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Video-Review: Alcatel One Touch 997D Ultra (English version)
My first English video on YouTube (Unboxing of the Alcatel 997D) received an overwhelming amount of feedback – there’s obviously an enormous interest in this phone and only little information around. So why not try my first full review in English? Here we go:
Summary: The Alcatel 997D delivers a lot of strong features for less than 200 EUR (in Germany, at least): 1GHz dual core CPU, 4.3″ WVGA display (480×800 pixels) with a very decent quality, 1 GB RAM, dual-SIM with a lot of comfortable features. There is actually just one competitor in this price range with similar features, the Mobistel Cynus T1. Although the flash memory could be more generous (only abt. 2.5GB for apps and data), it can be easily extended with a microSD card and Alcatel even ported the “move to SD” feature of previous Android version to Ice Cream Sandwich.
There are also some downsides, but none of the is really severe: The camera is not the best one, but then again quite ok for a mobile phone (too strong compression independent of the app used, exaggerated colours and an uneven an dirtily stained LED light) unless you went to shoot videos (even in VGA mode this is jumpy). Unfortunately there’s no option to define different ring tones per SIM card – please add this soon, Alcatel! The many pre-installed apps are somewhat annoying, but can (mostly) be easily un-installed. Only the LED torch app with it’s tremendous amount of right granted can’t be removed – this needs to be fixed. One other glitch can be quite annoying, too: When the screen brightness is in auto mode, the display and touch-screen tend to come to life during calls, making it possible to end calls unwillingly with your cheek – I lost two calls in one day of using the 997D for business as well, this can be quite embarrassing. Luckily there’s the simple workaround of switching off auto-brightness.
These issues are far from fatal and there are some workarounds as well, so I see no reason to warn you against buying this phone. To the contrary, with it’s incredible performance compared to price the Alcatel is really recommendable if you are on a budget – even if you don’t need the dual-SIM option.
Just compare this with the specs of the Samsung Galaxy S Duos: The Samsung phones offers “half the CPU” (single core), half the RAM, a smaller display and comes in cheesy-shiny-plastic styling, but costs ~50 EUR more. I wouldn’t think twice, which one to buy…
By the way: The international Alcatel website also lists as 997, lacking the D and only having one SIM slot – so obviously the D stands for dual-SIM.
In case you can order from Germany at bearable cost, here are some vendors and prices:
| ardesia (grau) 158,85 EUR bei Amazon |
dark red 160,00 EUR bei Amazon |
orange 167,00 EUR bei Amazon |
Sample pictures:
Here are two comparisons with my Huawei Ascend P1: GPS performance (ok, but somewhat lower than the Huawei) and screen brightness (dito)
The camera of the 997D compresses pictures too much – this seems to be a driver or hardware issues, as it also persists with alternative camera apps (files get larger, but compression issues stay the same). But you’ll only see that when really zooming into the picture. Additionally colours are exaggerated – see red tractor pictures (Alcatel 997D left, Huawei Ascend P1 right):
Here are a few more test pictures taken with the Alcatel One Touch 997D Ultra:
Update 19.11. & 18.12.: A few screenshots: AnTuTu Benchmark results (some say before the update of end of Oct. it was faster, almost 6000. With the latest AnTuTu it’s at ~6200), the permissions of the pre-installed LED torch app (which have been fixed in firmware version “vB5Y-0″) and a screenshot of an incoming call (to demonstrate how the SIM is indicated here).
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39 Kommentare
Super review !
Excellent work Klaus!!
Nice review.
Excellent work Klaus!!
greeting from Serbia.
Great review! Thank you very much!
great review, but want to request you to do a comparison of the Alcate OT-997D with the Huawei Ascend G500. They both have the same CPU, and Chip. Thanx in advance.
Hey Steve,
The G500 is not (yet?) available in Germany, not even listed on the Huawei website. Is it a newly announced model?
Klaus
PS: The full English review attracted (and still does!) much less visitors than the unboxing, so I have not decided yet if I will continue with English videos…
and do it in english please i cannt understand germeny
Q”Hi klaus
I have one question on the phone alcatel one touch 997D. This phone has a 1G ram and 2,5G Rom(internal memory) is this true?
Most of stores tell me phone have only 512Mb ram and 1g Rom.
A:Hello Viktor
The Alcatel 997D I tested definitely had 1GB RAM and is also sold that way in Germany.
ROM is a tricky thing – Alcatel doesn’t state anything. The phone has ~1GB for data, 1.4GB for apps and there must be some ROm space where Android is stored – I assum ein total it is even 4GB, just as the very similar Mobistel Cynus T1 has.
Hope this helps!
Klaus
PS: Please ask such questions as a comment on technoviel.de (i.e here). I’m sure others would also like to know.
Hi, I liked your review very much. Please keep up the good work in english too. Thanks from Italy
Greeting Klaus,thanks for good work.Do you know when 997D might be upgrading to Android 4.1 JB.Thanx in advance.
Jelly Bean is announced for Q2 2013.
