Alcatel, who are better known for their budget-friendly devices like the Alcatel Onetouch Pop 7 tablet, have launched a new premium smartphone: The Idol Alpha. 

Alcatel says many people treat their smartphones as a ‘fashionable object’, which is why a lot of effort went into its craftsmanship. The 4.7” handset is slim and elongated, making it a welcome size compared to the huge smartphones we’ve become accustomed to over the past year.

It has a sleek aluminium frame with rounded edges and a seamless mirror-like screen, with no buttons on its surface. The handset is 7.5mm thin and has translucent panels at the top and bottom, which light up with notifications. 

The Idol Alpha is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage that runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The 13MP main camera has autofocus, HDR, panorama and burst mode, and is also capable of shooting videos in full 1080p HD. The front-facing 1.3MP camera shoots video in 720p. The battery capacity on the handset is 2 000mAh, which promises 10 hours of talk time and 360 hours on standby.

The Idol Alpha comes with a plethora of apps preloaded. Straight out of the box you get Alcatel’s own Onetouch apps, the Google suite, and third-party ones such as WhatsApp, Deezer, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote and a selection of games.

Vodacom exclusive

The Alcatel Onetouch Idol Alpha will be available in store to Vodacom customers from 1 July 2014.