Alcatel OT-710D review

I did a video review, and it turned out like crap thanks to my wonderfully stupid idea to shoot with the HTC Snap, which is a F'N piece of trash. It is everything but to my liking, and I am NOT uploading this. Also, for the record, I have absent-mindedly uploaded a couple of vids on my own YT account instead of the BSS Channel, and I don't really feel like uploading it a second time, but they are unlisted as I want to keep this work private and share it only with you guys and gals. I am JusticePain666 on YT.

Anyways, on to the Alcatel OT-710D review! This is one of the additions to my collection I am the most proud of, exception made of my Keitai -- the SoftBank Samsung. Alcatel phones are common in Europe, but not so in North America. Cincinnati Bell sells a couple of models, but in Canada, there was never a single Alcatel phone released, and it is a DAMN SHAME.

Formfactor: The OT-710D is a slab, touch screen device. Physical call/end call keys, and physical volume toggle, and that's it.

Screen: 240*320 TFT touchscreen. This screen is a resistive touch screen, and I admit I had some doubt for a moment. Resisitive touch screens use a membrane between the plastic cover and the screen to detect where the tap was and interact. I must say, though, this is one of the smoothest resistive touchscreens I have seen. It's not as good as a capacitive touchscreen, but it works and does the job just fine.

Signal: The OT-710D is compatible with all four GSM bands in Europe and North America -- 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz and 1900MHZ. The OT-710D holds a very good signal, tested on the Rogers GSM network.

Sound/call quality: Conversations sounded clear and crisp, and I will just say it shows how much better Europeans are at making GSM phones than everybody else. NO ANNOYING GSM BACKGROUND BUZZ AT ALL. NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL! This is VERY impressive! The thing that was NOT impressive, though, was listening to music with headphones. The maximum volume is LAUGHABLY low. I have a hard time listening to music while riding to work. However, with my Bluetooth headphones? Loud and crisp sound, the only gripes I'd have is that you must select the play through Bluetooth option, and that when a song starts, the speakerphone will play about a second of audio before routing it to my headphones. The OT-710D is overall a very capable music player.

Battery life: Roughly a week with one SIM card. The OT-710D is a dual-SIM phone, and using two SIM cards in the phone kills the battery within 3-4 days tops, it is a very handy function to have, one line for buisness, and the other a personal line, for example.

Camera: 2MP. No flash, so night shots are a little harder, but otherwise the camera does the job just fine, IMO, but I am not a megapixel freak. Since there is no physical camera button, pictures must be taken by touching the screen. No big deal, but a physical key would have been nice. The OT-710D also does video capture, but I haven't yet tested it yet.

Memory: The phone has a microSD slot and played nice with my 8GB microSD.

The bottom line: The phone has that European design I like, and it is also a superb phone that performs very well overall. Dual-SIM is also a nice addition, now I can merge both my work line and my personal line on one phone.

Final score: A solid 9.5/10. Definitively was worth it to add this one to my collection.