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MagyarAlcatel 1S (2021) review - Cheap entry-level smartphone with setbacks
Possible competitors in comparison
Rating | Rating Version | Date | Model | Weight | Drive | Size | Resolution | Price from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 73.6 % | 7 | 05/2021 | Alcatel 1S 2021 Helio P22 MT6762, PowerVR GE8320 | 190 g | 32 GB eMMC Flash | 6.52" | 1600x720 | |
| 78 % | 7 | 01/2021 | Xiaomi Poco M3 SD 662, Adreno 610 | 198 g | 128 GB UFS 2.2 Flash | 6.53" | 2340x1080 | |
| 74.6 % | 7 | 06/2020 | Alcatel 1S (2020) Helio P22 MT6762, PowerVR GE8320 | 165 g | 32 GB eMMC Flash | 6.22" | 1520x720 | |
| 76 % | 7 | 12/2020 | Nokia 3.4 SD 460, Adreno 610 | 180 g | 64 GB eMMC Flash | 6.39" | 1560x720 |
Case, equipment and operation
The workmanship of the Alcatel 1S (2021) is very decent. There are only a few material transitions due to the plastic unibody. The display's bezel is very even, but it should be a bit tighter on the back. There is no special protection against dust and water and the battery is fixed.
The equipment is almost unchanged compared to the predecessor. According to the specifications, the 1S should again have a radio receiver, but no app can be found for it. This might be added via an update. The card slot (hybrid slot) can either accommodate two nano-SIM cards or a microSD card instead of the second SIM, which cannot be formatted as internal storage, though. The dedicated Google Assistant button cannot be assigned elsewhere. There is no notification LED.
The operating system is Android 11 with the Alcatel UI, which includes a few proprietary apps, such as the Playfield. TCL also pre-installs some third-party apps, but they can be uninstalled.
The mobile features have not been changed compared to the predecessor. With LTE Cat. 4, only a slow 4G standard is available, but it reliably provides the offered performance. The WLAN module only supports 2.4 GHz networks and works correspondingly slow. Unfortunately, the transfer rates to our reference router Netgear Nighthawk AX12 are not particularly stable either, which is reflected in slow loading times in everyday use.
The call quality of the Alcatel 1S is really good when held to the ear and convinces with a clear and natural voice reproduction. In speaker mode, the user of the Alcatel smartphone hears audible reverberations and must not move too far away from the phone, otherwise it can only be heard very quietly. The suppression of ambient noise works quite well as long as it is not too loud. The 1S supports both VoLTE and WLAN calling.
The smartphone's capacitive touchscreen has good gliding properties, but sometimes reacts a bit delayed to inputs. The physical keys have a short travel, but the soft pressure point is still clearly defined. A fingerprint scanner and 2D facial recognition are available for biometric security, both of which perform their services reliably for the most part.
| SD Card Reader - average JPG Copy Test (av. of 3 runs) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (10.9 - 77, n=99, last 2 years) | |
| Alcatel 1S 2021 (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501) | |
Cross Platform Disk Test (CPDT)
| Networking | |
| iperf3 transmit AX12 | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| Alcatel 1S (2020) | |
| Alcatel 1S 2021 | |
| iperf3 receive AX12 | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| Alcatel 1S (2020) | |
| Alcatel 1S 2021 | |
Cameras - Alcatel 1S with triple cam and strange zoom
The front-facing camera allows decent selfies, but has problems ensuring a clean reproduction of details especially in backlight.
The main camera uses the same sensor as the predecessor, but is nominally less sensitive with f/2.0. Daytime pictures are still decent and homogeneously illuminated, but many details are washed out or even completely lost. It gets a bit bizarre when the digital zoom is used. It behaves completely differently than in other Android smartphones. While, for example, a two-fold magnification on a Poco X3 corresponds to around 35 mm focal length with an EOS 90D (APS-C), it is 60 mm with the Alcatel.
