Alcatel OneTouch has today taken the wraps off a line of waterproof, dustproof and shockproof gadgets in its new "Go" series. Debuting at IFA 2015 in Berlin, Germany are the Go Play smartphone and Go Watch — colorful new devices that bring some unique features to their respective price points.
Alcatel OneTouch Go Play
First up, Alcatel's water and dust-resistant smartphone packs a 5-inch 720p display and a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor, backed up by 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage (with 4GB available for your own stuff.) It's also rated IP67 for water and dust resistance, while also being "shock resistant," which Alcatel claims will make the phone resistant to accidental drops. There's a 2500 mAh battery fixed inside, which Alcatel says should provide 8.3 hours of talk time, or 500 hours of standby time.
Hardy, colorful and affordable.
The design is an all-plastic affair, with a series of brightly colored designs adorned with the manufacturer's "Go" branding. It's eye-catching and sturdy, while also just a little bit gaudy. Plastic flaps protect the Play from water damage, while the curved design feels less unwieldy than many ruggedized phones. It's not the sleekest, most beautiful phone we've ever seen, but Alcatel is hoping the Play will fill a niche or folks wanting a more hardy handset that's also got a bit of character.
The software will be familiar to anyone who's used any of Alcatel's 2015 lineup — close to vanilla Android 5.0 Lollipop with a handful of extra apps from the manufacturer. Performance on the pre-production units we tested seemed speedy, just as we'd expect from a Snapdragon 410 running on a 720p display.
Alcatel OneTouch Go Watch
A cousin of the original Alcatel OneTouch Watch, the Go Watch incorporates some of the design language of the Go Play to produce a chunky, rugged wearable with a similarly colorful design. The outer case and straps are all replaceable —the casing surrounding the display simply snaps off — allowing you to customize the look of the wearable. Whichever you choose, it's big, plasticky and colorful by design, though that's obviously not going to suit everyone's tastes.
At least the Go Watch can boast relatively lengthy battery life compared to rival wearables — with a 180MHz Cortex M4 processor running the show, paired with a 225mAh battery, Alcatel claims the watch is good for 2-5 days of use. On the software side, the Go Watch runs a variation of the Alcatel software seen on the original Watch, only with a slightly expanded app suite. The big addition this time around is a new GoPro app, which allows you to control your camera from your wrist. And like its predecessor, it works with Android 4.3 and above, as well as iOS 7 and up.
Again, this isn't the sleekest or prettiest smartwatch you can buy, but between the customizability, the IP67 water and dust resistance rating and the handful of new software tricks, Alcatel will be hoping to attract new customers into the wearables space.