Cheers,
Klaus
the ascend G500 according to gsmarena.com was released in november 2012
Hello Klaus
I have this phone and I have the problem that every time I conect it to my PC or restart it the custom mp3 ringtones that I have are lost and it is reverted back to the default one. Either I add them to the external SD Card or the 1GB internal space that the phone is giving me. Does it happen to yours too?
Best regards
Akis
Hallo Akis,
I know this used to happen and the only workaround was a modification that requires root: If you copy the audio file that you want to use as ringtone to /system/media/ringtone or /notification (into the internal /system partition, not the “internal SD card”), the ringtones should stay.
I’m not sure if this was fixed in the recent firmware update.
Cheers,
Klaus
Hello Klaus
This was not fixed. However it used to happen to other phones as well, like some Motorola, HTC and ZTE. Was it a problem of the ICM version or the Kernel?
Best Regards
Akis
I’m not sure if it is an Android issue, not all Android phones show that behaviour, my Huawei Ascend P1 only forgets theringtone when tThe MP3 is on the external SD card And I removed the card..
It might depend on the way the cards are mounted…
It is strange that 997D treats the internal storage as an SD card!!!
It is strange, but this is an Android thing. For some reason most phones have an internal SD-card and an external one – I guess there are historical reasons for this.
What is much stranger to me is that Android needs to un-mount these “drives” when it wants to share them with the connected PC – this is causing quite a bit of the trouble we see here. When un-mounting, the drive is not available for Android any more, so Android has to choose another ringtone – and it doesn’t seem to be intelligent enough to remember this and later (when the drive is mounted again) go back to the ringtone the user had chosen.
BTW: Merry Christmas
does this fon have a GPU?
english please
Yes, the MediaTek MT6577 includes a PowerVR SGX.
Is there a way to make the SIM card in the slot 2 to work in 3G mode? For example by disabling the 3G mode for the SIM in slot 1? User Guide states that:
———-
For dual SIM models, both SIM 1 and SIM2 can support 2G and 3G networks, but when 3G SIM cards are inserted into both SIM1 and SIM2 at the same time only SIM1 will support 3G network.
———-
Don’t have the possibility to verify this before buying this phone.
Seems to be possible via Settings -> More…\Mobile networks\Network settings\3G service…
You can choose on which card the 3G service should be activated.
Hi, Its really nice review. Thanks for it. I would like to buy this one. But I have a question regarding the SIM use. for example, I am on call in one SIM_1 and parallelly somebody is calling to my another SIM_2. What will happen now. Does my SIM_2 puts it in calling waiting or number busy mode or in switched off mode ? could you please help me in this question ?
Hello Vino,
when you talk on one SIM, the other will usually route callers to your voice mail.
Cheers,
Klaus
Thanks for the reply. Im greatful for it.!
Hello Klaus
The softkeys can be removed only after rooting(to have the whole screen available)?
Regards
Akis
Hello Akis,
Yes. Normally the keys only disappear when watching a video, but there’s a mod to hide them completely, but that requires root. I described it here in German, you can find a very brief description at xda-developers.
Cheers,
Klaus
Hello Klaus
I made it to work. I used however Button Savior and not LMT Launcher because it was faster for me. LMT Launcher looked a little heavy. However I have another problem. I try to look in build.prop for the LCD density properties and I don’t finf anything. What should I use?
Best Regards
Akis
Hi Akis,
)
great to hear it worked. I habe not had a look at the density settings… what about using an app like DPI changer? (I haven’t tried it, it’s just an idea… don’t kill me if this is bad
Cheers,
Klaus
is the phone compatible with apps like watsapp, viber, nimbuzz, and instant mesaging? i met samone complaining that it is not compatible, please advice
Hi Steve,
I checked all the of those and they are offered in the play store, so there’s no obvious incompatibility. It would actually be very surprising to find any Android phone that doesn’t run WhatsApp or another instant messenger, these apps don’t usually request any specific hardware.
You may want to ask that person what kind of problems he was encountering… I doubt these were caused by the phone
Cheers,
Klaus
how much is the memory preserved for instaling applications?
There are 1.37GB for apps, don’t remember how much of that was used, but definitely less than 300MB. Additionally, 0.91 GB for data.
i want to buy this phone but it is being sold at an extreemly high price here in kenya, the sell it at $330 usd which is way too much. is thea a website i can buy online in Germany and ship it via dhl?
Sorry, I have no clue which of the German shops sell to Kenia. Many only sell within Europe, so it might be a challenge finding one. Ich checked the first three in this price comparison: http://geizhals.de/836963 – only Europe. Mabye ebay can help here?
ebay is even worse, they selling it at $385 and $12 for shipping which is even more expensive. what about this website named getgoods.de?
I had checked them as well – only EU. But they are nice guys, providing most of the test devices I use – maybe it’s worth asking them: service@service-gg.de
thanks a lot, i talked to them and too bad they dont ship, bt i got another deal in china for $200 and free shipping. i appreciate ur efforts.
am confused if to buy the 997d or ascend P1, any advice?
If you don’t need dual SIM and it is not too expensive for you, go for the P1. It is better in every way: thinner, lighter, faster, gorgeous screen, great camera. The 997D is a really good phone, but it’s basic compared to the P1.
BTW: I know both phones well, my wife owns the 997D, I have the P1