My experience with the Alcatel 1S 2020 after two weeks of use

Can an entry-level mobile offer a good user experience? Before my answer to this question would have been no. But after testing the Alcatel 1S for 15 days I have changed my mind . At least for according to what type of users and uses the mobile is going to be given. The Alcatel 1S is a simple mobile, no doubt, but not everyone is willing to spend hundreds of euros on a terminal. Hence, Alcatel insists on launching entry-level terminals on the market, but which offer a minimum of guarantees to their users.

The Alcatel 1S 2020 integrates a 6.22-inch screen, triple rear camera, 3 GB of RAM, fingerprint reader and a huge 4,000 mAh battery. Sounds good right? I have had the opportunity to test it for two weeks and I can tell you that this is a very interesting mobile if you have a tight budget.  Here I tell you what I think about the Alcatel 1S 2020.

Data sheet

Stylish and fashionable design

Many times when we are facing a device in this price range it shows in its design. However, the Alcatel 1S offers a very slick design thanks to a metallic painted back and a scratched finish. It is available in Power Gray and Agate Green, a rather nice blue-green color combination (it's the one the test unit had).

The triple camera is located in the upper left part and practically nothing protrudes from the case. The fingerprint reader is located in the central part and has a slightly lighter color than the rest of the case, in addition to being somewhat recessed to be able to locate it easily. And by the way, it is a fairly accurate and fast reader.

Another detail that draws attention is that the Alcatel 1S 2020 has a curved finish on its back cover . This makes the back and edges come together much more elegantly. And speaking of edges, on the right side of the mobile (looking at it from the front) we have the volume and power buttons.

On the opposite side is the card tray and the special button that includes the terminal for the Google Assistant.

On the front we have a large screen that uses a drop-shaped notch for the front camera. The screen is surrounded by a thick black frame, especially at the bottom. But at least this frame will allow us to better grasp the terminal when we want to use it with one hand.

Large screen with good image quality

The Alcatel 1S 2020 has a 6.22-inch screen that has an HD + resolution of 720 × 1,520 pixels . How does this screen behave?

Well, the truth is that better than expected: the IPS panel that includes the 1S offers good performance for the price range in which we move.

The color reproduction is correct and the maximum brightness allows us to see the terminal even when we are on the street with a lot of light. Being an IPS panel it has good viewing angles .

Tight technical set and without problems in everyday life

What do we find under the hood of the Alcatel 1S 2020?

The Alcatel 1S 2020 features a MediaTek MT6762D processor . It is a chip with eight cores, four Cortex A-53 running at 1.8 GHz and another four Cortex A-53 running at 1.5 GHz.

Accompanying this processor the mobile has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage . It is limited, but we can expand it using a Micro SD card that can be up to 128 GB.

With this technical set I can tell you that I was able to work with the Alcatel 1S 2020 during the test without any problem . Applications, for the most part, open quickly and multitasking works well. As for games, the simpler graphics games like Jetpack Joyride can run flawlessly. The most demanding ones, like Call of Duty, take a long time to load and run with poor quality graphics, but once loaded I have been able to play without too many problems.

In such a mobile it may be a bit absurd to talk about power test results. But for those who love numbers on these lines you have the result of the Geekbench, PCMark and 3DMark tests.

Something that does surprise the technical section of the Alcatel 1S 2020 is its battery. It is equipped with a 4,000 mAh battery that allows us to reach up to a day and a half of autonomy with normal use of the device without too many problems. Even with heavy use, I have not been able to drain the battery before bedtime.

Of course, we do not have fast charging. This means that to fully charge the terminal, from 0, we will need almost 4 hours.

Triple rear camera with smart features

Alcatel has chosen to include a triple camera system in the Alcatel 1S 2020. On the one hand we have a 13 megapixel sensor with aperture f / 1.8 and with a scene detection system with AI that can recognize up to 22 different photographic scenarios.

Accompanying the main sensor we have a macro lens with 2 megapixels of resolution and f / 2.2 aperture . And completing the set we find an ultra-wide-angle sensor with 5 megapixels of resolution and f / 2.4 aperture . The latter has 1.65 µm pixels to capture more information.

On the front we have a 5 megapixel sensor with f / 2.2 aperture . This sensor, like the main one, allows you to record video with 1080p resolution and up to 30fps. In addition, it has functions of bokeh, facial beautification and night photography.

Very complete camera application

Now that we know what the Alcatel 1S 2020 offers us at a technical level, and before seeing the results that the new Alcatel device achieves, let's take a look at the Camera application.

The Alcatel Camera application is easy to use, but quite comprehensive . With the mobile horizontally, the first thing we have on the right side is a large shutter button that has several buttons around it. Above we have the button to switch to video recording and below the Google Lens button and the one that gives us direct access to the gallery.

Just to the left of these buttons we have the mode carousel. With direct access we will see the Automatic mode, the Portrait mode and the Wide Angle. We can also click on More and access the rest of the modes.

When entering More, modes such as Super Macro, Timelapse, AR Emoji, mode with Filters, Panoramic, Trace of light and a Manual mode will appear with which we can configure aspects such as ISO, aperture or speed shooting.

At the opposite end we will have four shortcuts . One is to change the aspect ratio of the image, another is to activate / deactivate the HDR, we also have a shot timer and a last access for the flash.

These shortcuts vary depending on the mode we are in . For example, in Portrait mode we only have the shutter. On the other hand, if we go to the front camera we will also see a small icon in the lower right corner that provides us with access to beauty modes.

Picture quality

Now, let's see how the Alcatel 1S 2020 behaves in real life. Of course, we must always keep in mind that we are facing an entry-level mobile.

Overall, the main sensor does a good job . When the light accompanies the result they are well-defined photographs with enough detail. We need to be patient with the approach as it is somewhat slow, but we can get good results.

The scene recognition system tends to slightly overexpose , but nothing overdone. This overexposure translates into more striking photographs, although with somewhat exaggerated colors in some shots.

With the ultra wide angle sensor we will get a different point of view. However, the quality of this sensor is clearly inferior to that of the main sensor . Although we will get usable photos, we must bear in mind that we will have more noise and less definition.

As for the portrait mode , as you can see in the image it works with objects . In fact, the result is quite good, with a very natural blur if we leave it at a medium level. We can blur the image more, but the more blur we put the more artificial it will look.

He also does a good job with people . In this image I put it really complicated, with a backlight and long hair. Still, as you can see, he saved her pretty well. We have some fault in the hair part, but not bad for such an economical mobile.

And as for the Macro mode , despite having a very low resolution sensor, the results are more than decent . We can take photos with a very close focus and an acceptable quality if we have good light.

Finally, I was surprised by the result offered by the front camera . With it you get very sharp selfies and with enough detail. The top image was taken in Portrait mode with the front camera. As you can see, we have some shortcomings in the cropping but a quite natural blur.

Conclusions and price

As we have seen, the Alcatel 1S 2020 is a mobile for all budgets, but it hides some surprises . It has a very interesting design, with a stylish curved back and a fashionable front.

The screen, despite not reaching the FHD resolution, behaves quite well. The same happens with the technical set, which is much more than correct for the use that a user looking for a cheap mobile will give it.

As for the photographic section, we will have three cameras available to take photographs in almost all types of conditions. Of course the quality is not the highest, but they are more than acceptable.

And above all this, the battery stands out, which offers us a very good autonomy. And it's also worth noting the addition of Android 10 , the latest version of Google's system.

With all this, we can conclude that it is a highly recommended mobile if you need a complete mobile but you cannot spend much. We can get the Alcatel 1S 2020 with an official price of 120 euros .