Following on the footsteps of the Idol 4 Pro, Alcatel has now launched the new U5 HD smartphone that is aimed at being a budget handset with current generation specs at decent value.
The phone will run on Android Nougat and will also feature a selfie camera with its own flash, for low-light photography. On the rear will be located 
a simple single camera setup but the back of the phone will be a patterned side, which will provide some texture when gripped. There are only two variants of the phone in terms of color – black and white. Alcatel seems to be placing this phone somewhere in the entry-level segment, with no outstanding features per se. The phone will also feature capacitive buttons with the power and volume keys placed on the left side. The phone will be the upgrade to the Alcatel U5 that was launched in MWC in February earlier this year.
Specs wise, the smartphone will come with a 5-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 720×1280 pixels. The primary camera will be an 8MP snapper that will have HDR, Electronic Image Stabilization, Instant Collage, Face Show, Selfie Album and Face Beauty modes, while the selfie camera will be a 5MP sensor. The battery is a rather small 2,050mAh unit, but considering that the specifications are underwhelming, the battery should be able to last for a day at the most, on a single charge. Unfortunately, Alcatel have retained the same chipset from the U5, being the MediaTek MT6737 quad-core chipset clocked at 1.1GHz and 1GB of RAM along with 8GB of internal storage. There is also a microSD card for expandability up to 128GB.
This will not be the only smartphone that it will be announcing at the IFA 2017 Berlin trade show. There is no confirmed date for launch of the phone, nor is there any confirmation on the pricing of the handset. The only feature that should make buyers excited for the smartphone is that it features Android Nougat out of the box. For a basic LTE-capable smartphone with no expectations required for an update and with the most recent of software available, the phone should satiate the entry-level market who is always price-conscious, more so, in the emerging markets. TCL-owned Alcatel has not been releasing any note-worthy phones of late, but it should not be complacent as even the budget-oriented OEMs market is buzzing with better performing handsets from brands such as Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and the rest. Alcatel’s offerings need to bring something better to the table that is more than just the bare necessities now, if it wants to take over a larger portion of the marketshare.
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