Last week, Digicel launched its line of Alcatel budget phones. The company's green-hued rival wasn't mentioned, save for single dig delivered with relish by chief executive officer John Delves, who noted that his company "still had the only 4G network in T&T."
Though you won't hear anyone from Digicel say it, the Alcatel line is positioned clear response to bMobile's exclusive on Blu's budget phones. The Alcatel handsets offer competitive pricing and a much richer range of options, many of them running a version of the popular Android operating system.
Some of the cheaper models are "feature phones," which offer connectivity to Facebook and Twitter, but you won't find any of the increasingly popular features and flexibility of the Android software ecosystem on them.
The most notable of this new range of Italian-designed phones were to be found at the extremes of the Alcatel line. The One Touch Simple strips fancy features in favour of functional design aimed at older users, offering extra large type both on the buttons and screen of the compact device. There's a large "SOS button" on the back that can be set up to summon help. It's a sensibly designed device that might well save a life.
The top of the line One Touch Ultra sports a handsome 4.3 inch screen and a clever, if overly fussy 3D carousel interface to switch application screens. It's a full Android smartphone, but one running a borderline ancient version of the OS (Gingerbread, 2.3) and a single 1.4Ghz processor that should serve for most undemanding use.
Be warned, though, that some newer Android software demands faster processors and it's easy to fill the 512MB of RAM the Ultra ships with, so be sure to budget for a MicroSD card of at least 4GB and be ready to learn how to transfer apps to it. Mark Lyndersay