Alcatel OT-S319 review

Rating: 3

The Alcatel OT-S310 costs just £14.95 on Pay As You Go so right off the bat you shouldn’t be expecting it to be a particularly fancy mobile phone. It does, though, have two very strong features apart from that low price. One of these is very nice hardware design, the other is superb battery life.

On the hardware design, the Alcatel OT-S319 is a clamshell mobile weighing 90g and having small enough dimensions to fit very neatly in the hand and pocket. The black and red colour scheme looks attractive, and the black parts have a rubber finish which helps with grip.

As far as battery life is concerned Alcatel suggests you’ll get up to 400 hours on standby and 7 hours of talk. We found it lasted quite happily for a week with just a few calls and texts under its belt.

A key reason for that long battery life is a very minimalist features set. The screen is just 1.8 inches and 128 x 160 pixels. There is WAP support but not full Web. The phone is dual band GSM with GRPS. There is no Bluetooth and no camera. No music player. A miniUSB connector doubles for mains power and a headset for handsfree calling, but you don’t get a headset in the box.

There is a calendar, calculator, voice recorder, five alarms, and an 800 entry phone directory, though. In the end, if you are after long battery life, voice calls and SMS capability but not much else, this could meet your needs nicely.

Verdict
The Alcatel OT-S319 is very short on features but very good on battery life. It may be the ideal child’s phone or second handset.

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Best features
Long battery life
Nice physical design
Small and light

Not so good
No Bluetooth
No camera
No music player

Check out the Alcatel OT-S319 review image gallery:

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