russian

Phone Search:

RSS

Samsung Galaxy Note. First Look

Today, large companies, especially corporate giants like Samsung, do not surprise users with extraordinary products...

First look. Sony ST21i Tapioca Microsoft Windows Phone 7: Reasons for Failure First Look at Samsung Galaxy S3 as a 2012 Flagship

Reviews Editorials

Mobile Phones Editorials MP3 Forum

Print this review

3GSM Congress, Cannes 2004. Products from Alcatel.

Unlike many other manufacturers Alcatel decided to present several models at once for this exhibition. We can’t really understand why Alcatel decided to do that, since its representatives were aware of the fact that the presented phones will be photographed. An ideal variant would have probably been showing the phones to their relatives, friends only on weekends, and not to bring them for public attention’s judgment. Company’s paranoia shows the current condition inside mobile phone division; recently it suffered from serious losses. A lot of people responsible for various directions decided to leave the company, marketing activity became minimal. The possibility of closing factory in France and reorienting for selling only ODM-products, which will allow decreasing the expenses is actually being discussed. Earlier on the company was presenting only cheap ODM-products, but now ODM models will appear for expensive solutions. In the list of most successful countries for the company, we can see Russia, but here the business doesn’t run nice as it could have been. The Alcatel brand turns into fairly-known trademark, which is really upset since Alcatel has some serious and interesting products to offer. I will associate its position in Europe and pity condition only because of the mess which is even stronger than in Russia.

The only phone we were allowed to hold in our hands was Alcatel 735i, which differs only with Java support from its original version. The company banned upgrading 735 into its improved version, referring to hardware changes, although this is not truth. I’ve seen several 735’s that were upgraded manually into 735i. Let’s see how fast the advanced users will learn how to change firmware in home conditions.

Two models with “a” index appeared in the product line (331a, for example), this are phones dedicated for Latin America, the only difference from European versions, is support of other frequencies. As we can see, the company decided to follow Siemens example and try its luck on the new market. Nowadays this means that company’s business is running worse and worse, and their production is not competitive anymore on own markets. We wish the companies good luck in their will to keep up the sales with the help of developing markets.

The company saved interesting models for Europe, such as Alcatel OneTouch 556 which will become the replacement for 535. From now on the phone which costs around 200 dollars features VGA-camera, ability to playback and record videos, 2mb of memory, 40-tone polyphonic ring tones, Java, tri-band and IrDA. The most important innovation is the screen with 128x160 pixel resolution that can display up to 8 text lines. It is made on cSTN technology, and is capable of showing up to 65000 colors. In reality the display looks fittingly, but does not shock your imagination, it lacks live feeling. On the other hand, if we compare this product to Siemens CX65, I come to the conclusion, that its screen quality is better, as well as other combined specifications. Even if the lower price is not considered, the phone still looks nice and interesting. If it is released on the market before May, it will be able to keep up company’s sales in this segment.

Model Alcatel OneTouch 756 is the improved version of 556, a model with slightly different design. Here the screen that can display up to 262000 colors (TFT) is introduced, because of that battery’s capacity was increased as well – from now on it is 950mAh (model 556 had 800mAh). Mp3 file playback, video recording plus other functions are supported. The phone’s memory is 4mb, ring tones are 32-tone polyphonic. The rest is similar to the previous models. This product will be released by the end of June, and will cost around 250 dollars.

First clamshell from Alcatel has serial number 835. The information about this ODM-model was available long time ago, as well as the pictures. An interesting fact is that the external screen can display up to 65000 colors, meanwhile the internal one 262000 (128x160 pixels). Phone’s memory is 3mb, you can record video, pictures resolution is VGA. The external screen can be used as viewfinder. The product features 40-tone polyphonic ring tones, there is no Java support, and it can work in two standards. By summing up the info, this is sort of checkpoint, unfinished solution. Considering that this is company’s first clamshell phone, we can’t really predict success for this model. The display quality is nice, but you can’t really say that it true 262000 color quality, the screens flawlessly lose the battle against similar displays from Samsung.

On the whole end users as well as distributors should look for such models as Alcatel OT556/756. They will repeat the destiny of 535/735 duo, which means a certain unbalance in their sales. The elder model will be more popular, meanwhile the older one will occupy assortment position.

Alcatel’s products remained pleasant impression; the company has nice models, which are capable of fighting for place under the sun. I am afraid that this will be the last models that are capable for that. Considering the models that are going to be released by the end of the year, the company does not have enough power for developing really new and interesting models. Alcatel will try to keep parity with Sagem, this means using more and more ODM-models.

Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Translated by Alexander "Lexx" Zavoloka([email protected]);

Published — 02 March 2004

Have something to add?! Write us... [email protected]

News:

[ 31-07 16:21 ]Sir Jony Ive: Apple Isn't In It For The Money

[ 31-07 13:34 ]Video: Nokia Designer Interviews

[ 31-07 13:10 ]RIM To Layoff 3,000 More Employees

[ 30-07 20:59 ]Video: iPhone 5 Housing Shown Off

[ 30-07 19:12 ]Android Fortunes Decline In U.S.

[ 25-07 16:18 ]Why Apple Is Suing Samsung?

[ 25-07 15:53 ]A Few Choice Quotes About Apple ... By Samsung

[ 23-07 20:25 ]Russian iOS Hacker Calls It A Day