – Launcher Pro and ADW launcher and Go Launcher. So if
you’re planning to install fancier launchers like Launcher 7 or MX Launcher,
better get yourself prepared to be disappointed.
Another major disappointment is the phone’s
lock mechanism. Unlike other touchscreen devices, the 916D doesn’t offer an
option to unlock the phone using the touchscreen, or any other means except for
the lock/unlock button located at the top of the phone. And the worse part of
it is that the phone gets unlocked with a single press of the unlock button,
which is quite troublesome if you put your phone in your pocket or in your bag
where the unlock button can easily be pressed by accident.
I wished Alcatel would fix this through any
update by changing the behaviour of the unlock button to have it unlock the
device with a long press instead of just a single press. It would also be nice
to have an unlock mechanism using the device’s touchscreen. And speaking of
updates, Alcatel hasn’t made a name for itself when it comes to providing
future firmware and OS updates, so we’ll have to wait if the company would
provide upgrades to this phone.
SOUND,
IMAGE and CALL QUALITY
Call quality for the Spark FB is just
average. I didn’t experience any dropped calls, at least for my personal
contacts, and the line was clear and very audible. However, the story is quite
different when it comes to handsfree mode. When I tried using the speaker
phone, the sound that came out of the speakers is a little tinny and slightly
less audible. I had to place the speakers right beside my ear just so I could
hear the sound clearly.
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| Camera Shot Samples |
When it comes to multimedia playback, the
volume of the speakers is at par with other devices, although it still maintains
that tinny sound quality. Using the headsets provide little improvement to the
phone speakers. The headset is pretty light in weight and gives off a somehow
cheap feel; and even though they have average volume and sound quality, a lot
of people may dismiss this fact due to their cheap feel.
Images on the other hand are quite good. I’m
no photographer or photography expert, so for me, at the very least, the images
captured by the 5MP camera of the Alcatel 916D would be enough. Just like any
other android phone out there, you can use different apps to edit and share
your photos, including Instagram. Just take note that because the phone has a
different resolution, other apps may not work or may work differently on this
device (e.g. Instagram).
PERFORMANCE
The 916D has entry level specs including a
650MHz processor with 256MB of RAM so no one in their right mind would expect
that this phone would provide stellar performance. Nevertheless, I ran a
Quardrant benchmark test just to give us an idea of how it does on synthetic benchmark
tests. On the average, the Spark FB got a Quadrant score of 592.
On the plus side, it seems Alcatel made a
good job on optimizing the 916D when it comes to performance. Even with entry
level specs, I didn’t experience too much lag on the device even with the live
wallpaper on. The only time I experienced lag on the device is when Wi-Fi is
open.
VERDICT
To sum it all up, the Alcatel 916D is a
very interesting phone that offers the barebones Android experience topped with
a QWERTY keyboard. If you’re looking for a phone that help you send texts and
make calls and you’re still looking for a phone that can provide features better
than a feature phone, then the Spark FB is the phone for you. It does however,
suffer from a few kinks, but if Alcatel can get this issues straightened
through an update, it can easily become the phone of choice for a lot of
Filipinos. And with a SRP of around P6,100 the Alcatel 916D is quite an
affordable phone even for the most tight budget technophiliacs.
What are your thoughts about this phone? Do
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