| Alcatel One Touch Hero hands-on: 1080p display, stylus, e-ink case and more Sep 6th 2013, 20:49, by Robert Nelson Similar to what we saw with Acer, Alcatel had quite a few device announcements coming out of IFA in Berlin. The Alcatel devices included several smartphones and a tablet, however it seems quite a bit of time and attention went into the One Touch Hero. This particular handset is sporting a 6-inch 1080p display and powered by a quad-core 1.5GHz processor. Perhaps more interesting though, Alcatel has released quite a selection of One Touch Hero accessories. 
One point that is hard to miss with the One Touch Hero is the stylus, which sits in a spot that should be familiar to those who have checked out the Galaxy Note. Simply out, the bottom corner of the One Touch Hero holds the stylus. The stylus is capacitive and when removed from the holder, a floating widget opens up in the upper right hand corner. Said widget offers shortcuts to a note app and also to a calculator app. 
   Before we get into the remaining specs for the handset itself, how about we shift over to that e-ink case. We saw something similar from PocketBook for the Galaxy S 4, but in this instance the case is coming direct from Alcatel. There really isn’t much to this one, well, other than how it allows you to send items over for viewing which should in turn help to conserve some battery life. You can see a few images of this setup in the gallery below.    Another case that was released for the One Touch Hero is called the Magic Flip. This one is a flip-style case that offers notifications by way of a series of LED indicator lights. These lights are on the front of the case and should be able to help prioritize whether you need to immediately react to the buzzing phone. Looking back at the phone itself and in addition to the 6-inch display and quad-core processor, the Hero also has 2GB of RAM, a 3400 mAh battery, 2 megapixel front-facing camera and 13 megapixel rear-facing camera. The internal storage is either 8GB of 16GB, though that will vary depending on which model you have. The 8GB model is a single-SIM card and the 16GB model is a dual-SIM. Both models also have a microSD card slot. 
Otherwise, some of the remaining accessories for the One Touch Hero include TV Link and a pico projector. The TV Link option, as the name would imply, will allow you to project your phone to your television. Basically, you can mirror the phone display on your television. Shifting over to the pico projector and we find a device that is capable of shining a mirror image of the display to more than 70-inches using 12 lumens. With that, Alcatel is expected to have the One Touch Hero smartphone available in October. Needless to say, we have yet to see which markets the handset will be available or how much the handset is expected to cost. Aside from Alcatel, make sure to remain focused on our IFA hub for more news and hands-on coverage coming out of Berlin.       |  | Alcatel One Touch Idol ALPHA hands-on Sep 6th 2013, 20:38, by Cory Gunther Alcatel and their entire line of smartphones hasn’t slowed down. The company is still releasing them by the truckload, but this year they’re going to offer some top-tier models as well with a focus on quality. Instead of all mid-range devices. The One Touch Idol ALPHA we mentioned earlier this week is one of those. With a blend between the iPhone and an Xperia, the Alpha had some cool things going for it worth pointing out. 
For one, we’ve got a beautiful aluminum design here, instead of the usual cheap plastics. The entire design with curved edges is a nice change of pace, even if it looks extremely similar to an iPhone on the sides. Then the top and bottom have a new translucent design for notification lights, similar to recent Sony Xperia models. The Idol ALPHA comes with a 4.7-inch edge-to-edge 720p HD display, and a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor packing 1GB of RAM. All of this is tucked inside a 7.5mm thin and super comfortable aluminum shell. We’re really liking the design and texture on the back, too. The new 3D diamond-cut system for the frame was impressive, and the overall build quality was as well. Something we didn’t expect from Alcatel. The bottom was our favorite part, and a nice touch. It’s made of something that isn’t plastic or glass, and the entire top has the same design. On bottom there’s three LED’s in the translucent design that glows for notifications. And makes the phone appear to almost be floating. It was rather neat to see in action. However, the 3 Android navigation buttons you see in the pictures didn’t actually function, as they were on-screen where the black bezel is. So we were a bit confused. 
