Alcatel Idol 4S: Best Windows Phone of all time?

[PFSP]

I'm really happy for you and imma let you finish
but HP made one of the greatest Windows phones of all time
... OF ALL TIME.


All kidding aside, I love my Idol, and I think it is in the conversation, but specs wise I would have to put the Elite X3 ahead.

 

[editguy]

Thanks for you input. I've never had this problem with my ATIV S, SE, or Lumia 830. The cameras on these phones didn't switch back and forth during a vid shoot. It seems like the IDOL sensor is 'too hypersensitive'. I'll have to play around with it some more...

I'm curious, do those phones have OIS? That's another thing that kill video with the Idol 4S. Digital image stabilization is no substitute for optical. I think it could be one of the contributing factors to the video problems. As it is, the Idol 4S is difficult to get usable video from, especially in challenging environments. I've never used a phone camera for anything but very short video clips. My wish is that Alcatel will decide to do something to fix these issues (not holding my breath). It's disappointing that MS knew that Alcatel was releasing such a nice phone and apparently did nothing to help them develop the camera to Pureview quality.

 

[nate0]

I'm curious, do those phones have OIS? That's another thing that kill video with the Idol 4S. Digital image stabilization is no substitute for optical. I think it could be one of the contributing factors to the video problems. As it is, the Idol 4S is difficult to get usable video from, especially in challenging environments. I've never used a phone camera for anything but very short video clips. My wish is that Alcatel will decide to do something to fix these issues (not holding my breath). It's disappointing that MS knew that Alcatel was releasing such a nice phone and apparently did nothing to help them develop the camera to Pureview quality.

The Lumia 830 does. Ya even EIS on the camera would be better than nothing at all.

 

[fatclue_98]

After that, everything else is a feature that some people will want and others won't care about one way or the other.

Let's talk about that for a second. I hate to re-introduce the competition into this thread but it's necessary to further validate your post. The competition's top dogs as it were, don't have external storage. I'm referring to the Google Pixel and iPhone 7 of course. One of them doesn't even have a headset jack yet both these phones are lauded as the s**t when it comes to smartphones.

What is and what isn't a flagship has been discussed ad nauseum but it really irks me when the major players get a pass when they miss the important things yet Windows lives in the trash bin no matter what they offer.

 

[editguy]

Let's talk about that for a second. I hate to re-introduce the competition into this thread but it's necessary to further validate your post. The competition's top dogs as it were, don't have external storage. I'm referring to the Google Pixel and iPhone 7 of course. One of them doesn't even have a headset jack yet both these phones are lauded as the s**t when it comes to smartphones.

What is and what isn't a flagship has been discussed ad nauseum but it really irks me when the major players get a pass when they miss the important things yet Windows lives in the trash bin no matter what they offer.

Thanks! I knew I would miss a something and I couldn't agree with you more. That should be a requirement. Having the ability to add and remove storage adds functionality that can't be duplicated in it's absence.

 

[anon(50597)]

Let's talk about that for a second. I hate to re-introduce the competition into this thread but it's necessary to further validate your post. The competition's top dogs as it were, don't have external storage. I'm referring to the Google Pixel and iPhone 7 of course. One of them doesn't even have a headset jack yet both these phones are lauded as the s**t when it comes to smartphones.

What is and what isn't a flagship has been discussed ad nauseum but it really irks me when the major players get a pass when they miss the important things yet Windows lives in the trash bin no matter what they offer.

Absolutely, 100% agree! External storage, to me, has become much more important than NFC ever will. Battery life is right up there also. These are "needs" to me, rather than fluff.
But again, we are all different and I respect that.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

 

[xrs22]

Has anybody with the Alcatel used it on ATT? that's my provider now and was wondering. My 950, 3rd one, is doing good after the battery problem in which they sent me a new phone as they have no 950 batteries. I also still have my 900, my second phone after my Samsung focus.

 

[anon(50597)]

Has anybody with the Alcatel used it on ATT? that's my provider now and was wondering. My 950, 3rd one, is doing good after the battery problem in which they sent me a new phone as they have no 950 batteries. I also still have my 900, my second phone after my Samsung focus.

I'm on Cricket, which uses the same towers.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

 

[sketchy9]

Also, one note about NFC: On the 950XL, running various permutations of releases (stock, release preview, slow, and fast ring) along with the Wallet 2.0 app, ALL AFTER HARD RESET and fresh install, the tap-to-pay was super buggy on my device. The attached card would randomly disappear and not be able to be used to pay, or sometimes the app would bug out and not recognize NFC. The only solution was a reboot. Either way, the experience was buggy and unreliable enough that I didn't ever rely on it-- at work the cafeteria has tap-to-pay enabled stations, but I still always used my credit card. Why? Because TTP on my phone didn't work 50% of the time and I didn't want to hold up the line to see if this was one of those times.

