Alcatel 3L (2020) Review

Regardless of the price of a phone we're reviewing, there are several core factors that we think all phones should deliver on. Whether you pay $2,000 or $200, you should expect your phone to perform everyday tasks reliably, have a screen that you can easily read and interact with, and have enough battery life so that you can do all of these things without keeping your eye on the battery meter all day long.

When looking at phone costing lass than $300, we usually find at least one of these core areas lacking, if not all three. The Alcatel 3L is a surprising exception to the rule. It is a truly budget phone that exceeds expectations in almost all areas.

The standout feature, and most surprising, is the camera. Taking photos with a $200 camera is almost always disappointing, so much that we tend to give cheap phones a pass mark for awful photos. What more should you expect?

But this is far from the case with the Alcatel 3L. On the back of the phone you find a triple lens array, similar to much more expensive models, with a 48-megapixel sensor, a 5MP ultrawide lens and 2-megapixel sensor dedicated to super close-up macro photography.

This all sounds like a lot, but the camera interface keeps it simple and automatically switches between the lenses as you need them. It has a dedicated HDR toggle (which we usually leave switched on) and some funky shooting modes, include a cool light trails long exposure option.

But all of this would be for naught if the photos sucked; but they absolutely do not suck. The colour in the shots we've taken looks natural, but veer slightly towards oversaturation. This is something that most people will agree looks pretty good - the extra colour helps the photos to 'pop'.

Auto-focus is good, though a bit slow, which can make it hard to shoot fast moving objects, like toddlers and pets. You need to be a little patient as the camera sorts out focus and processes each photo, but not so much that it becomes tedious. If you examine the photos on a computer screen you can see a slight softness across the image, though it is nearly impossible to see this on the phone's display.

The 6.2-inch screen on the Alcatel 3L sounds lower quality on paper, but is anything but in person. Its 720 x 1520 pixel resolution is millions of pixels fewer than you'll get in the latest Samsung phone, but you'd be hard-pressed to spot it with the naked eye. This screen is bright and vibrant, in fact if I was to critique the screen in any way, I'd say it seemed too bright at times.

A lower powered MediaTek processor in the Alcatel 3L is one of the only clear drawbacks in this excellent package, and even this is perfectly usable for most everyday tasks. If you're currently using a more expensive phone model, you'll spot the difference immediately. The phone takes longer to boot up before it is usable, and apps take longer to load. Perhaps the most annoying thing was performance lag when web browsing. A large number of webpages are designed to load as you read them, with elements lower on the page waiting for you to scroll before they are rendered. With a slower processor, this means lag with each swipe of the screen on media-heavy webpages.

If there's an upside to a lower resolution screen and a lower processor, it is extended battery life. The Alcatel 3L packs a big 4,000mAh capacity battery and we found that this would provide us with well over a day of charge, sometimes nearing two full days. It has a couple of power saving modes too, but we don't suggest using them as you need the processor running at full steam to get through the day.

At just $200, we absolutely recommend the Alcatel 3L. All of the core smartphone elements work perfectly well, and the big 4,000mAh battery keeps the lights on for days. But it is the outstanding camera performance that makes this recommendation such a no-brainer. There are few phones that can match the value of this handset.

Joseph Hanlon

Editorial Director | X | LinkedIn

Joe Hanlon has been immersed in mobile phones, plans and the internet for over a decade, having written for publications like CNET, Techradar, Gizmodo and Lifehacker. He steers the editorial ship and makes sure that we are always serving up the most useful guides and recommendations. If you ever bump into Joe on the street, don't be afraid to ask for a phone recommendation. It's embarrassing how much he enjoys talking about this stuff. He also loves listening to podcasts, so feel free to email Joe with recommendations.

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