Alcatel 5 Hands On Preview

What's the Alcatel 5?

The Alcatel 5 is easily the unique device in Alcatel's 2018 smartphone family. Much like the rest of the company's new devices, the Alcatel 5 has an extra-tall 18:9 display but in a rather outlandish form-factor. 

It only has a top bezel. 

The phone's three other-sides are practically bezel-free, leaving it with what I guess we're going to call a forehead. It's like the iPhone X notch on steroids. 

I expect the Alcatel 5 forehead to elicit similar reactions to the iPhone X notch. It will be divisive, but hey, at least it's different. While I find the forehead a touch too big aesthetically, you tend to forget its there when actually using the phone. Again, just as with the iPhone X notch. 

Alcatel 5 first impressions

Whether your love or hate the forehead, the Alcatel 5 is a lovely little package that feels more premium than its price-tag suggests. It's a touch ostentatious in gold (what isn't?), but there's also a metallic black option that's a little more refined. The heavily curved back is a nice touch, and makes the Alcatel 5 ideal for one-handed usage. 

Facial recognition is another "flagship feature" you'll find in the Alcatel 5, but it's kinda just okay. I found the tech could be a little inconsistent; you can use your face to unlock it pretty quickly a great deal of the time, but there were a few situations where the Alcatel 5 just wouldn't recognise my face no matter how many times I tried. Hopefully this is just a pre-release software glitch. 

The Alcatel 5 doesn't have raise to wake, so you'll still need to hit the power button before the phone starts looking for your face. As such, it almost feels like you should just the fingerprint reader instead; you're tapping something either way, and at least the fingerprint reader is reliable in all conditions. The fingerprint is safer too, given the Alcatel 5 is only looking for an image. 

Camera quality isn't bad for the asking price, but lowlight situations will be challenging. You can get pretty good shots outdoors with a nice amount of contrast and dynamic range, but you'll pick up motion blur as soon as you start to lose light. 

Powered by a decent eight-core CPU, the Alcatel 5 runs well. It's not flagship fast, but it never felt noticeably slow in my admittedly brief hands on time. 

Oddly, the Alcatel 5 runs Android Nougat, rather than the newer Android Oreo. It's not necessarily weird to see budget smartphones not running the latest Google operating system, but the cheaper Alcatel 3V is. The Alcatel 5 is however coming to Australia a bit later than the rest of the world, so fingers crossed it gets an update by then. 

As with the Alcatel 3V, the Alcatel 5 is a budget phone that doesn't look budget. If you like the look, it's certainly the most unique phone you'll be able to get for under $300. 

Alcatel 5 camera samples

Alcatel 5 pricing and availability

The Alcatel 5 will be available in Australia in mid-to-late 2018 in a choice of black or gold. It will set you back $299. Alcatel has yet to confirm where you'll be able to buy the Alcatel 5, but it will be sold outright, rather than on a contract or as a subsidised prepaid handset. 

Alcatel Australia contributed funding toward WhistleOut's trip to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress 2018. 

Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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