Alcatel 708

Editor's Review of the 708

If you're after a basic touchscreen then look no further than the Alcatel OT-708. With its zero-frills approach and low price-tag you shouldn't go expecting it to rival the iPhone, but can this finally be the Alcatel device to boost its reputation?

If you look past its garish plastic chassis, the One Touch 708 isn't a bad looking mobile, and it feels more sturdy than its highly-priced rivals. With measurements of 96 x 52.4 x 14.6 and a sub-85g weight, its one of the lightest touchscreens on the market, too.

Within its casing sits a 2.44-inch resistive touchscreen, which is coupled with a touch sensitive area underneath the display. This area features blue LED lights that form various patterns, which you can tap and sweep until your heart's content.

The homescreen on the OT-708 looks familiar, offering similar traits to Samsung's widget-filled TouchWiz UI. However, Alcatel's selection of widgets is fairly limited, and includes a calendar, music player and weather application. Still, you can download plenty of apps to keep you entertained, including an Opera Mini web browser and eBook reader.

Media-wise, the Alcatel 708 rocks a 1.3 megapixel rear-facing camera. Although it won't go replacing your digital camera, it takes snaps quickly and offers plenty up plenty of settings for editing your photos. There's also a video recorder built-in too, although footage seems to suffer due to the handset's lack of flash.

The music player is pretty basic too, and there's no 3.5mm jack included on the handset. However, there's also a built-in FM radio, including a bundled stereo headset which doubles as a receiver.

Other features include juddery GPRS connectivity, up to 4GB of expandable memory, and a decent 750mAh battery promising up to 8 hours of talk-time.

The OT-708 may not be the most advanced on the market, but it's pretty impressive for Alcatel's first foray into the touchscreen space. In terms of features it's undoubtedly lacking, but its UI gives a high-end feel to this bargain-priced handset.