Alcatel 1 Specifications
The Alcatel 1 (2021) may be a very cheap phone, but even as a value proposition, it is very lacking. This is literally a phone from a different era, with its creak components that make it unusable for anything other than light contact.
Commercial Alcatel has some fame in the Android ecosystem. The Alcatel 1X was the first Android Go phone to launch in February 2018.
This fact was reminded when I re-read my review to follow that phone, Alcatel 1 (2018), in preparation for my review of Alcatel 1 (2021). There are no longer many smartphones that sell for £100, so I thought activation would be valuable.
It was more revealing than I expected. It turns out that the Alcatel 1 (2021) is exactly the same as the Alcatel 1 (2018) phone, and it only sells for less money.
These days, Alcatel 1 (2021) can be obtained for around £40 from well-known retailers. This is cheap, but is it good value?
Design & Display
Just like Alcatel 1 (2018)
Removable back and battery
5" Weak TFT LCD Display
Alcatel 1 (2021) is a very old school, it comes out of the box with the back cover and battery removed. You should slide the SIM card (fortunately Nano) into the small slot under the cover, just like you would do with older Nokia phones.
This is a cheaply made phone with a thick plastic body and huge display edges. One of the rare benefits of the last point is the absence of a perforated view, resulting in a completely unobstructed image.
Despite those large bezels, this looks like a remarkably small phone by modern standards. Even the Asus Zenfone 9, the smallest Android phone I've used recently, looks great next to it. The closest comparison I can draw here is the iPhone SE (although obviously not in terms of quality).
Another explosion of the past is the complete absence of any biometric authentication. There is no fingerprint sensor anywhere that can be found, so you will have to rely on the passcode to enter. You won't find NFC here either, so mobile payments are out of the question.
I have already mentioned one of the main reasons behind this old feeling: Alcatel 1 (2021) is actually Alcatel 1 (2018). It has the exact same design and the same measurements: a body of 137.6 × 65.7 × 9.8 mm with a weight of 134 grams.
That extends to the phone screen, which is the same as the 5-inch LCD 960 ×480. In my review of the Alcatel 1 (2018), I called this panel "a small, dull, blurry and very reflective screen, which is impossible to use outside on a bright day." Can you guess what I'm thinking here at the beginning of 2023?
You have to keep in mind this low price of course, but the bad is bad. Saving £20 – or even £120 compared to a regular "cheap" phone – doesn't change that.
The viewing angles are still awful, making the screen almost impossible to see. The colors fade, there is no such thing as "black" here, only dark gray.
The only positive thing I can say for the Alcatel 1 (2021) display is that it is easy to use with one hand, which is a strange concept for most modern Android phones. It is also not hindered by any form of incision, which is always great.
Camera
5MP main camera
2MP selfie camera
Awesome pictures anyway
Alcatel 1 (2021) packs the same camera setup as before, meaning a single 5MP rear camera and a 2MP selfie camera.
There is no good at all. The main camera takes blurry blurry images even in reasonable outdoor conditions, and really struggles with any large contrasts in light and shadow. There is no form of HDR compensation at all.
Projecting light produces noisier and noisier results, and shooting at night is a no-go. Needless to say, there is no dedicated night mode.
Often with less common smartphone cameras, it's common to issue a warning that it's okay in social media posts, but I wouldn't make such a damn compromise with subdued praise this time. It's just a terrible thing.
A selfie camera is even worse, producing noisy images with flat subjects and a dull skin tone. Yak.
performance
Mediatek MT6739 old, creak
Only 1 GB of RAM
Very poor reference results
If it's bad enough for the Alcatel 1 (2021) to keep the weak screen of its three-year-old twin, consider the fact that it also packs the same Mediatek MT6739 processor.
I said from the winter depths of 2018: "It's another example of specs that seem to come from past smartphones." In early 2023, this ingredient is practically a fossil.
Unsurprisingly, Genshin Impact won't even be installed on Alcatel 1 (2021). What's even more surprising is that Vampire Survivors won't – a more modern but technically less demanding two-dimensional game.
The likely culprit of this is the Alcatel 1 (2021) diminutive 1GB of RAM. We usually refuse when the phone has 2GB or even 3GB of RAM these days, so 1GB is a bit scary.
Needless to say, the performance here is horrific in every respect. Apps take a long time to load, lists squeak and groan, and everything seems to move at a slow pace. Don't expect to jump into the camera app when you spot an opportunity to shoot either.
With that in mind, the standard scores of the Alcatel 1 device (2021) make reading ugly. Geekbench 5's multi-core average score of 165 and a single-core score of 79 puts Alcatel 1 (2021) firmly at the bottom of the smartphone performance league table.
You can get 16GB of internal storage as standard, which makes you feel almost compact by modern standards. Even phones under £200 have started charging with 128GB of internal storage.
Android 11 (Go version) comes installed out of the box. This is the main (and perhaps the only) change from Alcatel 1 (2018), which shipped with Android 8.1.
This is dangerously clean and stripped of Google's operating system. You'll find lightweight alternatives to the usual fare, like the gallery app instead of Google Photos. Obviously, this is in an effort to keep things moving with a noticeable moment despite the modest hardware.
It's a useless gesture, as it turns out, because Alcatel 1 (2021) is an absolute chore to use. But there's nothing to scrutinize the unadorned Android Go OS, which does its best to stay out of your way.
Battery life
Small 2000mAh battery lasts for a day of light use
Media playback drains power at alarmingly fast
Charging takes hours
Like its predecessor, the Alcatel 1 (2021) comes with only a 2000mAh battery. That's less than half the capacity of most modern Android phones.
Of course, with such an unusual, dim and pixel-sparse small screen, such a battery has to perform much less work than usual. With very limited performance, meanwhile, you won't want to use the phone for more than light phone calls. According to these conditions, you will pass a whole day without major problems.
However, any form of media will affect it severely. An hour of Netflix streaming has exhausted 18% of full charge, while an hour of YouTube Music streaming has exhausted 7%. By comparison, the Moto G22 (an affordable model phone) lost 3% and 1%, respectively, in the same tests.
Continuing the old feel of the phone, you will need to recharge using the included Micro USB charger. Despite the phone's small battery, this takes an absolute life. I put it in charge position with 43% left in the tank, and it took two hours to hit 93%.