Alcatel has released the Alcatel A30 with very little fanfare - not so much as a peep, in fact. The reason for the silence? Well it's not going to be the most widely available handset on the planet; it's an Amazon exlcusive in the US market only (for now, and maybe forever) and, what's more, there's a Prime Exclusive deal which brings the price down from $99.99 to $59.99, making it one of the cheapest phones with Android Nougat out of the box.
Oddly enough, however, we did notice Amazon UK stocks plenty of accessories for the Alcatel A30, making us wonder if the firm has plans to expand availability across the pond.
Regardless, even at its base price this is a budget offering, but as well as the Nougat appeal, there are a few other little nuggets to draw your attention to this cheap-as-chips smartphone.
Let's take a look at the specs...
Alcatel A30 Specs
As you can see, the spec line-up is not earth-shattering, but neither is it feeble considering what you pay for it. The Snapdragon 210 is a decent chip, not bad, not great, but 2GB of RAM PLUS microSD expansion is more than you'd expect from a phone at this low entry cost.
Reviews by journos and users across the web are already highlighting some particular features as being more impressive than specs alone might imply. Chiefly, the build quality is said to be extremely good for the price, plastic, but not cheapo plastic by a long stretch with a very solid feel in the hand.
On top of this, the other "hero" feature is the camera, which has vibrant colour and rich detail. It's not perfect, there is some overexposure present and capture speed is reportedly quite ponderous, but again, for the price, this is a doozy.
Allegedly the display is pretty basic, again, not bad, but not great either, and doesn't even have a glass covering; instead it is plastic.
So what is the big catch? Well, in order to get the low price, not only do you have to be an Amazon Prime subscriber, but you also have to accept the fact that Amazon ads are embedded into the phone experience. Oh, and the handset is available either as a GSM model or CDMA for Verizon. It won't work on Sprint though, and you can't remove the battery.
