Alcatel Idol 4S Windows 10 OS 5.5 Inch FHD GSM Unlocked 64GB 21MP Camera Smartphone with Advanced Security Fingerprint Scanner

UPDATE: KINDLE APP ISSUE RESOLVED! I got in touch with Amazon customer service and they have helped me resolve the issue. For some reason, my multiple attempts to log in had blocked me out. The solution was to reset and change my amazon password to login from the Kindle App on the phone! Thanks to the Amazon Customer Service! -------------------------------------------------------- My Original Review -------------------------------------------------------- OK, the disclaimer first! I'm a counter-culture user by nature. Therefore, this review will appeal to people like me who love practicality and productivity from a Mobile device over the most commonly aspired mass appeal of pop-culture. I received this phone one day before I was supposed to fly out on my vacation trip. I owned a Windows 8 Nokia Lumia 920 for almost 5 years. Ran like a horse, and over these years it restarted on me without my approval about 4 times. Not bad at all. And then it happened! My beloved phone fell face flat on the hardwood floor and the screen cracked into a gazzillion pieces. I was eligible for an upgrade but did not want to dunk $600 - $1000 over a 3-5 year period by the end of which I would be paying "new phone price" for a phone that in 3 years would be obsolete. The best option for me under a tight schedule was to get the Alcatel IDOL 4S that I had physically touched and felt at the local Microsoft store. This is my experience with this phone over the past few weeks: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Super Easy Move from my Windows 8 Phone ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ With the phone booted up, I stepped through the Start up Wizard - by using the same Microsoft account from my older Lumia 920. And presto! All of my data and applications moved smoothly over to the new Windows 10 phone. It took about an hour of patient waiting. In the end, I had all my MS Office documents, my Excel worksheets, my pictures and anything that I had backed up to OneDrive on the new phone! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > And Yes! Works with AT&T ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was afraid of this. But my phone activation took less than 10 minutes and $5.00 for a smaller SIM card. Popped the card in and the phone was able to do what it's supposed to do at the basic level - make phone calls! Yes, it works with AT & T!!!!! Question answered once and for all! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The 21 Mega-pixel Camera is AWESOME! The HDR mode requires a bit of patience ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have attached the pictures . Some of the night time shots were captured from a moving bus. I leave it to the audience to draw their own conclusions on the camera quality However, the HDR mode requires a little getting used to. When turned on, there is a noticeable moment as the phone goes to work capturing the shot. I was annoyed for the first couple of days, but then got used to it by which time I was beginning to appreciate the end results. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Speakers can really make some noise! The microphone really captures what it needs to! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was bang in the middle of the noisiest location on the Las Vegas Strip, and the phone did a fantastic job of capturing the concert audio, the street side performers despite the fact that we were in a very noisy place. I ran these videos by my kids and they were really WOW'd by the sound effects and the quality of the audio output. And for the record, my son has worked for a leading phone company and owns a Samsung S8 Active with a 4K camera - a phone that packs a serious punch. If my phone could WOW him, I'm convinced that it must be good! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The USB-C Charger is Super Fast! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The fast charger really delivers. When I landed back home, the phone was teetering on less than 10% battery power. It took me about 10 minutes to plug in the charger at the Airport Charge station and bring the phone up to 40% charge after which I was back in business! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Continuum works for most basic applications ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I took the phone to my local Microsoft Store - they didn't have any Continuum docks for sale, but they had a display piece. The guy at the store was kind enough to allow me to use it. In a few moves, the phone was spread out on a monitor and a keyboard and I was able to work on it as I would on my laptop. Most of the MS Office Applications that I would normally use on my phone worked! I have ordered a Continuum dock because I feel that I won't need to take my personal laptop on my travels anymore. A roll up keyboard, a wireless tiny mouse and the dock would suffice on my trips. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OK, now the "NOT SO GOOD" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The only App that did not work on my phone was ironically Amazon Kindle. No matter how many times I logged in, the app would complain that it couldn't recognize my AMAZON username or password. To me this is not a showstopper because I had stopped using Kindle on my previous phone for a couple of months. Reading on the phone caused severe stress on my eyes and I have since switched to a tablet to read my Kindle books. Besides, the fact that all other Apps and Games work and just this App does not, I attribute this to an issue with the App or my AMAZON device settings. ------------ Update on Kindle App: ------------ I see an automated email from Amazon stating that I have to go through a special authentication process to register my device. I did not look at my Amazon messages as I was travelling and did not get a chance to use the special code to login that has since expired. Maybe I should give this another shot to get the Kindle App working on this phone. -------------------------------------------- The USB-C Charger -------------------------------------------- The USB-C Charger is not as ubiquitous in my parts bin as the other USB chargers - If I forget my charging cable for this phone at home, I'm porked! This means that I will need to buy an extra cable for my car so that I can have it handy just in case I get into a low-battery situation. --=============== Conclusion: --=============== The phone is a lot of bang for the buck! At 32 GB capacity I ran over storage limits with my older Nokia Lumia 920 twice over the last 5 years. But this phone comes with a 64GB storage capacity and at the rate at which I use my phone, I would never exceed my storage limits. Besides, the phone has been paid for! And the fact that it doesn't impact my next months phone bill is such a relief!

