While you can get ” mobile phones” under $50 but it’s not often you’ll find a quality phone equipped with an 5.34″ display operating Android Oreo 8.1 at such an affordable price.
It’s easily among the cheapest smartphones on the market at the moment. The phone is powered by the MediaTek MT6739 processor. It also surprisingly has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.
Let’s take a deep dive into the specifications for the Alcatel TCL LX (a502dl) review.
Alcatel TCL LX Specs
Alcatel TCL LX Review
Design and build
For this price, I was expecting a plastic device that feels more like a toy, not an actual phone, but what a surprise.
It’s not cheap However, it doesn’t have the premium feel also. I’ve used more expensive budget Chinese phones that felt weak and unstable.
The device is made of plastic , and its weight is 5.36oz (152g) and has dimensions of 5.83 x 2.74 3.74 x 0.37 inches (148.1 x 69.6 90.4mm). 9.4mm). Personally, I think the device falls at the heavier end of the spectrum to me, since it has an 5.34″ screen, while phones with larger screens weigh only a little more.
With dimensions set like above the device comes with an incline of 75%, which isn’t that bad. It’s impossible to ask for anything better at this cost.
It’s sleek and simple, with plenty of space on the back panel aside from the camera for selfies and speaker. It’s not cluttered with sensors and buttons.
However the rear panel is extremely rough and reduces the chance of the phone sliding through your fingers. If it does happen, I don’t think the phone will withstand any impact as such.
With different costs There are a variety of aspects to consider. High-end phones like the flagship models are based on their appearance and design, but at this cost, usability and comfort is the primary goal. I believe Alcatel has caught the bull’s eye with this model.
A charging connector is on the right side of the device within the middle two speakers. It is located on the bottom right. 3.5mm headphone is relocated towards the top of the device.
Display
The most commonly used aspect ratio for smartphones is 16:9. What I love about Alcatel LX is its 5.34″ display comes with an aspect ratio of 18:9. This is a widescreen, meaning images, apps and other content on the display aren’t packed tightly. It’s not necessary be straining your eyes in order to see text.
It helps using the keyboard. A larger screen is always more comfortable.
Although it’s aspect ratio admirable however, it’s not quite the same quality. The display has only the 960×480 pixels resolution and an PPI of 200. The display does not support HD and will only support up to a maximum resolution of 480 pixels.
It’s not the most sharp display. It’s also not as bright. However, it can be used at a reasonable cost.
Although the display is an IPS panel but the viewing angles aren’t the best.
In conclusion that the display’s size is a bargain for the price, however the quality of the display is not great in comparison to the current standard. For its price tag, I believe it’s a great value for the money.
Kern – Software and Hardware
In the middle it’s the MediaTek MT6739 processor and a 2GB RAM.
This SoC is the ideal match for this device since it is designed for low-cost Android devices. The quad-core processor based on 28nm and features 4 Cortex-A53 chips , which clocks around 1. 5GHz.The built-in graphics card is an PowerVR GE9100 that runs at the speed of 570 milliseconds.
In this price range of low-cost processors, the MT6739 can do an excellent job. When tested against the Geekbench 4.4 benchmark this SoC gets 632 marks, which is the average score for the Single-Core score , and 1896 points for Multi-Core score.
The processor is adequate to perform everyday tasks like texts, emails, calls, and browsing the web. You can also access your preferred social media sites but you may experience slight lags when trying load heavy content like lengthy Facebook and IGTV videos.
Gaming is not a good idea since the built-in GPU is not very good and only supports basic games. In any case, I’m pretty sure that nobody is going to invest in a cheap phone for gaming.
The minor lags become obvious ones when you are multitasking. It takes longer for applications to load and display freezes while switching between applications and the device takes long to respond.
This is due to the fact that although the device is equipped with 2GB of RAM 50 % of the memory is reserved by the operating system. It’s logical to have Android Go because of the small RAM capacity, but Alcatel provides TCL LX TCL LX with stock Android Oreo 8.1. The current version of Android is extremely heavy and comes with features such as screen-in-screen, however the limited RAM capacity won’t permit you to unlock its full potential.
Battery
The battery is disappointing with 2400mAH.Due to the screen’s large size, battery is drained quickly, especially when you’re using it on maximum brightness outside.
Alcatel claims that the battery will last about fifteen hours talk time.
Final Verdict
Overall I believe that it’s a good choice. Alcatel TCL LX is a great value for money. The build quality is excellent and the device is easy to hold. The screen is of good aspect ratio, however the image quality can be a somewhat disappointing. However, we must focus on the cost.
The processor is sufficient to get everyday tasks completed. It would be better to have Android Go on this device because of the small memory capacity, but Android 8.1 isn’t bad either. Make sure that you don’t be overloading your processor and RAM by running too many apps simultaneously.
