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Having the port on-center may not be unique, but sometimes there are good reasons for everyone doing the same thing. Overall, the phone looks good. Still, we would have liked the power button to be in a more helpful location, and the USB-C port to be centered along the back. A fingerprint sensor would have been nice too — and the lack of one puts other midrange phones, like the Moto G5S Plus and Honor 7X, ahead.
It is interesting that Alcatel has chosen to go for a MediaTek chip here — the previous Idol 5 and the Idol 4S both offered processors from Qualcomm, and most competitors also stick with the Qualcomm series , save for the Honor 6X which uses a Huawei-built Kirin chip. The basic user interface is quick and snappy, and while there were some stutters and even an app crash when playing Asphalt 8 , in general issues were uncommon. Now, day to day use is more important than benchmarks — but benchmarks still serve a purpose in indicating how long a phone might last.
Here are the results it achieved in benchmark tests:. Specs aside, the overall software experience on this phone is pretty good — though you will have to put up with some annoying bloatware.
Here are the results it achieved in benchmark tests:. Got young kids? I also prefer the Idol 5's narrower perspective and shorter depth of field, which is well suited for portraits. The Idol 5's panel reached nits at its maximum setting when we measured it with our light meter, placing it comfortably above the nit Honor 7X. GSM Arena. If the Idol 5 has one definite advantage over its competition, though, it's NFC support. But it's still classy and unique, despite Cricket's obnoxious branding on the back.
The phone ships with Android 7. One cool feature that we enjoyed was the pre-loaded Color Catcher app, which allows you to take a photo of your surroundings, after which the device will change the color of all your apps to match that color-scheme. Everything from app icons to wallpaper are changed — including the icons of third-party apps. As mentioned, there are quite a few pre-loaded apps on the phone that you may not want. Thankfully, many of them can be uninstalled if you so choose.
Both the Idol 5 and 5S run Android Nougat 7. GSM Arena. Best Displays , for University Students. Two new Alcatel Idol smartphones are now available for European consumers. The Idol 5 is a budget device with a quad-core processor and limited storage space, while the Idol 5 features higher specs including an octa-core CPU and twice as much internal memory. The differences between the two models come down to fit and finish, rather than overall appearance. The phone's backside has undergone the most noticeable transformation.
Alcatel has replaced the Idol 5S' glass rear panel with a bluish-silver aluminum enclosure that is rounder and more comfortable to hold. Atop this slab of metal sits the phone's 5. The metal frame still extends beyond the boundaries of the screen, and that's where you'll find the phone's earpiece and microphone that also double as stereo front-facing speakers.
Along the right side below the volume rocker is the Boom key — a multifunction button that houses a number of shortcuts, which you can reprogram via the Settings menu. Overall, it's not a very fresh look anymore, considering Alcatel took the same approach with the Idol 3 and Idol 4.
But it's still classy and unique, despite Cricket's obnoxious branding on the back. Budget buyers have been conditioned to expect disappointment in the design department, but the Idol 5's symmetrical aesthetic and gleaming, chamfered edges should leave customers with nothing to complain about. Well, almost nothing.
There is that issue of the missing fingerprint sensor, which you'll find on the global version of the Idol 5 and Idol 5S, but not on this Cricket-exclusive U. The omission puts the device at a severe disadvantage compared with rivals like the Honor 7X and the Moto G5 Plus , that match or undercut the Idol 5's price while still delivering the essential security measure.
Alcatel has once again gifted one of its budget offerings with a great display. The 5.
It was a good screen for the money then, and even better now. The screen's greatest asset is its brightness. The Idol 5's panel reached nits at its maximum setting when we measured it with our light meter, placing it comfortably above the nit Honor 7X. Colorful, dynamic scenes look excellent on the Idol 5, as I discovered watching the first trailer for Ready Player One. If it's more saturation you're after, a Vivid option in the display settings will give you exactly that, though I found the standard profile intense enough. The Idol 5 reproduced percent of the sRGB color gamut. That's impressive in comparison to the Moto G5 Plus' percent, though the Idol's hues aren't quite as accurate.
Whereas Motorola's phone achieved a Delta-E score of 0. Numbers closer to 0 are better. In our review of the Idol 5S, we called its performance "fine, but nothing special. Worse than "nothing special" doesn't exactly instill confidence.
Common tasks take just a hair longer on the Idol 5 than you'd hope. The scant amount of memory means apps don't remain in the background for very long, so you never know if they'll be ready for you at a moment's notice. When they aren't, you'll switch to an app and hang on the splash screen for half a second or more. Less demanding games, such as competitive endless runner Sonic Forces Speed Battle, run smoothly.
But graphic-intensive titles didn't fare as well. Arcade racer Asphalt Nitro chugged along at a very low frame rate, rendering it unplayable.