MWC 2013: Alcatel brings the artillery with One Touch Idol X and One Touch Scribe

Alcatel is not a name one would associate with high-end smartphones, but the China-based company has dropped a couple of bombshells in the form of the One Touch Idol X and the two One Touch Scribe phones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Let’s start with the Idol X. One feature that should immediately grab your attention is the 5-inch, 1080p LCD display. Alcatel has also managed to reduce the bezel size around the display—something many top-tier manufacturers are also showing off on their offerings, most notably the HTC One. The Idol X is no slouch either. It has a quad-core 1.2GHz processor of unknown make, but going by the specs of the One Touch Scribe, it's most likely the MediaTek MT6589.

The One Touch Idol X

The Idol X also has 2000mAh battery, which we feel might not make a very long-lasting companion. Thankfully, the back cover looks like you can remove it, so you can carry extra juice. However, you do get a pretty-close-to-stock Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with minor customisations. 

Here’s another look at the key specs:

• 5-inch LCD with full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution
• HSPA, EDGE/GPRS
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• GPS with A-GPS support
• 13 megapixel camera on the back, 1080p video recording
• 16GB of internal storage further expandable up to 32GB

In case you're wondering, the Idol X does have a front-facing camera, but Alcatel hasn't mentioned anything about its type or sensor. The handset is also incredibly thin at just 7.1mm in depth. Don’t get your hopes up, though; there's no word on pricing or availability yet. The One Touch Idol X will come in a range of bright and peppy colours, beginning with blue, yellow and red.

The One Touch Scribe is actually two phones with some differences in specs. The Scribe HD is a 5-incher with a 720p display. It’s powered by MediaTek’s quad-core MT6580 processor. The Scribe HD is getting its second showing in Barcelona, after a CES début. There is an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a microSD card slot with which you can add to the 4GB of internal memory. However, the battery is an encouraging 2,500mAh one, which should ideally last through the day. The Scribe HD comes with Alcatel's own take on the stylus and, according to the company, it brings a lot of functionality such as movie editing, handwriting recognition, note-taking and sketching.

The One Touch Scribe HD

The other Scribe smartphone is the One Touch Scribe Easy. It has a magnetic MagicFlip cover that holds the same stylus and protects the screen. It comes in various colours: Flash Red, Fresh Blue, and Flash Yellow.

The One Touch Scribe Easy

But the rest of the phone's specs are thoroughly mid-range. There's a 5-inch display with WVGA resolution à la the Galaxy Grand. It’s powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and has 512MB of RAM. Just like its Scribe sibling, the Easy has 4GB of internal memory plus a microSD slot. On the back is a 5 megapixel camera. Again, Alcatel hasn't mentioned anything about the front-facing cameras on the two phones, except that they're present.