Alcatel Pop 4 Plus, we have tested it

The Alcatel Pop 4 Plus is a low-end terminal with a moderate price, but with some positive surprises in terms of performance: it has a large screen, a battery with enough autonomy and the Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system as standard.

One of its weak points is the camera , since it has very few default capture modes and hardly has customization options or manual configuration of settings. It is worth noting, of course, that the front camera has a flash , and that from the main camera we can scan QR codes to open the corresponding links in the browser.

For about 140 euros we can get a DualSIM smartphone that has 16 GB of internal storage (expandable with an external microSD card), a 5.5-inch screen and a quad-core processor . For moderate use and without great demands on resources, it is a terminal with a good performance and that works quite smoothly.

Below we thoroughly analyze the features of the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus .

A look at the design and exterior

From an aesthetic point of view, the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus is a very elegant looking smartphone, quite thin and light. Although it has some metal details, the entire coating on the back is practically smooth plastic. The terminal measures 151mm long x 77mm wide x 8mm thick and weighs 156 grams .

On the front we find the 5.5-inch screen , with the three navigation touch buttons at the bottom, and the upper part occupied by the notification light, the front camera (with flash) and the audio output for calls. .

Only the right side has control buttons: one on and off and the two volume buttons. The miniJack audio port for headphones is located at the top, and at the bottom is the microUSB port for charging the phone or connecting to other devices.

As can be seen in the photographs, on the back Alcatel has captured its logo and the name of the Pop series , as well as the main camera with its flash. Just below is the speaker for stereo sound output.

Screen resolution and characteristics

The Alcatel Pop 4 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen and HD resolution (1280 pixels x 720 pixels) , with a density of about 401 pixels per inch . Contrary to the trend that is spreading more and more (screens with few side edges), in this terminal we do appreciate these margins quite well.

The screen has a multi-touch sensor for up to 5 fingers at the same time and, although it is not protected by Corning Gorilla Glass , it does have an oleophobic coating that greatly reduces the annoying fingerprints on the screen surface.

Processor, performance and storage

One of the details that can squeak more in this phone is the choice of a quad-core processor instead of eight (many manufacturers are already introducing Octa-core processors even for their low-end terminals): it is, in particular , from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 (MSM8909) quad-core Cortex-A7 running at 1.1 GHz .

However, the operation is quite fluid and the performance is at the height if the terminal is used moderately and not especially demanding with resources . The fluidity of the processes is quite reasonable even with games that use a lot of resources, although it can be quite slow if many applications are installed and used.

Regarding the storage to install them, it must be taken into account that the internal memory is 16 GB , but they can be expanded with an external microSD card of up to 32 GB .

The RAM memory is 1.5 GB , more than enough for the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus unless a particularly high number of applications are installed. In that case, as we have already mentioned, performance could be affected and processes could slow down quite a bit.

The operating system is a point in favor of this terminal, since it comes standard with Android 6.0 Marshmallow (many phones with similar prices and features are still manufactured with Android Lollipop , either version 5.0 or 5.1). On the phone we also find Alcatel's OneTouch personalization layer .

To check the performance of the phone, we have also carried out power tests with the Geekbench 3 applications (where it obtains 294 points in Single-Core and 969 points in Multi-Core ) and with AnTuTu Benchmark ( 21244 points that place it at the end of the ranking) .

Cameras: limited settings

The Alcatel Pop 4 Plus is definitely an option that leaves something to be desired for those who are looking for a camera in which to configure the settings manually. The automatic mode is comfortable and quite practical, but if we want better quality images in difficult lighting conditions, for example, customizing the settings could help to compensate for the low resolution a bit.

The main camera is 8 megapixels, with f / 2.0 aperture, autofocus and LED flash . We found very few options for handling this camera, although you can select the size of the image, activate a timer of 5 seconds or 10 seconds , activate and deactivate the geolocation of images and the shooting sound, and see the grid on the screen. reference to frame the elements of the picture.

Regarding video recording, the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus can record in HD 720p or SD 480p quality , in both cases with the main camera. The front camera can also be used to record lower quality videos or to make video calls.

The front camera is 5 megapixels and one of the most interesting details is that it has LED flash and wide angle to get good selfies , even with large groups of people and at night or in low light.

Unfortunately, the number of capture modes leaves a lot to be desired: there are very few possibilities for manual configuration of the settings , and therefore the capture results may not be up to what we are looking for if the lighting conditions are not. optimal.

Fortunately, with good lighting conditions, images of more than reasonable quality can be achieved:

In the camera application we only find five presets for taking pictures "" automatic, HDR, panoramic, beauty and code scanner "" in addition to video recording.

Automatic mode

As its name suggests, in this mode the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus camera adjusts the exposure values, ISO, etc. by itself. You can activate or deactivate the flash manually, or leave it selected also in the automatic option.

Photography in automatic mode: on the left, without flash; on the right, with flash.

This mode is available on both the main and front cameras.

Beauty mode

This is one of the most common presets on mobile cameras, and on the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus it can be used on either camera. It is worth noting once again that the front camera has a flash and allows better results in selfies taken in low light conditions.

In this mode, face detection is automatically activated and the tone and texture of the image can be configured from the settings (by moving the finger along the lines of both values) to be able to customize a little the corrections that are applied to the faces.

HDR mode

The HDR mode , which is used to obtain images sharper when the picture there are very enlightened and other elements too dark, can be used only with the main camera. You cannot configure or customize any other settings when this mode is on .

Panoramic mode

Although in other terminals it is already common to find panoramic photographs in both the main and front cameras, in the case of the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus we can only use it with the main camera.

The operation is not surprising and is based, as in all smartphones, on pressing the shutter button at the beginning of the image, then moving the phone respecting the orientation of the reference arrow and even encompassing the entire environment that we interested.

