Alcatel Tetra: At First Glance
Just like its price tag suggests, the Alcatel Tetra looks simple and basic. Unlike some smartphones, the Alcatel Tetra doesn’t feature a dual-lens camera, neither does it come with a powerful processor.
With the Alcatel Tetra, you get your regular budget smartphone. This smartphone’s design almost completely follows the old-fashioned design pattern.
An example is its relatively large top and bottom bezel. Lastly, the Alcatel Tetra’s spec sheet doesn’t reveal anything beyond what is expected from a smartphone of its price tag.
Alcatel Tetra: Design, Dimension, and Weight
With the Alcatel Tetra, you don’t get the 18:9 aspect ratio that is common with many new smartphones. Alcatel Tetra comes with 16:9 aspect ratio.
Ideally, the Alcatel Tetra could have been one of the most beautiful smartphones if it was released in early 2000. Its Stealth black, twill finish gives it a look that doesn’t just befit its price tag but also makes it look slightly more beautiful than expected.
Moving on to its build details. The Alcatel Tetra is built with plastic. In its entirety, the overall design and build of the Alcatel Tetra are simple and basic.
At the top of the Alcatel Tetra’s display, there’s a 2-megapixel front camera and a headphone. Furthermore, beneath the display, you get a back button, a home button, and a recent apps button.
Taking a tour around the sides of the Alcatel Tetra, you will find a charging port and a headphone jack at the top of the Alcatel Tetra. Meanwhile, the bottom of the Alcatel Tetra houses just a noise cancellation microphone.
On the right side of the Alcatel Tetra, you get a volume rocker and a textured power button. However, the left side of the Alcatel Tetra doesn’t feature anything.
Turning the Alcatel Tetra over to its back reveals its textured back cover. Due to its textured design, the back of this smartphone doesn’t retain fingerprints or oil stains.
Additionally, the back of the Alcatel Tetra houses a 5-megapixel camera, a LED flash, and a noise cancellation mic – the mic is at the top of the camera. Meanwhile, there’s an Alcatel branding below the camera.
Furthermore, there’s also a backfiring speaker positioned at the bottom of this smartphone’s back cover.
In terms of dimensions and weight, the Alcatel Tetra measures 142.4 x 71.8 x 9.3 mm and weighs 149.9 g.
Even though the design of the Alcatel Tetra is basic, it doesn’t look bad for a budget smartphone. Hence, it scores a seven in this review.
Alcatel Tetra: Display Features
The Alcatel Tetra comes with an IPS LCD display. This display has an FWVGA resolution of 854 x 480 pixels.
Viewing angles are not good enough on the Alcatel Tetra. Moreover, the Alcatel Tetra’s display is not very vibrant, so you might want to keep the display brightness at 100% most times.
Additionally, its display looks washed out more when you are outdoors. The implication is that the quality of the images and videos on the Alcatel Tetra tends to get blurry at times.
However, if it is any consolation, the Alcatel Tetra’s display is very sensitive and it is multitouch capable. Also, Alcatel covered the display with 2D Dragon glass for protection against scratches and damages.
In conclusion, the Alcatel Tetra scores a five in this review for its clear low display quality.
Alcatel Tetra: Camera Features
Alcatel equipped the Alcatel Tetra with a 5 mega-pixel back camera and a 2 mega-pixel front camera.
In addition to its low-quality display, the camera is another downside of the device. The phone doesn’t feature a dual-lens setup nor many Pro camera features.
The phone’s camera offers a limited selection of features like night mode, time-lapse, HDR, and autofocus. Hence, you’ll not be satisfied with the camera on this device if you take pictures a lot.
Nonetheless, the picture quality produced by the Alcatel Tetra is okay if you take pictures outdoors – or in well-lit environments.
Therefore, the Alcatel Tetra scores a six in this review for its average camera quality.
Alcatel Tetra: Battery Life and Talk Time
The Alcatel Tetra features a 2,050 Li-Po mAh removable battery. This battery capacity is the standard level for a smartphone of its range.
In comparison with most budget smartphones, the Alcatel Tetra’s battery life is good. On a continuous battery test, the Alcatel Tetra battery lasted up to 12 hours.
However, battery life may vary depending on the nature of activities. If you surf the web or play games for a long period of time, the battery may run down faster.
Even though the Alcatel Tetra doesn’t support fast charging and wireless charging, its battery life is okay for normal use.
Hence, the Alcatel Tetra scores a seven in this review for its good battery life.
Alcatel Tetra Storage Options and Performance
The Alcatel Tetra comes with a 16 GB internal storage capacity. This storage capacity is large enough for storing photos, videos, music, and other files.
However, for people who have large games and apps installed or people who shoot videos often, this storage will quickly become insufficient. Fortunately, the Alcatel Tetra supports SD card storage.
You can expand your storage with a microSD card. To be specific, you can expand the Alcatel Tetra’s storage with up to 128 GB microSD card.
Ultimately, you wouldn’t have to worry about the insufficient internal storage space.
In conclusion, the Alcatel Tetra scores an eight in this review for its good storage options.
Alcatel Tetra: Security Features and Sensors
As expected of a modern smartphone, the Alcatel equipped Tetra with sensors. These sensors generally enhance the user experience.
To offer you some details, the Alcatel Tetra comes with an accelerometer that measures the tilting motion and orientation of the phone. This makes it easy for the phone to change orientation as you flip it from vertical to horizontal – and vice versa.
It also comes with a proximity sensor that detects how close the smartphone is to an external object like your ear. This dims the phone’s display when you are making a phone call to save battery.
In addition to these, the Alcatel Tetra also features an ambient light sensor. The ambient light sensor detects light in the environment and automatically adjusts the phone’s display brightness – saving its battery.
Moving further to security features, this smartphone doesn’t come with facial recognition nor a fingerprint sensor. However, you can use pin, password, or pattern locks to secure your device.
In conclusion, the Alcatel Tetra scores a six in this review for its limited security features.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Alcatel Tetra is a good low-budget phone that works decently well. As long as you keep your expectations minimal, you won’t be disappointed by the Alcatel Tetra smartphone. The phone offers enough value for its price.
The Alcatel Tetra was released in September 2018.
The Alcatel Tetra measures 142.4 x 71.8 x 9.3 mm. Its display size is 5-inches.
According to AT&T, remove the back cover by inserting your thumbnail into the notch at the bottom left of the back of the device and lifting it up. Remove the battery by gently pulling it up from the notch on the bottom.
According to Wikipedia, Alcatel (formerly Alcatel Mobile Phones and Alcatel OneTouch) is a French/Chinese brand of mobile handsets owned by Finnish consumer electronics company Nokia and used under license by Chinese electronics company TCL Technology.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Alcatel Tetra is a budget smartphone that works decently well. However, its features and performance re-affirms its entry-level status.
As long as you keep your expectations minimal, you won’t be disappointed by the Alcatel Tetra smartphone. If your smartphone requirements are basic, then the Alcatel Tetra is an ideal option for you.
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