The two additional lenses do not offer any real added value in everyday use.
Image Comparison
Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.
WeitwinkelWeitwinkelLow-Light
Display - Dark panel in the Alcatel 1S (2021)
The IPS panel of the Alcatel 1S (2021) grows slightly compared to last year and now measures 6.52 inches (16.56 cm). The pixel density is below 300 PPI due to the small HD resolution, but it is still satisfactory.
The display brightness is less good. Regardless of whether the ambient light sensor is enabled or not, the panel only reaches 335 cd/m² in the center; even the 2020 model was much brighter. Even though the black value is now lower and the contrast ratio is better, it does not compensate for the lower brightness. The Alcatel smartphone quickly reaches its limits outdoors in particular. The brightness sensor is finally installed, but it is very sluggish.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 93 %
Center on Battery: 335 cd/m²
Contrast: 1763:1 (Black: 0.19 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 3.4 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5
ΔE Greyscale 4.3 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
92.3% sRGB (Calman 2D)
Gamma: 2.24
| Alcatel 1S 2021 IPS, 1600x720, 6.52 | Xiaomi Poco M3 IPS, 2340x1080, 6.53 | Alcatel 1S (2020) IPS, 1520x720, 6.22 | Nokia 3.4 IPS, 1560x720, 6.39 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response Times | 17% | 21% | 13% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 50 ? | 44 ? 12% | 48 ? 4% | 46 ? 8% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 36 ? | 28 ? 22% | 22.8 ? 37% | 30 ? 17% |
| PWM Frequency | 893 ? | 962 ? | ||
| Screen | 28% | -34% | -25% | |
| Brightness middle | 335 | 465 39% | 470 40% | 440 31% |
| Brightness | 321 | 428 33% | 456 42% | 417 30% |
| Brightness Distribution | 93 | 89 -4% | 87 -6% | 91 -2% |
| Black Level * | 0.19 | 0.21 -11% | 0.33 -74% | 0.4 -111% |
| Contrast | 1763 | 2214 26% | 1424 -19% | 1100 -38% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 3.4 | 1.7 50% | 6.7 -97% | 4.77 -40% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 6.6 | 3.5 47% | 12.1 -83% | 8.85 -34% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 4.3 | 2.4 44% | 7.6 -77% | 5.7 -33% |
| Gamma | 2.24 98% | 2.16 102% | 2.36 93% | 2.156 102% |
| CCT | 7119 91% | 6664 98% | 8732 74% | 7660 85% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | 23% /
26% | -7% /
-23% | -6% /
-17% |
* ... smaller is better
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 36 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 18 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 18 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 93 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (21.5 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 50 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 22.8 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 27.2 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.2 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 84 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (33.7 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM not detected |  | ||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 17900 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. | |||
Performance, emissions and battery life
Like last year, the Alcatel 1S (2021) is powered by a Helio P22 with 3 GB of RAM, which was already not the youngest in 2020. The performance deficits become more noticeable with the newer operating system. The system is a bit sluggish and launching apps sometimes takes a second or two.
The smartphone already heats up noticeably in idle mode, but the surface temperatures hardly increase under permanent load.
The speaker on the lower edge has a very high treble and is well suited for phone calls. Media playback on the other hand is not its field of expertise. The jack is really good for this price range (SNR: 82.01 dBFS) and the audio codec support for Bluetooth (SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX TWS+ and LDAC) is also surprisingly broad.