Scan mode

This mode is very useful because it allows you to scan QR codes directly from the camera application , and then redirect us to the browser if we want to open the link. It would not be necessary, therefore, to install any extra application for the scan.

On the other hand, it is a pity that this function has not been used to also be able to scan barcodes. Of course: if you try to analyze a barcode, the scanner detects the numerical code and gives the option of copying it and saving it in a note application on the terminal ( Google Keep opens by default ). But it would be interesting to have a barcode analysis directly integrated into the camera to obtain information about a certain product on the Internet at any time. Integration with a price comparison service, for example, would help to take advantage of this camera mode much better.

There is no professional mode

Unfortunately, in the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus camera application we do not find any type of professional or manual mode, and there are almost no options to customize such important details as exposure or ISO. We can only choose between automatic mode, beauty mode, panoramic or HDR mode, and activate or deactivate the flash, or adjust the tone and texture values in beauty mode.

Exposure and sensitivity control is especially lacking at night and in poor lighting conditions . Below we show three examples of the results obtained at night (with different lighting conditions) in automatic mode.

Video recording

The main camera of the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus can record video at a maximum quality of 720p (HD) at 30 fps , although it can also be configured to record in SD (480p) . Also with the front camera you can record videos "" although the resolution is not specified "" or make video calls.

Battery and autonomy

The Alcatel Pop 4 Plus phone is equipped with a 2500 mAh battery that offers a range of up to 18 hours of normal use with 2G connectivity , or up to 15 hours with normal use and 3G network . In idle , the terminal reaches 500 hours on 3G or 525 hours on 2G .

In the AnTuTu Tester tests , the phone achieves a score of 5598 and is in an intermediate position in the displayed ranking.

Serial applications

The Alcatel Pop 4 Plus uses a OneTouch customization layer on Android , and a large part of its distribution and the applications installed as standard are based precisely on the integration with the OneTouch user account . We also find, however, some games and many popular applications such as social networks installed by default.

Logically, we find on the phone the large set of Google applications ( Chrome , Gmail , Google Drive , YouTube , Google Maps , Hangouts , etc.) and the default launcher is Google Now . By sliding your finger across the screens to the left, however, we find the interesting OneTouch Stream news aggregator , which also allows you to configure custom widgets with the information that interests us most: calendar events, weather information, etc.

Moreover, the phone also includes the full range of basic applications for managing the terminal: Clock , Settings , File Manager , Camera , Gallery , Downloads , Sound Recorder , Messages , Phone , Contacts , Calculator , etc. The Alcatel Pop 4 Plus also has a built-in compass , as well as an FM radio .

As we have mentioned, through the Alcatel OneTouch account you can also access the specific Alcatel application store . Other services offered by the brand by default are access to the Central Games , the User Profile , customer service and technical support ( Alcatel Support ). With the Mix application we can quickly access all the music files on the phone and listen to them according to the classification of the songs in the albums or by creating playlists.

To easily send files between the computer and the smartphone, we find the Alcatel Smart Suite application and also Xender File Transfer (which uses the wireless connection to a WiFi network to transfer the files).

And from here we can start to mention other third-party applications that come pre-installed in the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus , but that can be uninstalled if we are not going to use them and we want to avoid them occupying space uselessly.

Social networking and messaging : when we use the phone for the first time find default installed apps Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp .
Clean Master , one of the best known applications to manage RAM, junk files and cache on Android .
Games : Kingdom & Lords and Puzzle Pets can be enjoyed for free (although in-app purchases are available). The Alcatel Pop 4 Plus also comes standard with trial versions of the Spider-Man: Ultimate Power and Cars Racing games .
To protect the privacy and security of the phone, we will find AVG AntiVirus installed ( AVG Antivirus in its free version ; you can purchase the PRO version).
Weather , with meteorological information, which uses information from AccuWeather .

It is also worth noting that on the mobile we will find the SwiftKey keyboard installed by default , which became popular years ago due to the large number of customization options it offers. With SwiftKey we can, for example, download and use several languages simultaneously in the autocorrect, in addition to using gesture writing (sliding the finger from one letter to another and without having to lift it from the surface of the screen), activate predictive text to have SwiftKey suggest the next word you want to write in real time ... Typing patterns are stored in the cloud with a SwiftKey user account so they can be easily transferred to other devices.

Currently almost all of these options can be easily configured with the Google keyboard , although on an aesthetic level SwiftKey has more designs and color themes for the keyboard.

Some conclusions

The Alcatel Pop 4 Plus is a good option if we are looking for an input terminal at a reasonable price and if we want to enjoy the Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system . The performance is reasonable for undemanding users, but the quad-core processor can fall short if we want to have many applications installed and play games that use a lot of phone resources.

The resolution of the screen and the possibilities of the cameras, as we have seen, are not particularly satisfactory, but on the other hand it is interesting to have a flash in the front camera and a lower resolution screen that allows a greater saving on the battery .

In fact, the battery is one of the most interesting features of the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus , since it offers us a range of up to 15 hours with normal use and using a 3G network .

For those who do not need extensive professional settings on the camera or do not take many pictures with the smartphone, you can get quite satisfactory results with the automatic mode in good lighting conditions, or even try to compensate for exposure problems at night with the HDR mode. Therefore, it is important to assess what functions that camera will fulfill or what type of photographs are needed before deciding whether the terminal is adequate or insufficient .

The phone is DualSIM , a detail that for many influences the purchase process because it solves the need to simultaneously manage two phone numbers in a single terminal (for example, one personal and the other professional).

Regarding the price, we did not find big surprises either: some Chinese brands such as ZTE are specializing in terminals of all ranges at a reasonable price , and in this range it is probably easy to find other alternatives at a similar or even lower price than the Alcatel Pop 4 Plus .