Alcatel, a French manufacturer of mobile devices that Nokia owns, is renowned for producing user-friendly and reasonably priced smartphones and tablets. Although its smartphones and devices may not be particularly unique in terms of features or specifications, they are reasonably priced and won’t break the bank. The Alcatel 3T 8, one of its recently released tablets, has 4G VoLTE. It is included in the price range that begins with mid-range smartphones. After using it for a few days, we can say that it works well for reading on the move and consuming media, but there are several areas where it falls short. Review of the Alcatel 3T 8 4G tablet is available here.
Summary of Contents
Design and Display
The tablet has a very straightforward and recognisable appearance. The 8 in its name refers to an 8-inch screen, which is complemented by substantial top and bottom bezels (with thinner bezels on the sides). The device’s front has no tactile buttons, but it does have a 5-megapixel camera for video calls. When the device is unlocked, three capacitive keys labelled back, home, and recent apps show at the bottom of the display.
A camera with an 8-megapixel sensor and no flash is located on the rear. On the back of the gadget, underneath the speaker grille, is a sizable business logo. Speaking about the device’s back, it has a sizable polycarbonate fingerprint magnet. The device’s right side is devoid of buttons but does have a SIM card and a microSD card slot. The device’s power button and volume rocker controls are located on its left side. The Alcatel 3T 8 tablet does not feature a fingerprint reader. The location of the device’s buttons is a little odd; the power button is above the volume rockers, making it possible for you to mistakenly hit the power button for the volume-up button.
A 3.5mm headphone jack, a noise-cancelling microphone, and a USB port for charging are all located on the device’s top. However, the Alcatel 3T 8 does not have an earpiece on the front of the smartphone, making typical phone calls impossible. You must use the loudspeaker or an earpiece when making or receiving calls or video calls in order to hear what the other person is saying. If you wish to use this tablet to make voice calls, bring an earphone or headphones with you because we would never do so in front of others.
Its display has a resolution of 1,280 x 720. Overall, watching movies and TV shows on it is a delight, although YouTube videos can only be seen in 720p, which can be frustrating if you want to watch full HD or 4K videos. Additionally, since it does not handle 4K video playback at all, 4K videos exhibit significant lag and frame dips.
According to the manufacturer, the device has a 400-hour standby period on a 4G network and an 8.35-hour video streaming capacity. Overall, it can be claimed that the Alcatel 3T 8 tablet is suitable for binge watching television shows or other media due of its long-lasting battery, which we enjoyed.
Performance and Camera
The Alcatel3T 8 tablet is powered by a 1.5GHz MediaTek MT8765A quad-core processor, which is the important portion. There are two versions of it: one has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, the other has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. We have the 32GB internal storage and 3GB of RAM configuration. Both of the device’s variations allow microSD cards up to 128GB. A microSD card is therefore required if you want to save large files and movies on the device, but doing so adds to the cost. It is simpler to switch between apps and maintain more than two apps open at once when you have 3GB of RAM.
As previously noted, this tablet would be best suited if your demands are media-related; playing games on it is not a fun experience. On the smartphone, standard games operate nicely, but graphically demanding games, such as PUBG or Asphalt 9, experience significant frame drops and lags even at the lowest settings. So it’s not advised to use this device for gaming.
The Alcatel 3T 8’s 4,080mAh battery has a typical runtime of 1.5 days on a single charge. But because the included charger only produces 5V, it takes around 4 hours to fully charge the device, which could be annoying.
The Alcatel 3T 8’s operating system is Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, and there is currently no Android 9.0 Pie update available for it. You will have to rely on the traditional methods of unlocking the device with patterns, pins, or passwords since there is no fingerprint scanner or face unlock on the device.
The Alcatel 3T 8 tablet has a parental control that is already pre-installed on it. It was designed with kids in mind. You may set a timer to limit how long children can use a device as well as lock any apps or the internet that you don’t want them to use.
There are several pre-installed apps on the smartphone, such as Google, Facebook, Painter, etc., and some bloatware. Unfortunately, there is no built-in gallery application for viewing images, so you must use Google Photos or download a third-party gallery application from the Play Store.
The device has a single back-firing speaker that isn’t particularly loud or dim, but it’s enough for most purposes. In other words, while the device’s speakers perform their job, we would have like a little more volume on the tablet.
The Alcatel 3T 8 4G tablet has an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. The smartphone performs as expected during daylight photography, however the selfie camera disappoints because it seems like an outdated VGA camera. Not expecting much from the smartphone, but both the back and front cameras’ nighttime low-light performance is subpar. Low light photography shouldn’t be done with the gadget because the images it takes are distorted and indistinct.
Regarding the benchmarks, it received scores of 591 for single core and 1,648 for multi core on Geekbench. While achieving a total score of 39,389 on the AnTuTu Benchmark, it scored 19,442 on the CPU and 2,546 on the GPU. Given the price it sells for, the scores are incredibly low; other smartphones with similar price tags offer superior specs and a significantly higher benchmark score.
Final Verdict
As previously noted, the Alcatel 3T 8 4G tablet is a gadget that would be suitable for media consumers who mostly use their smartphones to consume and watch content. Its only selling feature is a screen that is larger than a typical smartphone yet smaller and lighter than a laptop. People who desire performance-based tasks out of the gadget shouldn’t look for it as they would be dissatisfied because it has poor gaming performance and can’t do other demanding work.
But this is the gadget for you if you want to read books while travelling or watch movies on YouTube without worrying about your battery running out.
Pros:
- Good battery
- Decent Multimeida experience
- Voice calling facility
Cons:
- No Full HD Playback
- Charging time is over 4 hours
- Can t play graphically intensive games
