Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra first impressions

The Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra is now enjoying the title of world’s slimmest smartphone. At 6.45mm, it beats the iPhone 5 by more than a millimeter (7.6mm) and the recently launched Galaxy S4 (7.9mm).

The profile of the Idol Ultra is so thin that Alcatel was forced to sacrifice the 3.5mm headphone jack just to achieve the form factor. The work-around is to provide a 3.5mm jack to micro-USB adaptor, just make sure you don’t lose it.

The thin-ness is actually measured around the base of the handset, not the area around the camera which protrudes a little bit above the back panel. The chassis has that soft, matte finish that feels a little rubbery, especially on the back side.

Since the Idol Ultra has a unibody design, the SIM card slot is accessible via a flip-top cover on the right side while the micro-USB is placed at the top with a rubber stopper. The only physical buttons are the power button at the top and the volume rocket.

Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra specs:
4.65-inch AMOLED display @ 1280×720 pixels, 315ppi
MediaTek MT6577+ 1.2GHz dual-core processor
1GB RAM
16GB internal memory
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS w/ A-GPS support
8 MP camera w/ LED flash, 720p@30fps
1.3MP front-facing camera
Android 4.1 Jellybean
Li-Ion 1,820 mAh battery
134.4 x 68.5 x 6.45 mm (dimensions)
115g (weight)

There’s no microSD card support here so you’re stuck with the internal storage. Everything else looks pretty decent in the hardware side and we’re glad it runs on Jellybean right out of the box.

It’s also nice to note that Alcatel is doing something on the software side as well. The UI and icons, and even the lock screen, looks pretty neat. So far, we’re pretty impressed with the entire packaging of the device.

The handset is available via Sun Cellular and comes free with Plan 999 (see more details here). More on this once we’re done testing it in a week or two (we also have its sibling, the One Touch Idol). Watch out for the full review soon.