Overall it rocks 16GB of storage, an 8 megapixel rear camera, and sadly only a small 2,000 mAh battery. The specs are middle of the road, but this was a step up for the company, and we like where they’re headed. Oh, and we can’t forget the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on board, which ran as expected even with the UI skin completely customized. More pics below and a video is coming up quick.          | | Acer Iconia A3 budget tablet hands-on Sep 6th 2013, 20:03, by Cory Gunther Earlier this week right before the IFA tech event kicked off in Berlin, the folks from Acer announced a slew of devices. One being a brand new 10-inch budget Android tablet, and we have our hands all over it to see if it’s worth your hard earned cash. Below we’re giving you a quick look at the newly announced Acer Iconia A3 slate. 
With powerhouse quad-core Tegra 4 tablets and the Nexus 7 flooding the market, Acer is taking a different approach. Even though we’re not hearing anything about a US release yet for this particular device, it’s worth looking at. So, lets break it down. The Iconia A3 sports a 10-inch standard 1280 x 800 resolution display, and is powered by an aging and unknown Cortex A7 quad-core running at 1.2 GHz. So certainly nothing special, but at least it won’t cost an arm and a leg. The A3 is all about entertainment in the living room, according to Acer, as it sports some neat new audio tweaks and Dolby Digital Plus virtualized 5.1 channel surround sound. Add that to the two side speakers for a great audio experience, then HDMI-out to stream to the big screen. The Android 4.2 Jelly Bean slate has 16 or 32GB of storage, 5 megapixel camera, WiFi, and a 3G model is reportedly coming.    So how is it? Mediocre at best. This is a budget slate with mid-range specs, and is aimed at being a wallet-friendly device to enjoy on the couch or the kids TV room. The build quality overall was decent from our limited time with it, but it wasn’t anything mind blowing. The speakers actually got quite loud, even in a room such as this here at IFA in Berlin, and we’re guessing it will sound even better in the privacy of your own home. It wasn’t the lightest being over 600g, but the 10.5mm thin device felt pretty good in our hands, if not a bit chunky. We’re hearing a mid October release for €249 in Europe, Middle Africa and other regions. We’ll update when an official release date is announced.     | | Acer Liquid S2 hands-on: 4K video recording from a smartphone Sep 6th 2013, 19:58, by Robert Nelson Acer had a few device announcements coming out of IFA. One of those was the Liquid S2 smartphone, which Acer unveiled as the first smartphone with 4K video recording. While that is obviously a stand-out feature at the moment, it does come with the catch of actually having another device capable of watching those video files. 
Anyway, starting off with the camera. Flipping the Liquid S2 over and looking at the back of the phone there is one item that you cannot miss — the camera lens. While not as large as some of the other smartphones with higher-end cameras — the circle that makes up the lens is certainly on the larger side.    That aside, Acer has the Liquid S2 equipped with a 13 megapixel camera that can not only capture 4K video, but also record Full HD quality video at 60 frames-per-second and at 4x slow motion. The Liquid S2 is also capable of capturing 27 megapixel panorama images. And for those who think Acer may have given all the attention to the rear-facing camera, worry not as there is also a 2.2 megapixel camera on the front side. Shift the handset over and you will find the 6-inch display, which is IPS and Full HD in resolution. The Liquid S2 is powered by a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor which is paired with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot. Users will also find a 3300 mAh battery, as well as the basics such as WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0 and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.    Aside from running Jelly Bean, the Liquid S2 also has some Acer specifics in terms of software. And again, some of these go back to the camera. For example, the handset is able to capture images directly from the lockscreen and has a Smart Best Shot feature which captures multiple images giving you the opportunity to pick the best one. Users will also find a Favorite Mode which allows you to save up to five profiles, Freehand Capture for cropping, Live Screen and Exposure Control. Anyway, while the handset was on display and Acer has offered a full and complete set of specs — we have yet to hear anything in terms of pricing. Acer has said the handset would be available in October, however they have yet to say which markets should be keeping an eye out for the release.     | |
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