A $99 Phone that’s ACTUALLY usable :P - Alcatel 1X

[James]

Buy Alcatel 1X on Amazon: http://geni.us/qYJiE

 

The Alcatel 1X was the first Android Go phone to launch in the USA, and it’s now available in India. But will your version have a fingerprint reader? Dual SIM? That depends..

 

 

[ethawesomee]

tinfoil hat

[Tristerin]

Actually usable?  Pffffft I have a gen 1'ish smart phone as my daily driver.  Im grandfathered into my original contract, unlimited 3g, texts, calls...$25 a month.  If I upgrade my phone I lose my contract lol. 

 

My brick watches pr0n (low resolution must means closer to my face for that awesome screen door effect), gives me directions, calls and texts.  I can even open up some web pages on my browser still!

LOL

And it has a 3.2 megapixel camera.

 

Pffft, usable

[LukeSavenije]

My first smartphone was a samsung galaxy y. That thing had a 320p or so res on a 3,5 inch screen with a huge home button, is slow as hell, and the camera was like 2 mp front and 0,8 back. Phones these days are getting better and better. And cheaper too

[Hans Power]

I'm not really suprised by this phones usability at all. A few months ago I bought a Motorola Moto x4 for 175€ and it doesn't just perform - it performs very, very well. Good OS performance, good gaming performance, good battery life, decent camera, good GPS, Fingerprint sensor, ip68 waterproofing, dual SIM and it even gets Android 9 later down the line. Only thing missing is compatibility to moto mods which are kinda dope. Apart from that I really don't know why I should buy anything more expensive than that. And with this in mind a 100€ Smartphone shouldn't be too bad.

[__james]

Imo this was not the right phone for the video. There is plenty of phones out there that you can get about ~100 dollars (like Meizu M lineup), which are super great phones. For that money you can get 2GB of memory, 32GB internal storage with multi sim and expandable storage options, OK CPU, super quick frontal fingerprint reader (like really quick, was annoyed with S7s reader when switched to that) and so on. 

[Adorable Cat]

zte maven 3 > anything

 

they're so cheap you can just yeet them out a window

[poochyena]

I use to use a $70 phone 2 years ago, lg ultimate 2 and it worked fine. It was slow, but I just needed it for super simple tasks like maps, texting, email, etc. I would have liked to see how this phone's load times opening up simple apps like that compared to more expensive phones.

[LevitatingBusinessMan]

What the fuck is wrong with those guys. You can buy a lot of decent phones for that price.
I own a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5a Prime

 

specs:

Display: 5.5 inch 1280 x 720 pixels screen 

CPU: Snapdragon 435 Octa Core 1.4GHz 
System: MIUI 8 and above (android 7)
Storage: 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM 
Cameras: front 16.0MP + rear 8.0MP

 

The thing cost me 115 dollars, and although is sometimes cheaper to buy from AliExpress directly can also be bought on a couple of webshops here in the Netherlands.
This phone doesn't have Android GO and in my experience isn't slow at all.
There is no reason to buy a phone like the Alcatel 1X for 99 dollars if you can buy a lot of redmi models for around the same price which CAN run Android.

Edit:
I'll tell you some more about it. It runs MIUI 9 which is based on android 7. It can be rooted and changed to a different Andoird version but it's a pain. And although I heard people dislike I enjoy it a lot. There is some Mi bloatware but it's really not that bad, and you have to use their app for changing the launcher. But that app does support user-made skins and can also change the look of you lock-screen. MiUI comes with a ram and memory cleaner on it's own and things like a file manager (with even an ftp server built in) and a lot more useful shit. Also smaller things like a QR reader, ability to share a wifi password through a QR code and handy stuff like that. I think the screen looks decent but has horribly dull coloring, the Snapdragon 435 may not be the newest processor but it's not slow at all and can handle a lot. A mobile gamer could certainly play on it. The camera's look like shit even though they should look fine spec-wise, no clue why it seems to just be really bad handling light in any situation. The phone feels really premium, it has an aluminium back and is super light. Oh and last thing if you break the screen you don't even have to buy a new phone you can just buy a new display for 19 dollars from china. The displays already on a frame so any noob can replace it

Edited November 14, 2018 by LevitatingBusinessMan
Adding some user experience

[carnex]

As some other people already pointed out, this video is really bad. There are loads of usable mobile phones that are usable for that price. Or still really powerfull for marginally more. For same money you can get Xiaomi Redmi 6 with 3gb of ram, Mediatek t22, dual sim, 720x1440 screen etc. Alcatel has never been good value, ever since I had Alcatel OneTouch 955 and had loads of problems with it.

Hell, for 122 eur i got LeEco LeMax 2 with snapdragon X820, 4GB of RAM, 32gb ROM (nonexpandable), QHD IPS screen, OK camera, dodgy fingeprint sensor etc NEW and with warranty.

 

[Dissitesuxba11s]

@LinusTech I see you stopped midway of production, got a haircut and changed shirts.

[ahuckphin]

I use a Nokia 2.1 powered by Android Go. My issue with Android Go is the Go applications. Why? because they're useless and I cannot uninstall them.

 

Also this video felt that they took most of they're research from the internet such as maps go lacking of turn by turn navigation. 

[Hans Power]

After some research I actually I have to agree with everyone that the Alcatel 1x is a bad choice for that video. In germany you can get a Nokia 3 right now for 90€ (regularly at 100€) and that phone is miles ahead of the alcatel with pretty decent specs and a full (stock) android 8.0.

[JonTheKnight]

If Linus wants to keep looking into more budget-friendly phones he should review the Moto G6 and NOKIA 6.1. Both are great mid-tier priced phones and when I was looking into budget-friendly recently phones I didn't find much on them.

[HimymCZe]

is this serious?
for $99 I have 3GB RAM, 1080p 5" IPS display; 4000mAh battery and Android 7.0...
did Linus became just a marketing too for Intel/Apple $9999 shiz?

[LevitatingBusinessMan]

18 hours ago, carnex said:

As some other people already pointed out, this video is really bad.

Yes, my problem with the video is mostly that people will take the advice, thinking that Alcatel is your best option around that price point. I have seen videos from ltt where I believe they didn't do nearly enough research/comparison to similiar options on the market, but this one is by far the worst.