For the first 4 hours, my phone worked, but after charging the phone for 5 hours, it turned off for some reason and wouldn't turn back on. It kept going into a loop that looked like it was loading, and then shutting down again. This continued until the phone died and it will not charge. After looking at the reviews, I see that this is a common issue that could occur months after I bought the phone. I'm fortunate that I am able to return the device.

Got this phone at really a bargain price. Had to move to this since my hp elite x3 screen went off all of a sudden and I wasn't in the mood to shell more to get it fixed again (I got that for $599 including desk dock in April 2017 and it worked for a year and half but after that the fragile screen of hp elite x3 ruined the experience and I ended paying over $300 to get it fixed and also add tampered glass but still it failed when I was in USA so finally i decided to go to alcatel). Bottom line : I just love the phone and it is as fast as my hp elite x3 with better if not worse rear camera and even better front camera. Haven't tried the VR kit yet but it's something my kids are gonna like.. Build wise its quite strong and design wise too its really great (has premium glass back so make sure you get a cover.. I did that straightaway) so it can be your daily driver if your sole purpose is to make calls, take pictures, post on social media and listen to music. On the music and sound it has really good sound.. Much louder than the phones i have seen so far. I also have Huawei nexus 6p phone and its voice pales in comparison. You may say few apps are missing but then you can find decent substitutes, listing them here: LinkedIn: I use lnkd.in app, it's a lightweight unofficial linkedin app and is really fast with live notifications also available. Olacabs: No need for app, I just pinned its site and it works just as well. Battery life: at 3500 mAh it might sound less (compared to hp elite x3 which has 4150). However I still managed to get average time of 23 hours per day without charge with calling, texting, youtube and some games like mahjong or temple run 2 thrown in (i.e. On most days it lasts more than a day and it has gone till 2 days 6 hours so far). Oh and its continuum works flawlessly without dock (at best i will go for the $199 wireless lapdock to use the desktop apps in laptop form factor but that's for some other time) so you can easily stream your content onto smart tvs or other devices (the connect app does the trick i was able to show the photos as slideshow as if I am doing on actual pc). This is something you won't get on Android or iOS (well samsung note 9 did improve its dock but it's still not there yet.. Hp elite x3's dock bests it really). One might say Windows 10 mobile is dead so why go for it; i would say don't put it down just coz of its os because it has the power to do all you throw at it. The way i see it, you could spend $126 and get a very good phone that does most of the things you ask for and use rest of money for other things. On the other hand you could also spend $1000+ on expensive iphone X or even pixel series to do the same thing (for that i have nexus 6p and I think I am satisfied with that as my second device).

If you are looking to buy this phone and keep your android/iPhone accounts, forget it. I cannot access anything but Microsoft store, which DOESN'T have anything that is available to Android or iPhone users...which stinks, cause I had a LOT of apps on my old android phones that I needed for every day (banking, shopping, church, etc). I also lost virtually ALL my contacts that were synched to my android phones. If you have your contacts and calendar synched to Microsoft products like email, then you are set, otherwise, your sunk. The camera was great at first, but then decided shortly after getting it that it could not focus correctly, and the lighting has to be PERFECT, or it will continue to readjust when it is not needed because that part has become so sensitive. I've tried correcting it, but it continues to revert back to constantly adjusting. And it now likes to freeze every so often...… whether you are using an app, or just sitting there. And reception is VERY iffy.