Alcatel OT-980 user reviews
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User reviews13
sonymad 23 April 2012
Good: Lots of third party apps pre-installed Mini qwerty keyboard is nicely made Good battery life Android 2.1 is nicely up to date Good web browser despite small screen
Bad: Camera is low resolution Abysmal shutter lag Not much built in memory Chunky build Small screen
Comment: Alcatel makes no bones about the aim of the OT-980. This handset is about the mass market, and its £99.95 pay-as-you-go price from Carphone Warehouse indicates that it is a pretty affordable option as far as Android is concerned.
Still, it is a 3G handset with Wi-Fi, and GPS, and while it is more closely related to the LG Optimus GT540 than the HTC Desire, it is Alcatel's flagship model.
Not content just with pushing at the price barrier, Alcatel has come up with a novelty in hardware design too. This is a slider phone, and there's a full QWERTY keyboard available for you to tap out text to your heart's content.
We've seen another slider recently, RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9800, and before that the Palm Pre Plus crossed our, er, technological radar, but this is a budget offering in a very different category.
One of the inevitable things about sliders is that they can be chunky old devils, and the Alcatel OT-980 proves the point. It is very thick indeed by modern standards, with no less than 15.9mm of waistband to wrap your hands around.
This girth means that even though the Alcatel OT-980 is only 60.4mm wide, smaller handed people might find it difficult to reach right across the screen for one handed use.
Another thing about this style of mobile is that it can get mighty tall when you pull the keyboard out. In this case, the standard height of 112.5mm mushrooms to about 150mm when you unleash the QWERTY.
At least Alcatel has got the weighting sorted out, and the phone is not inclined to topple forwards out of your hands as you type away.
The black and silver physical design is reasonably pleasant. There is a band of silver running all the way round the edge. It's thinnest on the top edge, and its fattest on the bottom edge where it comprises a good portion of the bottom edge's sloped design.
There's a quirkily shaped Home button beneath the screen, along with almost too small to touch Menu, Back, Call and End buttons. If you want the Android search function, you'll have to access it via the screen, as there's no physical button in sight here.
The screen looks rather lost in a front fascia that could accommodate a considerably larger display. In the interests of keeping costs down, the screen is a 2.8-inch 320 x 240 pixel TFT job and it does scream cost-cutting at you.
The screen resolution and sharpness isn't great, and is the less accurate and more lumpy resistive rather than capacitive option.
Side buttons are limited with all sides empty apart from the right one. There you'll find a volume rocker, micro-USB connector and 3.5mm headset connector.
lukaboy 12 January 2012
Good: look
Bad: everything
Comment: i have had to have this phone fixed multaple of times and it is still not satisfying me it crashes the touchscreen is faulty and the battery life is so poor. the phone batterylife changes and once it has full and then it has none and tourns off u turn it on it has full this has happend three times to three of the same phones they should have a call back!!!!
dearesteshaan 3 December 2011
Good: Screen size and android
Bad: everything
Comment: camera quality is horrible.
hangs & crashes so often.
wifi strength is so week.
horrible touch screen.
worst sound and service people told they can't help in it.
when on idle mode for some time it needs to restart to make a call.
battery life so poor..
worst phone i have ever used ....
cedley1969 24 September 2011
Good: Cheap, functional and it's got a keyboard!
Bad: Battery life's not brilliant
Comment: For the money its a brilliant phone, most of the issues raised are due to not setting the phone up properly in the first place, e.g. calibrating the touchscreen carefully, in call and messaging settings etc.
I use a DS stylus as I prefer the accuracy over capacitive so thats not an issue for me and the interface is customisable with market apps, so I guess the phone is what you make of it.
Galina 19 August 2011
Good: Looks
Bad: Everything else
Comment: NIGHTMARE! Touchscreen is erratic with response - opens up the windows you never intended to press, but would not react to you pressing it when you want to open it. Hotline support is the worst ever!!! they literally tell you to go on the internet and put down the phone on you, and by the way - they spell their own website wrong!!!!! On mine (i am trading it in tomorrow, by the way)- wouldn't allow me to use outgoing calls to the mobiles (its not network - i can do it with the same sim and different mobile, and with £28 credit), disconnencting when pleased, and very short battery life. KEEP AWAY - clearly a poor purchasing decision on my part. I do go for the looks a lot - learnt my lesson. ALCATEL - NEVER AGAIN!
Alasdair Mechan 1 August 2011
Good: everything
Bad: messages keeps crashing so i have to close it and the battery is really bad
Comment: i like this phone but i think it could be doing wae a better battery life and the touchscreen is it ok i wouldnt rave abt it but aprt from these things i love it and the android system is amazing and yes juice defender is a good thing to download on this phone cause of the battery life and it really does keep ure battery going for as long as it can. but anybody that wants to buy it just watch a couple of things on it lol
glayva 19 July 2011
Good: Screen size and keyboard
Bad: pretty much everything else
Comment: This is by far the worst piece of technology I have ever bought.
- It turns itself off randomly, including in the middle of calls.
- It won't send or receive picture messages and neither staff at the vodaphone store or Car Phone Warehouse (where I bought this) were able to figure out how to make picture messaging work (it disables the 3G signal when I try and I have to switch the phone off and on again)
- It randomly rejects my SD cards even though they work fine in other phones, only to work perfectly normal later.
A complete waste of time and money.
Jack Farmer 30 June 2011
Good: Android 2.1
Bad: Unresponsive Screen, Ugly Design & Awful Camera
Comment: This is the worst phone I have ever owned. The screen is unresponsive and has to be really pressed down to work, the design is much bulkier than most phones of it's time and the camera is simply terrible.
The worst part is the build quality. I had to send my phone back 2 times for repairs within the space of a month, and it still has a bad battery life. Also, I once put it in my pocket when I wasn't using it; when I picked it back up the screen was full of dust!
I would urge anyone interested in this phone to buy a different one, I wish I had never spent any hard-earned money on a useless mobile! I am even considering going back to my Nokia 2330!!
NEVER BUY THIS!
Jack Farmer 30 June 2011
Good: Android 2.1
Bad: Unresponsive Screen, Ugly Design & Awful Camera
Comment: This is the worst phone I have ever owned. The screen is unresponsive and has to be really pressed down to work, the design is much bulkier than most phones of it's time and the camera is simply terrible.
The worst part is the build quality. I had to send my phone back 2 times for repairs within the space of a month, and it still has a bad battery life. Also, I once put it in my pocket when I wasn't using it; when I picked it back up the screen was full of dust!
I would urge anyone interested in this phone to buy a different one, I wish I had never spent any hard-earned money on a useless mobile! I am even considering going back to my Nokia 2330!!
NEVER BUY THIS!
Martin ISmith 17 March 2011
Good: Great keyboard, Android software, Affordable, Easy To Use, Tough
Bad: Bad Touchscreen, Low Battery Life, Slow updates
Comment: When i got this phone i was delighted with it. It can take being dropped, it has android, and is the only under £100 android handset iv found so far to have a keyboard. The problems come with the touchscreen, its fiddly and a little inaccurate however you will get used to it. The battery life is terrible, with internet on the go, it can drain in 3 hours.I strongly recommend downloading juice defender if you buy this. Alcatel have told me they intend to have a 2.2 update ready for this phone...at some point