Earlier this month, Alcatel accidentally revealed two upcoming handsets – the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 4 and the Idol 4S. They don’t seem particularly compelling devices and for the most part could easily be lost in the sea of devices that will be announced at MWC 2016, however according to a recent report by Evan Blass at VentureBeat, it seems that there is more to these devices than meets the eye.
According to Blass, he has suggested that the OneTouch Idol 4S will come in a hard plastic package, and this package is more than just for housing the phone. It will actually be able to transform into a Cardboard virtual reality headset. For those unfamiliar, Cardboard is a project by Google in which with some materials, you could essentially take a piece of cardboard and transform it into a makeshift VR headset.
Google has licensed out its Cardboard to various manufacturers who have created more sturdy, colorful, and ready-to-use versions of the headset, so this rumor does not sound like a stretch of the imagination. The fact that it will come bundled with the phone is also a great idea, although at the moment the amount of VR apps aren’t that many, but it’s still a good effort all the same.
While the report only mentions the Idol 4S specifically, both phones are marketed with the word “augmented” in them, so it is possible that the Idol 4 will get the same treatment. Naturally this should be taken with a grain of salt for now, but what do you guys think of the idea?
Update – It looks like the devices have been officially launched. According to the official specs, the Idol 4 will be the “basic” model. It comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD display with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 chipset under the hood. It is also accompanied by 3GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. It has a 13MP rear-facing camera, an 8MP front-facing camera, and dual 3.6W speakers.
Its higher-end sibling the Idol 4S is more interesting with its 5.5-inch QHD display. Its chipset is also slightly better as it is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 with 32GB of onboard storage. Apart from that it will also feature the same camera and RAM setup as the Idol 4. However to set itself apart even further, the Idol 4S comes with a dedicated “Boom” key. By pressing it, users will be able to perform shortcuts like taking a photo from standby mode, adding effects to videos, launching games, and more.
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