WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:07.359 I've actually been wanting to familiarize myself with the current crop 00:00:04.319 --> 00:00:10.160 of budget smartphones for a while. So, 00:00:07.359 --> 00:00:18.080 when Alcatel reached out offering to send over a unit of their 3V, a phone so 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:21.039 basic that it boasts US warranty as one 00:00:18.080 --> 00:00:27.680 of its noteworthy features. I couldn't resist, especially when I noticed that 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:32.000 this thing also has a 2160x 00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:36.320 1080 18x9 aspect ratio display and costs 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:42.559 only 150 bucks. 00:00:42.559 --> 00:00:49.840 Let's start with some of the things that cheed me off about the 3V before I'd 00:00:47.360 --> 00:00:56.640 even managed to get any apps installed on it. Number one, the glass. Now, I 00:00:54.480 --> 00:01:03.120 wasn't expecting Corning glass or anything, but over the entire phone, 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:06.080 both front and back, it is a lot more 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:11.360 effort than I'm accustomed to to drag my finger across the glass. Now, on the 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:16.400 back, it's not actually a big deal. In fact, I think other manufacturers uh 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:21.600 here's a Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S could learn a thing or two about making their uh super 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:28.400 shiny phones a little bit less slippery to hold onto. But on the front, the 00:01:25.600 --> 00:01:34.479 sticky feeling glass has got to be the single cheapest feeling thing about this 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:36.560 phone. And as an added bonus, it's 00:01:34.479 --> 00:01:41.520 actually harder to clean smears off of it, too. So, you'll spend more time kind 00:01:38.880 --> 00:01:47.759 of scrubbing away at it with your shirt compared to a Gorilla Glass phone with a 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:50.159 better coating. Number two, the haptic 00:01:47.759 --> 00:01:55.040 motor on this thing is one of the worst that I've felt in a long time. Even 00:01:52.880 --> 00:02:00.320 ignoring the Taptic Engine, Apple's fantastic haptic motor that handles 3D 00:01:57.360 --> 00:02:05.280 touch. It is like, oh, can you guys hear that? 00:02:03.119 --> 00:02:09.280 It's like going back in time to when phones could vibrate themselves off of a 00:02:07.520 --> 00:02:12.879 table when they were ringing. And if I type too fast with the haptic feedback 00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:21.920 enabled, it actually sounds like the phone is going to fall apart. And number 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:24.160 three, it has a USB microB port. 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:30.239 I mean, to be clear, that is not necessarily a huge functional 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:35.680 disadvantage. Many modern phones have type-C ports, but they still connect at 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:40.560 USB 2 speeds anyway, and they leave out a lot of the really handy functionality 00:02:37.519 --> 00:02:43.360 that is possible with a type-C port, uh, 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:48.400 like outputting a DisplayPort signal. It's just more fragile, which is an 00:02:45.920 --> 00:02:53.120 issue that's made worse by the 3V's lack of any, you know, fancy pants modern 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:56.959 features like wireless charging. All right, after all that though, my 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:02.640 impressions started getting a lot better. The 3V is lightweight, which for 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:08.560 some people might contribute to the cheap feel, but I didn't really mind it. 00:03:05.040 --> 00:03:09.920 And the buttons, check this out. 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:14.560 Okay, you can't really hear it, but they feel pretty clicky without being too 00:03:11.920 --> 00:03:21.680 hard to press. Also, I noticed that they included Swift Key keyboard, which I 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:24.159 love, and not much else. You'll find 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:27.920 icons for Netflix and Facebook out of the box, but considering that I and 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:32.799 probably most people would have downloaded those anyway, I don't really 00:03:30.239 --> 00:03:36.640 consider that to be bloat. Even the performance deficiencies aren't really 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:41.519 visible in the traditional places. Like it used to be that you could tell a 00:03:38.799 --> 00:03:47.200 quality unit from a basic one just by swiping left or right as it were. And 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:52.959 everything from navigating between the desktops to uh opening up folders 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:57.840 actually happens pretty smoothly. Even the app launch times, mind you, we're 00:03:55.440 --> 00:04:04.720 talking about uh web browsers and utilities here, not necessarily games, 00:04:00.799 --> 00:04:08.720 weren't noticeably bad. 00:04:04.720 --> 00:04:10.959 But the MediaTek 8735A 00:04:08.720 --> 00:04:18.400 quad core processor, which has four Cortex A53 cores at its heart, really 00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:20.720 shows its uh well, 00:04:18.400 --> 00:04:26.080 it shows its something. I I wanted to say age, but was this thing even fast 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:33.840 when it was current? Anyway, in certain tasks, like auto rotating on even a 00:04:29.280 --> 00:04:36.639 mostly text web page or, and this one's 00:04:33.840 --> 00:04:40.960 actually much more egregious, zooming in on a picture that you've taken to admire 00:04:38.880 --> 00:04:48.080 your handiwork. Oh. Oh. Oh, look at that. This thing 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:50.560 feels noticeably 00:04:48.080 --> 00:04:54.560 seven or eight years ago. On that note though, admiring your 00:04:52.080 --> 00:05:02.400 handiwork, the screen is far from terrible. It's 6 in 2160x 1080. Yes, the 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:07.120 fancy new 18x9 aspect ratio. And the Alcatel website even has a prominent 00:05:04.880 --> 00:05:12.720 spot on it for the logo of their parent company, TCL, whose $400 budget TV we 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:16.800 actually really liked in our recent review, along with some messaging about 00:05:14.880 --> 00:05:23.120 how they relied on TCL's screen expertise in order to develop the 3V's 00:05:19.280 --> 