That's a long way of saying that I didn't really consider that NFC was a loss when moving from the 950XL to the Alcatel, because it didn't work well enough to use.

 

[fatclue_98]

Also, one note about NFC: On the 950XL, running various permutations of releases (stock, release preview, slow, and fast ring) along with the Wallet 2.0 app, ALL AFTER HARD RESET and fresh install, the tap-to-pay was super buggy on my device. The attached card would randomly disappear and not be able to be used to pay, or sometimes the app would bug out and not recognize NFC. The only solution was a reboot. Either way, the experience was buggy and unreliable enough that I didn't ever rely on it-- at work the cafeteria has tap-to-pay enabled stations, but I still always used my credit card. Why? Because TTP on my phone didn't work 50% of the time and I didn't want to hold up the line to see if this was one of those times.

That's a long way of saying that I didn't really consider that NFC was a loss when moving from the 950XL to the Alcatel, because it didn't work well enough to use.

Which part of "Preview" do you think is responsible for your NFC not working right? When I had my 950 on the AU I tried the wallet app just to see what the difference was between using my phone and using my card. It worked perfectly but I didn't see any advantage so I stopped using it. In all fairness I only used it for a couple of days, maybe a week.

Many members, myself included, state unequivocally that the 950s don't do well on the Insider Builds. The Idol didn't work well for me either on any other build except the AU.

 

[darrell reimer]

Thanks @James Falconer chronologically I have been on this platform steadily for about 3 1/2 years now. Many of the devices I listed ran through my hands rather quickly, but I did give them all a thorough shakedown. LOL



Yep, Camera is probably the one area that most needs help to further elevate this device.

As I posted elsewhere, I don't think Alcatel ever really adds camera firmware, they seem to let the Snapdragon chip handle it. Yet the advances in Microsoft Camera already look to have improved things vs at release so some improvements may still happen, albeit passively as far as Alcatel is concerned.

So to make this phone a 'must have' it would definitely need a camera facelift via firmware that would put it on par, or at least closer to, PureView. This would take some of the work out of post-shot editing, allow DNG capture (trust me, I tried the Reg Edit to enable DNG and there just are not the underpinnings to do so), add a wider range of values in manual settings and add selectable MP options including an oversampled 8MP JPG.

Oh oh; camera quality is a deal breaker with me. If i have to go back and use my 3 year old ATIV SE or Lumia 830 to take decent pictures, then i'm in trouble with this phone.....

 

[anon(50597)]

Oh oh; camera quality is a deal breaker with me. If i have to go back and use my 3 year old ATIV SE or Lumia 830 to take decent pictures, then i'm in trouble with this phone.....

Yup. If you're taking pictures you really care about, and not just selfies and stuff, you may want a different phone. Of course you could also use a real camera for vacation pics, weddings, etc.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

 

[nate0]

Has anybody with the Alcatel used it on ATT? that's my provider now and was wondering. My 950, 3rd one, is doing good after the battery problem in which they sent me a new phone as they have no 950 batteries. I also still have my 900, my second phone after my Samsung focus.

Hey, I am. I opened a thread on this, and will be updating it more here soon.

 

[Iain_S]

In what way? Aren't they very similar spec wise? Would be nice to hear from someone who has both.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

I do have both, the 4s is a nice looking device but that about where it ends, the touch is very sensitive on this device and can be annoying, the camera is very subpar, it does not run windows 10 as smooth as the x3, the display is not as nice as the x3, no nfc, no wireless charging, vr apps that you can not uninstall, the device has seen no firmware updates since release which kind of tells me alcatel will just abandon it, there is no recovery image using recovery tool for the open market model so if you upgrade to insider builds you are stuck on them, finger print scanner is not very good compared to other devices I have(google pixel, iphone7 and even the x3).

 

[anon(50597)]

I do have both, the 4s is a nice looking device but that about where it ends, the touch is very sensitive on this device and can be annoying, the camera is very subpar, it does not run windows 10 as smooth as the x3, the display is not as nice as the x3, no nfc, no wireless charging, vr apps that you can not uninstall, the device has seen no firmware updates since release which kind of tells me alcatel will just abandon it, there is no recovery image using recovery tool for the open market model so if you upgrade to insider builds you are stuck on them, finger print scanner is not very good compared to other devices I have(google pixel, iphone7 and even the x3).

