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Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 review

For Android purists, there are no better devices than Google's own Nexus-branded ones.

There are many reasons why Nexus phones are better than other Android phones: They run Google's unaltered version of Android, they're the first devices to get software updates, they don't have bloatware, and they're really well-designed.

See also: 10 ways to squeeze more battery life from your Android phone

For a time, Google sold the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, two phones with all of the above at very attractive prices from around $200-$399 unlocked. Then in 2014, Google switched gears with the Nexus 6. It's an excellent phone, but its price isn't very Nexus-like: $649 for an unlocked model.

Fans got upset, but Google's reasoning was this: Android no longer needed a hero phone anymore; the 4 and 5 did the job as blueprints for device makers and now its mission was complete.

Well, if you miss the cheap feature-packed Nexus phones of yore, there's good news: the Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 is its spiritual heir.

The $250 Idol 3 even looks like a Nexus phone. Its gentle curves, slim 0.29-inch profile and beautiful high-res 5.5-inch display with full HD resolution feel like the natural evolution of the Nexus 4's industrial design. The Idol 3's plastic is brushed to appear as if it's made of metal. It certainly no Galaxy S6, but it's not flimsy, either. The phone's also really light.

I have only two complaints about the design: The power button is located too high up on the left side of the phone. The same goes for the volume rocker on the right side. They're both positioned in a way that makes reaching them difficult.

Plenty of punch

Image: Luke Leonard/Mashable

If there's one thing we learned with the LG G Flex 2, it's that having the newest and fastest chips don't define a smartphone anymore. A faster processor with more cores and tons of RAM might look great on a comparison chart, but they don't always tell the whole story in real-world usage.

The Idol 3 has an octa-core Qualcommm Snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 128GB via microSD). Geeks will point and sneer at its meager specs, but to the truth is, it's powerful enough to do everything with aplomb.

For the most part, the Idol 3 runs a near stock version of Android 5.0.2 Lollipop. Unlike other phones, Alcatel didn't modify the user interface in any relevant way. I actually like the Fisher-Price look to the icons and the animation changes — they're playful and approachable.

The phone is speedy and while I did notice a few hiccups during my testing, they didn't impact usage. (Every phone freezes up every once in a while.) All you need to know is this phone is butter-smooth. The 2,910 milliamp-hour (mAh) battery is also a top performer — it lasted a full day and sometimes a day and a half on a single charge.

Reversible mode

By itself, the Idol 3 is a great and affordable, if not generic smartphone. There's nothing about the smartphone that knocks you off your socks, which is why Alcatel probably felt compelled to throw in something a little special.

A feature called "reversible mode" lets you use the phone upside down. It's a cool software trick that isn't too gimmicky and could be practical in the right situation — like when you're half asleep and reach over for your phone to check the time — but I didn't ever use it.

Even when the phone was just sitting on my couch, I always picked it up right-side-up. But that may just be my trained muscle memory. More useful would have been a landscape mode.

Great camera

A great camera in a smartphone used to be icing on the cake after features like top-notch call quality, speedy processors and a fabulous screen with tons of pixels.

But not anymore. A great camera is not icing on the cake in 2015, it's the damn cake batter — if the camera sucks, it doesn't matter how amazing the rest of the phone is.

It's a good thing Alcatel didn't screw up the camera then. Well, not too much at least. The Idol 3 has a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash and an 8-megapixel selfie camera on the front.

There are no superpowers in the cameras — no 4K video recording or optical image stabilization — but that's fine with me because picture quality is really good.

Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3 camera samples

I had a few issues with the autofocus and the auto exposure could be a hit or miss, but in general the camera is a step above other phones within this price range and even better than some premium phones like the HTC One M9.

On many phones, you find all kinds of camera modes you'd never care for, but on the Idol 3, there are only the basics: High dynamic range (HDR), panorama, time-lapse, QR scanner and Face beauty.

The Idol 3's manual mode is nice, but not as advanced as other smartphone cameras.

There's even a manual mode, which lets you tweak ISO from 100 to 2400, shutter speed from 1/125th to 1/2000th of a second, focus and white balance. The settings aren't as advanced as the ones you get on a premium smartphone like the LG G4, but they're welcome given the target buyer.

Best of all, the camera lens doesn't protrude like it does on other smartphones. Bonus points to Alcatel for not playing the silly thin-phone game.

A worthy phone idol

It's remarkable what Chinese companies are doing in the affordable smartphone space. Despite not being available in the U.S., Xiaomi's Mi Note is really nice and the OnePlus One continues to be a favorite among the cash-strapped, now that anyone can buy one without an invite.

Go ahead and add the Alcatel Idol 3 to the growing list of inexpensive-but-respectable smartphones. It's thin and light, and fast enough to do just about anything you throw at it. The 5.5-inch full HD display is really sharp and has great viewing angles. The battery lasts all day and then some. And the software, despite a few small changes, is very close to stock Android.

The front-facing speakers are nice and loud and, while I didn't ever pick up the phone upside down, it's cool knowing that I could if I wanted to. The cameras are also pretty good.

At $250, the Idol 3 packs in a lot of smartphone. If there's any one smartphone that could be considered the successor to Google's once-inexpensive and powerful Nexus smartphones, it's the Alcatel Idol 3.