00:05:26.000 display. Now, it doesn't go as dark or 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:32.639 as bright, so its contrast compared to some flagship tier phones, especially 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:34.160 ones with OLED displays, is not that 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:39.840 impressive. But it's got a non- vivid mode, which I 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:45.120 really appreciate seeing. And for the vast majority of users in day-to-day 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:49.680 applications, it is unlikely to be a problem unless you want to use it in 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:54.400 direct sunlight outside or something along those lines 00:05:51.840 --> 00:06:00.560 or if you want to use it to watch movies on Netflix. So, I fired up the beginning 00:05:56.960 --> 00:06:02.080 scene of Thor Ragnarok, which 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:05.919 speakers are on. Sorry. Sorry. Also, this isn't the beginning scene. 00:06:04.400 --> 00:06:15.440 And it looks so dark and so low contrast and 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:17.919 even low res that I was kind of taken it 00:06:15.440 --> 00:06:25.360 back and I was prompted to send an email to Netflix and they haven't gotten back 00:06:20.479 --> 00:06:28.639 to me. But as far as I can tell, the low 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:31.600 resess of it anyway seems to have to do 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:38.800 with the display not being HDR certified. So, when I watch this movie 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:42.160 side by side with the Galaxy S9 Plus, 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:44.479 the S9, it looks so much better that 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:48.960 even through our camera, then through your screen at home, you should be able 00:06:46.479 --> 00:06:53.280 to pretty easily see the differences in the fine details here. So, I can't 00:06:50.880 --> 00:06:57.039 figure out why it is that HDR certification, which is more of a 00:06:54.800 --> 00:07:00.639 contrast and color thing, is affecting the resolution they're serving, but it's 00:06:59.280 --> 00:07:05.440 something that I've repeated on other phones as well. 00:07:03.440 --> 00:07:10.000 Other things are handled reasonably well though. So aspect ratio controls are 00:07:08.080 --> 00:07:15.039 done either through a big list in the settings menu or and this is kind of 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:17.440 cool on the fly app by app with this 00:07:15.039 --> 00:07:21.840 little button right here. So if you run into a compatibility issue with the 00:07:19.440 --> 00:07:26.400 wider or taller aspect ratio display, you can easily fix it just by clicking 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:32.400 that button. And in general actually the software is not awful. Like it's not 00:07:30.080 --> 00:07:38.479 stock Android, but whether it was a conscious decision or a costsaving one, 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:43.840 the Android 8.0 Oreo on this thing is pretty bare, but pretty functional. It's 00:07:41.919 --> 00:07:48.800 definitely a brighter point than the camera, which is far from the worst that 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:55.440 I've ever seen, even on a value device. But that brighter joke, brighter point, 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:57.039 was because it constantly underexposes 00:07:55.440 --> 00:08:02.879 my shots. And this is true of both stills and videos. Anyway, I mean, it's 00:08:00.400 --> 00:08:07.120 usable in lots of light and it's certainly better for capturing the 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:12.400 moment than absolutely nothing. And I always appreciate a double click to 00:08:09.919 --> 00:08:18.400 quick launch the camera gesture. But naturally, it lacks fancy features like 00:08:15.520 --> 00:08:22.560 image stabilization. So, even though I went out of my way to grab a more modest 00:08:20.400 --> 00:08:27.440 competitor for this thing, the Honor 10, rather than like a flagship iPhone 10 or 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:32.080 something, it's clearly and noticeably inferior. But inferior doesn't mean 00:08:29.919 --> 00:08:36.399 complete garbage. Its charging is a little bit slow, but the 3,000 mAh 00:08:34.560 --> 00:08:42.240 battery combined with the low-end hardware means that over a day will be 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:47.519 easy to achieve for most people, and NFC is missing. But dualband Wi-Fi, which is 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:52.399 far more important in my opinion, and used to be left out of value phones like 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:56.880 this, is present. Now, it's only got 16 gigs of storage on the $150 model, which 00:08:54.880 --> 00:09:02.480 means that you won't be installing a ton of heavy apps like games, but it's got 00:08:59.839 --> 00:09:07.279 micro SD expansion, so as long as you don't load up tons of apps, at least you 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:11.680 can store your Plex or your Netflix downloads somewhere rather than having 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:16.480 the phone fill up all the time and start behaving really weirdly like my 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:17.920 mother-in-law's old 8 gig phone. 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:21.360 I think we're pretty close to the end here. Let's see. Um, the speaker is 00:09:19.760 --> 00:09:24.720 pretty quiet, which affects speaker phone calls and watching movies. 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:28.480 But Cooler Master appears to have kicked off a giant OEM love fest, 00:09:26.959 --> 00:09:33.680 but it does have a headphone jack, so there's that. And I would be floored if 00:09:30.880 --> 00:09:36.800 you get a ton of software updates. But this was enlightening for me. I'm 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:42.880 actually really impressed at how much phone you can get for 150 bucks, even if 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:48.480 I like wouldn't want to switch to it. Like I personally I would probably go 00:09:44.880 --> 00:09:51.519 for a contract subsidy instead, but that 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:52.880 is not an option for everyone. So, 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:56.560 thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that 00:09:55.440 --> 00:10:01.040 like button, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description. Also linked down 00:09:59.680 --> 00:10:05.120 there is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one. Yes, and our 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:08.000 community forum, which you should totally join.