The cheap and cheerful Alcatel OT-990 smart phone will be exclusively on O2 from August. The network is making the budget Android blower available on pay as you go tariffs for £99 and also on pay monthly deals.
We took a look at the OT-990, along with Alcatel's other cheaper phone offerings, back in February. Dare we suggest it's a little like one of the older iPhones? Okay, it may not be quite as sleek, but it does have a 3.5-inch touchscreen with 320x480-pixel resolution (as per the iPhone 3GS), a 5-megapixel camera with video recording and LED flash, plus a front-facing camera.
It uses a 600MHz processor which, for a sub-£100 phone, is pretty good. Best of all, it runs Android. We're assured it will come with 2.3 Gingerbread by the time it launches. Alcatel preinstalls 20 apps, supposedly to save new users the hassle of negotiating the Android Market. You might call it bloatware.
The phone's back casing is a rubbery affair which may not be to everyone's taste. At least you'll keep a good grip on it. It will come in a range of colours, so you're not stuck with the regal purple of the phone we played with in the pictures above.
It seems the mobile networks are waking up to the fact that many people want a smart phone without being tied to a contract or making a hefty down payment. A recent JD Power satisfaction survey found that two in five pre-pay users now own a smart phone.
Earlier this month, Vodafone announced its own-brand Smart Android phone aimed at the same market.
While the OT-990 may not have you frothing at the mouth in anticipation for the next two and a half months, it has potential. It may not run your Android apps as smoothly as smart phones kitted out with dual and quad-core processors, but it'll have a damn good crack at it -- and be an awful lot less painful in your wallet. In the meantime, have a butchers' at our hands-on photos and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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Comments 5
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haxorqueen 27 May, 2011 09:32
same price as the san fransisco but more features. sounds like a great budget android phone for new users.
jaidensmith01 27 May, 2011 12:00
wow....android phone at such low prices....its good but just wondering how the Alcatel phone is going to be as compared to HTC, Samsung, Apple....
markymarkymarky 6 December, 2011 21:20
I brought this Alcatel 990 from o2 shop, brought the phone for £89.99 payg, plus o2 shop gave me £20 shopping voucher back to spend at boots or HMV or argos and pc world, so the phone cost £69.99.
What a great phone, large screen, good battery life, nice phone works well, love the phone, plus it dont cost a lot and it better than a HTC WILDFIRE.
Alcatel 990 is amazing smartphone, go and get one from o2, they are brilliant.
anonymous 29 February, 2012 20:15
I love my acatel 990,good size screen,works very well, got great apps.I payed £99-99 for it does as mutch as i phone4 does but look at price of that.
anonymous 19 January, 2013 19:59
love my new alcatel but i dont understand why there are some chinese application in so how can i do to solve it and i dont have facebook twitter google or gmail application