Upcoming Alcatel phones are promising to literally dazzle you with a set of new features and add-ons. This was the tenor of the press invites that the company has recently sent out for its event in the upcoming Mobile World Congress, happening in Barcelona on Feb. 27.
Naturally, the missive also served as a teaser so recipients may be suitably impressed but still quite clueless as to what awaits them in Spain. It is important to remember, however, that MWC has been a favorite launching pad for a number of smartphone manufacturers as was the case in previous years. So expectations for the phone maker are now running high.
Alcatel At MWC 2017
Fortunately, some rumors and leaks that got recently floated seem to corroborate what Alcatel has baked in its labs. Consider the image of device partly shown in the invitation. The handset sports a flashy panel that seems to hog its rear.
This is said to be an LED module that can respond to specific actions and behaviors such as the beat of a music being played. This should be similar to the LED lighting outfitted in some JBL Bluetooth speakers.
Modular Handset
Now, the LED panel is aligned with the rumor that at least one of Alcatel's phones will be modular. This means this device will acquire new add-ons and upgrades depending on the module attached.
It is not yet known if Alcatel will be following the Moto Z or the LG G5's interpretation of the concept. It could even adopt features from Google's own Project Ara modular device. There is also no word if the company will be engaging third-party accessories manufacturers to build modules.
Overall, it will be interesting to find what Alcatel is bringing to the table especially with the fact that both LG G5 and Moto Z struggled in achieving wider adoption. LG, for its part, abandoned the design for its succeeding flagships.
Five New Smartphones
Reports indicate that as much as five Alcatel handsets will debut at the MWC 2017. That is quite a handful to speculate about at this juncture. However, one could turn to the fact that TCL is Alcatel's parent company. It now owns rights to manufacture Blackberry handsets and those devices that TCL has recently released for this brand could provide insights as to what are in store.
For instance, there is Blackberry Mercury. Of course, one cannot expect that the iconic physical QWERTY keyboard will get ported to an Alcatel device. However, the technology under the hood could prove to be a different story. It will not surprise us if Alcatel devices heading to Barcelona would also be rocking the same mid-range innards such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chip and the 3 GB of RAM.
