Until that happens, we’ll have to put up with a lot of compromises in an entry-level smartphone. We’ve previously reviewed the Zen Cinemax 3 which didn’t impress us much. We’re hoping that Alcatel’s new Pixi 4 might do a little better.
Alcatel Pixi 4 Design and Build
The phone is available in different sizes across the globe. In India, we have a 5-inch variant. The build quality of the Alcatel Pixi 4 is good. The phone is made of plastic and the finish is also good. The thickness of the phone is 9.5 mm and it feels a bit heavy at 169 grams. However, the grip of the phone is good. The Pixi 4 is available in several color variants. We have the Gold variant.
The Alcatel Pixi 4 sports a 5-inch capacitive display with a resolution of 480×854 pixels, which is nothing new for a phone of this price. More than the low resolution, the panel quality is a disappointment. The viewing angles are quite poor, which leads to a lot of smudges on the display. The touch response is pretty good, but fingerprints are a charm on the display surface.
The Pixi 4 has a micro-USB port at the bottom, a 3.5mm audio jack at the top and a notification LED near the front camera. The Alcatel Pixi 4 has navigation buttons that are not backlit. The rear cover and battery of the phone are removable. The phone has separate slots for two SIM cards and one microSD card. Along with the phone, you will find a charger, data cable, headset, screen guard and instruction leaflet in the box. The quality of accessories with the phone is good, especially for a budget phone.
Alcatel Pixi 4 specifications and features
This phone has a MediaTek MT6735M quad-core processor running at 1 GHz. The phone has 1 GB RAM and 8 GB storage. The CPU is good for basic tasks but the RAM and storage are very less which is disappointing. The user actually gets 3.6 GB of storage for use. But the storage can be increased up to 32 GB via microSD card. Although this does not solve the RAM problem, but at least the user will not have a problem of space for the app.
Apart from this, the phone has features like Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi B/G/N, FM radio and GPS. Talking about sensors, this phone has an accelerometer and a proximity sensor. USB OTG will not be available in the phone. Pixi 4 supports all Indian bands and also works on VoLTE. Alcatel Pixi 4 uses a custom launcher but the interface is very much like Android 6.0. Some good visual touches have been included in the interface.
Opening a folder will give you a fold style animation. There are five shortcuts to frequently used apps on the lock screen. And swiping right from the homescreen will bring up Alcatel’s OneTouch Stream feature which will give you options to choose from – weather, calendar events, news stories and wallpapers. These can be disabled if not needed.
WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, AVG Antivirus, Flipkart and all Jio apps come pre-installed in the phone. Jio Welcome Offer will also be available with Pixi 4. Apart from this, there is also a Boost app which manages junk files and power saving mode, apps. OneTouch Cloud is Alcatel’s cloud backup service. The Settings app has controls that support gestures.
Alcatel Pixi 4 performance
Alcatel should have provided more RAM to be able to use all the software that is provided in the phone. With 1GB of RAM, you get barely 200MB of free space which is not enough for a smooth running Android smartphone. There is a lot of lag while scrolling through a list, running apps or even browsing. Apps take time to load and even simple tasks like dialing a number are not easy. The phone doesn’t heat up too much but we did notice the phone getting warm while using the camera.
Talking about benchmark figures, the phone scored quite low, as expected.
The video or audio experience on the Alcatel Pixi 4 is also not very good due to the screen. However, you can play video files up to 1080 pixels on the phone. The earpiece can also be used as a loudspeaker. It is fine for alerts but is very weak for media files. The audio is decent from the included headset.
There is not much to talk about the phone’s camera. This phone has an 8-megapixel fixed focus rear camera while there is a 5-megapixel front camera. Both cameras have a single LED flash. The quality of photos coming from both cameras is below average. And due to the lack of autofocus, you can forget about good close-up shots. Even in good light, the photos come out quite dull and washed out while in low light there is a lack of detailing. The phone can record videos up to a maximum of 720 pixels.
The phone’s camera interface is easy to use. The Pixi 4 has a shooting mode on the right and a number of other options on the right. Alcatel has also provided a Polaroid mode that lets you add effects to photos as well as change the frame. The phone’s rear and front flash are quite weak and do not illuminate properly even when you are close to the subject, such as a face.
The Alcatel Pixi 4 packs a 2000mAh battery that lasted 7 hours and 47 minutes in our HD video loop test. With normal use, we found the standby time to be excellent and the battery lasted a full day or half a day if not very active. Charging is slow and the battery takes several hours to fully charge.
Our verdict
The Alcatel Pixi 4 was launched at Rs 4,999 but is currently being sold on Flipkart for Rs 5,499. It is a good entry-level smartphone that comes with Android Marshmallow and 4G VoLTE. However, be prepared for below-average camera and app performance.
At this price point, the Carbon Quattro L50 HD is still a better option. Apart from this, there is also the InFocus Bingo 21. The problem with the current entry level smartphones in the market is that none of them are all-rounders. You have to compromise on either software or hardware in this segment of phones.
The Pixi 4 could have been a good option if Alcatel had packed in good hardware. We would also recommend you to try out options like Carbon and InFocus in this segment.
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