The battery runtimes of the Alcatel 1S (2021) are shorter than those of the predecessor, but it still achieves a good result in the test.
| PCMark for Android - Work 3.0 (sort by value) | |
| Alcatel 1S 2021 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio P22 MT6762 (4779 - 5126, n=2) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (4761 - 21385, n=215, last 2 years) | |
| GFXBench | |
| on screen Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Alcatel 1S 2021 | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Alcatel 1S (2020) | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio P22 MT6762 (6.4 - 7.6, n=21) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (3.6 - 123, n=227, last 2 years) | |
| 1920x1080 Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Alcatel 1S 2021 | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Alcatel 1S (2020) | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio P22 MT6762 (3.5 - 4.7, n=21) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (2.3 - 229, n=227, last 2 years) | |
| on screen Aztec Ruins High Tier Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Alcatel 1S 2021 | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Alcatel 1S (2020) | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio P22 MT6762 (4.1 - 4.8, n=21) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (2.8 - 119, n=227, last 2 years) | |
| 2560x1440 Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Alcatel 1S 2021 | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Alcatel 1S (2020) | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio P22 MT6762 (1.3 - 1.6, n=21) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (0.85 - 94, n=227, last 2 years) | |
| Alcatel 1S 2021 | Xiaomi Poco M3 | Alcatel 1S (2020) | Nokia 3.4 | Average 32 GB eMMC Flash | Average of class Smartphone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AndroBench 3-5 | 343% | 8% | 129% | 11% | 866% | |
| Sequential Read 256KB | 234.7 | 509 117% | 273.3 16% | 301.9 29% | 242 ? 3% | 1508 ? 543% |
| Sequential Write 256KB | 125.3 | 269.2 115% | 146 17% | 221.6 77% | 100.5 ? -20% | 1118 ? 792% |
| Random Read 4KB | 34.37 | 147 328% | 26.57 -23% | 123.1 258% | 43.2 ? 26% | 247 ? 619% |
| Random Write 4KB | 16.9 | 154.1 812% | 20.27 20% | 42.5 151% | 22.4 ? 33% | 272 ? 1509% |
Temperature
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 35.3 °C / 96 F, compared to the average of 35 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 56 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 33.4 °C / 92 F, compared to the average of 33.8 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 31.8 °C / 89 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.
Loudspeaker
Alcatel 1S 2021 audio analysis
(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (88.2 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 43.3% lower than median
(+) | bass is linear (3.9% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(±) | reduced mids - on average 10.3% lower than median
(±) | linearity of mids is average (8.7% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(+) | balanced highs - only 3.9% away from median
(+) | highs are linear (0.8% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (26.7% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 63% of all tested devices in this class were better, 7% similar, 30% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 38%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 79% of all tested devices were better, 4% similar, 17% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%
Nokia 3.4 audio analysis
(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (76.3 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 32.4% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (13.2% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(+) | balanced mids - only 4.8% away from median
(+) | mids are linear (6% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(+) | balanced highs - only 2.2% away from median
(+) | highs are linear (4.8% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (26.4% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 62% of all tested devices in this class were better, 6% similar, 32% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 38%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 78% of all tested devices were better, 4% similar, 18% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%
Battery life
| Alcatel 1S 2021 4000 mAh | Xiaomi Poco M3 6000 mAh | Alcatel 1S (2020) 4000 mAh | Nokia 3.4 4000 mAh | Average of class Smartphone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | |||||
| WiFi Websurfing | 854 | 1249 46% | 1226 44% | 843 -1% | 914 ? 7% |
Pros
Cons
Verdict - Light and shadow
TCL follows its own path with the Alcatel 1S (2021) and unfortunately does not quite manage to find the balance between the tried and true and innovations. The display is a bit bigger and finally has an ambient light sensor, but it is quite dark.
The camera improves its low-light performance a bit, but this is at the expense of the quality in daylight. Furthermore, the battery runtimes are also worse and both Micro-USB and the P22 processor are no longer up to date.
The Alcatel 1S (2021) is a typical entry-level smartphone. However, those who do not necessarily need Android 11 will find the better price-performance ratio in the predecessor.
Good telephony features, the option to expand the memory, and a good audio jack are also on the plus side.
Price and availability
The Alcatel 1S (2021) is available in both color variants at Amazon.
Alcatel 1S 2021
-
05/17/2021 v7
Daniel Schmidt
Pricecompare
