Alcatel OT-808, OT-980 smart phones and the MWC

Alcatel TCT is a Chinese mobile phone company that took over Alcatel-Lucent’s mobile phone division some time ago. Alcatel have long been known for their sturdy if feature-limited phones that are reliable and cheap. Recently however, Alcatel TCT and in fact other Chinese companies such as Huawei have been trying to capture some of the market for high-end smart phones and Alcatel recently introduced the Alcatel OT-808 and the Alcatel OT-980, the latter at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) held at Barcelona in Spain this February.

The Alcatel OT-808 is most remarkable for its looks, that is it seems to resemble a clam-shell form factor netbook more than anything else.

On the other hand the Alcatel OT-808 cellphone has fairly meek features on its list of technical specifications such as FM radio, Opera Mini browser, an external monochrome OLED to show you the time and who’s calling, a 2.4″ QVGA screen on the inside with a full QWERTY keyboard.

Other than that the Alcatel OT-808 mobile phone also has Bluetooth 2.0, a 2 MP camera and dual band GSM connectivity. But as the Alcatel OT-808 cellphone is designed essentially for social networking enthusiasts, it has in-built social networking integration, e-mail and instant messaging functionality. This one is not at all high-end.

The Alcatel OT-980 smart phone on the other hand was first featured at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain and while few details are available as of yet we do know that the Alcatel OT-980 will run on the Google Android mobile operating system.

The technical specifications that are known for the Alcatel OT-980 Android phone include a 600 MHz processor, touchscreen, vertical slide form factor, Wi-Fi and 3G compatibility (3G is achieved through UMTS band HSPA). The Alcatel OT-980 smart phone will also feature GPS, compass and an accelerometer no doubt for auto-rotation or motion gaming.

The Alcatel OT-980 and Alcatel OT-808 are decent mobile phones in their own right but Alcatel needs to step up and deliver something out of the ordinary to once again be a major player in the mobile phone market.

To conclude, although Alcatel has delivered quality, reliable products in the past it has been for the most part counted out of the mobile phone market for a number of years. In our opinion, low priced smart phones with limited features but good reliability might well establish its image as just that, a maker of low end phones and that is not at all the way forward.