I appreciate the info. I almost bought the x3, but just as I was ready to pull the trigger, the Alcatel became available unlocked. I like the smaller footprint so am very happy. Both are excellent devices though and provide nice choices depending on your preferences.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

 

[editguy]

I do have both, the 4s is a nice looking device but that about where it ends, the touch is very sensitive on this device and can be annoying, the camera is very subpar, it does not run windows 10 as smooth as the x3, the display is not as nice as the x3, no nfc, no wireless charging, vr apps that you can not uninstall, the device has seen no firmware updates since release which kind of tells me alcatel will just abandon it, there is no recovery image using recovery tool for the open market model so if you upgrade to insider builds you are stuck on them, finger print scanner is not very good compared to other devices I have(google pixel, iphone7 and even the x3).

Perhaps you have the glove mode on. I don't find the phone to be at all too sensitive. Also, I don't know how it could run any smother. It opens apps quickly. I'm sure the X3 is very nice, but for me it's too big to carry around and the things it has that the Idol 4s doesn't have are not things I care about. And, with 64 gigs of storage and a micro SD card slot, I'm not concerned about a few apps that I can't delete. At some point the WDRT will have the unlocked model image. The only thing that would benefit from a firmware update is the camera, and sadly I agree with you that it seems unlikely that Alcatel will be doing that. For what I use a phone camera for, it's more than adequate. It's nice that we have choices though, isn't it? :smile:

 

[RumoredNow]

Oh oh; camera quality is a deal breaker with me. If i have to go back and use my 3 year old ATIV SE or Lumia 830 to take decent pictures, then i'm in trouble with this phone.....

Don't get me wrong; while the camera is no PureView/Zeiss/OIS pleasure, it is NOT a complete wreck. Before you decide you should probably look through this thread and see the many excellent examples real users have taken with this phone: http://forums.windowscentral.com/alcatel-idol-4s/445106-official-idol-4s-picture-video-thread.html

 

[darrell reimer]

I need your help editguy! You sound like you know camera settings. I really want to keep this phone; I love everything about this phone, except for the camera!. I've always left my other cameras on 'auto' settings, and had great results, so I don't know what to change in the settings. Where should I start? Here's another example of the problems i'm having with this camera:

 

[editguy]

I need your help editguy! You sound like you know camera settings. I really want to keep this phone; I love everything about this phone, except for the camera!. I've always left my other cameras on 'auto' settings, and had great results, so I don't know what to change in the settings. Where should I start?

First, let me say that the camera is a lot easier to manage for stills than it is for video. If you're going to be using it a lot for video and you prefer auto settings, you may have to decide if this phone is for you. If I find some time tomorrow I will take it out and see what I can do.

Here's my suggestion for now. Take a white sheet of paper (copy paper) with you and use it to set the white balance. You want it set for the lighting conditions that you're recording in so do this in the location where you're shooting the video. Open the white balance setting and adjust it until the piece of paper looks the same through the camera lens as it does with the naked eye. You would do this whether it's a sunny day or a cloudy day. When the camera knows what white is under any given condition, it then knows what the colors should look like. Poor white balance is why you see videos with white being tinted and colors being off. Next, set the focus to infinity. That should stop it from "hunting" for focus. Lastly, set the brightness by aiming the camera at the brightest scene and adjust it so that it looks appropriate for the brightest area. For example, the snow would be the brightest area and you want the brightness set so that it's not being overwhelmed by the snow. Sadly, the stock camera app allows very few settings for video so I'm not sure if this will solve the problem. I have only taken a couple of videos since I bought the phone They are on comment 110 in the Photo/Video thread. I have a number of dedicated video cameras and I would probably be taking a really nice P & S camera if I was doing skiing video like you. But I completely understand how you would want to use your phone for the convenience, and that many phones would allow you to do that. Try what I suggested and if that doesn't make a marked improvement, before you give up, consider buying the Pro Shot app ($3.99) which gives many settings. If you get Pro Shot, also set the ISO to 100 if it's a sunny day. You could also experiment with different shutter speed settings. Here is a quick overview of the functions of that app:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH61_fPBdnA

Hope this helps!

 

[Rosebank]

Out of this entire forum we seem to have 3 to 5 defenders of the Idol4s, this is a very poor demonstration of the device and its amazing attributes.
The device (I am sure) is lovely and the owners of it are happy, that's great, its nice to hear of some success. Now if we had 3 to 500 positive viewpoints I would be convinced but as we seem to be in single figures I am not convinced that this is the BEST windows phone.