Alcatel POP 4 6-inch smartphone review
Alcatel POP 4 (6)
£199
Pros
- Looks good
- Decent display
- Good camera
- Battery life
- Price
Cons
- No NFC for contactless payment
Alcatel has been producing budget phones for several years now, but they have remained largely off my radar. However, recently they were kind enough to send me a sample of the new Alcatel POP 4 6-inch which has a device specific name of 7070X.
Alcatel appears to produce a huge number of phones catering for most tastes, looking at Phone Arena, they have released over 30 phones in the past 3 years.
The POP 4 6 sits close to the top of phones released by Alcatel in terms of specifications, with only the Idol 4s looking like it has better specifications. In fact, it seems to be exactly the same specification as the POP 4S but with a 6-inch screen vs a 5.5-inch screen.
Alcatel POP 4 (6) design
The body is made from a nice feeling aluminium case.
The POP 4’s face is a shiny white finish, whilst the rear and edges are gold. I actually like how this phone looks.
There, I said it!
The screen is a 6-inch, 1080p display.
Build quality feels excellent. Granted, the design isn’t going to set the world on fire, but it is nice enough.
The back has a cool textured gold finish.
Here you will notice the fingerprint sensor as well as the camera lens
The right side has the power button and volume rocker
Whilst the left has the joint SIM and SDCard tray.
The top edge is home to the headphone socket.
Finally, the bottom edge houses the speakers and the USB charging port.
The overall feel of the phone is up there with most mid-tier phones. It did get a few admiring glances from my colleagues, it has to be said.
Due to the aluminium body, the battery is not replaceable, but this is pretty standard nowadays.
Alcatel POP 4 (6) performance
The Alcatel POP 4 (6) sports an octa-core MediaTek processor mated to 2 GB of RAM.
You get 16 GB of storage, a 13-megapixel main camera and an additional 5-megapixel selfie unit on the front.
Storage
The phone only comes with 16GB of onboard storage. As with these things, only 11GB is actually available to you.
If you need more, and I am sure you will, you can boost this via MicroSD.
Processor
The phone is powered by a MediaTek Helio P10 system on chip (SoC) which has an Octa-core, 1800 MHz, ARM Cortex-A53, 64-bit, Mali-T860 MP GPU and has 2GB of ram.
The octa-core SoC sounds impressive, but it is firmly in the mid-level range of SoCs that you will find on a lot of mid-range Chinese brands. I’m look at you Oppo F1 Plus. It is also used in the Sony Xperia M5.
It pootles along fine and, although it hasn’t been clogged up with apps, etc, it feels just as snappy as my 6P.
Display
The screen is 1080 x 1920 pixels at 367 ppi and, although large, it doesn’t feel overly cumbersome even with that 6-inch screen.
Colours are decent and the screen feels responsive. The resolution is lower than my Nexus but I don’t really find much to grumble about when using the POP 4.
Yes, the screen could be brighter and the colours more vivid but, at this price point, fine is what you should expect and fine is what you get here.
Camera
The camera on the POP 4 6-inch is surprisingly good.
The 13 megapixel snapper works pretty well and comes with geo tagging, zoom and a flash.
The results are plenty good enough for the average point-and-shoot merchant, I should wager.
These quick snaps are literally quick shots taken using the default settings without any post-production jiggery-pokery.
There’s an auto mode, HDR, panoramic, manual, scanner and a beauty mode with the full 13 megapixel resolution available in 4:3.
There’s not a great deal of extra camera trickery offered, but it all works rather well. You get better results with a steady hand, mind.
Battery
The 3500 mAh battery has good legs. This is no doubt aided by the display choice.
During testing the POP 4 would see me through a full day without needing a boost. Not something I can say for my 6P these days, unfortunately.
Connectivity
The phone has all the 4G bands you will need as well as Bluetooth 4.2.
I can’t seem to find NFC or WiFI AC, just 802.11 a, b, g, n. Most people won’t even miss these so I don’t think those omissions will be a deal breaker.
Although, this does mean that there will be no Android Pay for you with this handset.
Interface
The phone comes with Android 6.0 loaded. I am not sure if/when it will receive an update. Still, all seems to work as it should so I am not overly concerned.
Alcatel has been quite good at keeping the bloatware down to a minimum, there really isn’t much extra stuff added on.
From a quick glance there only seems to be music centre, boost, MaxxAudio, Onetouch cloud, User Care and Xender File Transfer that have been slipped on to the device.
The default launcher also appears to be very vanilla which gets my approval.
For input you can use the pre-installed SwiftKey keyboard. The phone also supports gestures so you can double-tap the screen to wake it, turn it over to mute and so on.
The POP 4 supports the “Turbo Download” system. This ties the mobile network and your WiFi together for additional speed.
You get an eye care system to protect your eyes from blue light.
Everything works as it should and, speaking as someone that has been using pure Android for quite some time, the Alcatel UI is really good.
Alcatel POP 4 (6) review conclusion
This is quite a well accomplished mid-ranger.
It looks nice with its unchallenging face and lovely rear. The gold finish is really eye-catching, for all the right reasons.
The 6-inch screen sits nicely in the hand and the UI is friendly. The phone flicks through screens and apps without issue and the camera is much better than I was expecting. You do lose some contrast and definition when comparing shots with a flagship phone, but there is a great deal difference in the asking prices too.
The same goes for the display. It is bright enough and the colours lively, but it is never going to challenge the big kids.
Those looking for a large-screened phone on a budget should really check out the Alcatel POP 4 (6).
Alcatel POP 4 (6) price and availability
The Alcatel POP 4 (6) can be yours for £199 from Amazon. The handset is available in Soft Slate or Metal Gold.
Alcatel POP 4 (6) specification at a glance
6 inch, IPS LCD 1080 x 1920 pixels with a pixel density of 367 PPI
MediaTek Helio P10 MT6755
Octa-core, 1800 MHz, ARM Cortex-A53, 64-bit
Mali-T860 MP
3500 mAh battery
LTE Cat 4 (150/50 Mbit/s), HSDPA+ (4G) 42.2 Mbit/s, HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s, UMTS
WiFI 802.11 a, b, g, n
Bluetooth 4.2
microUSB
Fingerprint sensor
