Alcatel Idol 3 (5.5) and Idol 3 (4.7) review: Two phones, one soul

Telephony and messaging

The contacts manager on the Alcatel Idol 3 is a standard Lollipop affair. The app features tabbed interface, which displays all contacts and the favorites.

The contacts manager

You can sync with multiple accounts including Google and Exchange. A button to add a new contact is constantly present in the bottom right corner - you can choose which account to sync the new addition with.

The Phone app comes with a tabbed interface for speed dial, recent calls and all contacts. The dialer is invoked by taping on its dedicated key and supports smart dialing.

The phone app

Messaging is pretty much straightforward as on every other droid out there. The standard messaging client features Material Design. Alternatives are also available in Google Play.

Google's own Android keyboard is the default input method. The solution is one of the best on the market at the moment.

Stock Android keyboard

Multimedia

There is a Gallery app on board. It offers a basic browsing interface for images and can display videos too. You can also opt for Google Photos as means to view, backup and share your images.

Alcatel's gallery app

There is no dedicated video player on board so we used the Gallery app instead. The video UI is quite simple. Supported video codecs include H.265, H.264, H.263, and MPEG-4. The Idol 3 handled major video file formats without breaking a sweat.

The video player

Alcatel has bundled a highly-capable music player with the Idol 3. Codeveloped with JBL, the app, in addition to just playing your tunes, turns your phone into a pocketable DJ station.

Alcatel Mix

The DJ functionality is activated via a toggle in the settings menu. Overall, the app is as fun to use as it is capable.

A look at the DJ mode

There are no equalizer presets, but the Sound settings menu has an option for JBL sound enhancement. Unfortunately, we couldn't spot any difference regardless of whether we listened to music via the built-in loudspeakers or through the supplied JBL headset.

Alcatel Idol 3 also offers FM Radio with RDS.

Audio output is nicely clean

The Alcatel Idol 3 duo demonstrated spotlessly clean audio output when we made it work with an active external amplifier. There was nothing to separate the two sizes of the smartphone in the first test and differences were pretty minor in the second one too. The two got excellent scores all over the field with the average volume levels the only thing to frown at.

We were treated to more of the same when our standard pair of headphones came into play. Some extra stereo crosstalk appeared but there was no other damage to the output. So excellent marks for clarity but only passable ones for volume, which is once again less than impressive.

And here go the results so you can see for yourselves.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
Alcatel Idol 3 (5.5)	+0.03, -0.01	-93.8	92.6	0.0088	0.0088	-93.9
Alcatel Idol 3 (5.5) (headphones attached)	+0.05, -0.01	-93.6	92.4	0.021	0.033	-50.1
Alcatel Idol 3 (4.7)	+0.01, -0.02	-93.2	92.1	0.0024	0.0093	-94.8
Alcatel Idol 3 (4.7) (headphones attached)	+0.05, -0.04	-92.1	91.9	0.0023	0.059	-41.6
Asus Zenfone 2	+0.03, -0.04	-92.4	92.6	0.0035	0.019	-90.2
Asus Zenfone 2 (headphones attached)	+0.06, -0.04	-92.3	92.4	0.013	0.048	-80.8
HTC Desire 820	+0.03, -0.20	-92.3	92.4	0.046	0.047	-72.2
HTC Desire 820 (headphones attached)	+0.09, -0.12	-92.1	92.1	0.158	0.176	-39.7
OnePlus One	+0.02, -0.07	-94.1	93.8	0.0064	0.011	-94.3
OnePlus One (headphones)	+0.77, -0.05	-91.4	89.7	0.019	0.485	-53.7

Alcatel Idol 3 (5.5) frequency response

Alcatel Idol 3 (4.7) frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.