Earlier today, online retailer in association with Alcatel
held a sale for the French maker’s newest phone – the
Alcatel Flash 2. The
handset was announced last week at a special event at the Bonifacio Global
Center in Taguig city. As we’ve earlier reported, the phone sports mid-range
specs but ups the ante when it comes to the camera – more specifically the
front-facing camera which has its own flash and a 5MP sensor with an f/2.2 wide-angle
lens.
If you were one of the few lucky ones who where able to
snatch one unit for yourself during the flash sale earlier, then congrats!
Otherwise, you need not worry as representatives from Alcatel has told us that
they will continue to work with Lazada in offering the phone through the online
retailer’s website. For the meantime, if you’re still on the fence on getting
the Flash 2, read on and check our hands-on of the device to help you make up
your mind.
Design and
Construction
At Php6,190 (approximately US$132), the Alcatel Flash 2 is
your standard budget smartphone. The device is constructed out of plastic with
faux-metal accents on the side. In terms of design, the most interesting part
of the phone would be its back. Just like the
OnePlus Two, the Flash 2 sports
the same removable sandstone back cover that’s pretty grippy to the hands and
is almost fingerprint-resistant.
The right side of the phone is where the hardware buttons
are located. At the top right, you’ll find the power/lock button, below that is
the volume rocker and at the bottom right is where the dedicated camera button
is placed. On the other hand, the left side of the phone is completely devoid
of any buttons.
Compared to its predecessor – the OneTouch Flash Plus, this
handset has a curvier design. In fact, Alcatel is using these design feature as
a selling point in its website, saying that they used the curves to make the
handset more ergonomic and easier to hold.
Audio and Optics
Although the Flash 2’s cameras give consumers the impression
that the device is designed for multimedia consumption and creation, the device
is actually made with one purpose in mind – taking photos. This is clearly seen
with the quality of sound that’s coming from the handset’s lone speaker at the
back. Don’t get us wrong, it’s not that the speaker performs poorly, it’s just
okay.
The included headset doesn’t fair better either. For
starters, the quality of the materials used on the headset isn’t that good and
the sound coming from them won’t win any awards anytime soon. Fortunately, the
phone is using the standard 3.5mm headphone jack so users can simply use their
existing audio equipment when they want to listen to audio files on the Flash
2.
Now, on to the main feature of the phone – the cameras. The
camera at the back of the device is a 13MP
ISOCELL sensor from Samsung that
offers phase detection autofocus and a LED flash. After trying the camera for a
few minutes, we found out that it does churn out surprisingly decent photos
even in not so good lighting conditions.
 |
| Left: Image taken with rear camera (no flash) | Right: image taken with front camera (with flash) |
The 5MP on the front of the device which is the star feature
of the phone also performs well when we took some photos with it. However, we found
out that the images generated by the profie camera can be a bit over exposed
and washed out especially when the front flash is active.
Fortunately, the device has gotten smart about this issue
and features several modes that adjusts the image you take with it through
filters and other software enhancements. Moreover, Alcatel has put a number of
gesture-activated features on the phone including one that automatically
activates the shutter button when you make certain hand gestures just like
other apps on Android.
Software and UI
Out of the box, the Flash 2 runs on Android Lollipop with
minimal customizations from Alcatel’s side. As a result, the device runs
smoothly like a hot knife through butter (although we’re not sure if this will
be the case when different apps are already loaded into the phone).
It’s also good to know that Alcatel has pre-installed a
number of popular apps on the phone including AVG Anti-virus as well as other
widely-used social networking and instant messaging apps like Facebook, Twitter
and Whatsapp (though you need to update them once you sign in to your Google
account).
Another nifty feature that Alcatel has installed into the
Flash 2 are Smart Wake controls. These are basically gesture-based controls
where in users can draw symbols on the phone’s screen when it is asleep and it
launches a specific app/feature that the user can assign. For example, drawing
a C on the lockscreen can automatically unlock the camera and go straight to
the camera app. The feature isn’t completely new and a lot of manufacturers
have implemented similar features, though it’s still a nice addition to the
basic vanilla UI of Android.
Performance
The Alcatel Flash 2 is sporting a MediaTek chipset with 2GB
of RAM and a Mali GPU, which is by today’s standards – is average. Having said
this, we’re didn’t expect much oomph to come from the Flash 2. With our few
minutes with the handset, we experienced a smooth interface with no lags,
stuttering or app crashes.
We ran a couple of benchmark apps on the Flash 2 and got a
33587 on AnTuTu and a 2883 on Geekbench 3. We weren’t able to test out any
games on the handset due to the time constraint but we think that most casual
games won’t have a hard time running on the Flash 2.
Again, due to our limited time, we weren’t able to test the battery
performance of the device as well as its behavior with day-to-day use.
Final Words
With all things said, the Alcatel Flash 2 is a phone that delivers
on what it has promised - it allows people to easily take good selfies. As for
the rest of the ideal smartphone checklist, there are a few ticked check boxes
while there are also boxes left unchecked.
First, let’s go over what the phone has missed. First, there’s
the design. The phone feels a bit too light for us and we’re not fans of the
metal band at the side (we’re not sure if it’s real metal or chrome-plated plastic
strips, but it does feel cheap to the touch).
Looking at the positives, the Flash 2’s camera, operating
system and price get the thumbs up. The cameras of course are already a given,
especially the software additions that make taking great photos easy and
convenient. We also like that the handset comes with the latest version of
Android and that it is able to run it very smoothly. And more importantly,
there’s the price. At Php6,190, the Flash 2 is very affordable and can give
models from bigger brands a run for their money.
