Alcatel V3 Ultra: French brand returns to Indian smartphone market but misses the mark

Alcatel recently re-entered the Indian smartphone market by entering into a licensee agreement with NxtCell, launching three new smartphones: Alcatel V3 Classic, V3 Pro, and V3 Ultra. 

 

The latter, V3 Ultra, is the highest-priced option, coming in at ₹19,999. I have had this phone for a couple of weeks now, and here's my experience:

 

The most unique feature of the Alcatel V3 Ultra, which is particularly necessary in a competitive market with numerous established players, is a 6.8-inch Nxtpaper display that offers 4-in-1 modes for reading (more on this later). 

 

In the box, you'll find the standard 33-Watt charger and a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, along with a stylus. You have to carry the stylus in the provided protective case, as the phone itself doesn't have a slot for it. 

 

The right side of the phone is quite busy—volume buttons are followed by the power/lock key, which also houses the fingerprint scanner, and then there's another button used to switch display modes.

 

The bottom houses the 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C port, one outlet for loudspeakers, and the primary microphone. The left side features only the dual SIM card and microSD card tray slots, and the top has the secondary microphone. 

 

Made of plastic, the back is textured and houses the big camera setup and the Alcatel branding. The phone is IP54 dust- and water-resistant, weighing a little under 200 grams and feeling decent in the hand. 

 

The 6.8-inch full HD+ (1080x2460) LCD (IPS) display supports 120Hz refresh rates. It has four modes—Regular, E-Ink for reading, Max for extended reading sessions, and Colour Paper for reduced glare. 

 

The Max mode for reading provides a familiar feel similar to that of a tablet, making it ideal for reading. The display itself features a matte finish, which aids readability. 

 

While brightness for reading and checking text messages is fine, in Regular mode, the display struggles a bit outdoors, and the colours can also seem off compared to a regular smartphone, even at this price point, with an LCD. In Max mode, you can use a limited number of apps, but in other apps, you can use them just like in Regular mode. 

 

The phone is powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 6300 chipset (up to 2.4GHz octa-core processor, Mali G57 MP2 GPU) alongside 6GB LPDDR4X (also comes in 8GB variant) RAM and 128GB internal storage that can be expanded up to 2TB via a microSD card. It's running on Android 14-based TCL UI 7, which comes with minimal bloatware out of the box. However, it's an outdated OS, and you would expect at least Android 15 by now. 

 

Alcatel hasn't mentioned any OS and security patch updates so far. The OS is quite responsive and straightforward, and doesn't require much getting used to. You get an app drawer, homescreens (or can choose to have no app drawer, too) with the Google (news) Feed on the extreme left (can be switched off). Day-to-day tasks work fine, and you wouldn't notice any glitches when watching YouTube videos, using messaging apps, or playing music in the background. However, don't expect much else, including gaming or video editing on the go. 

 

It also features a fingerprint scanner. There are apps like Sketchbook that you can use to draw using the stylus and Jnotes to write down notes. 

 

The triple camera system on the back has an 108MP (f/1.75) primary camera, an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP macro camera. The phone can take decent shots with some good details, but it struggles with dynamic range and noise, even in medium lighting conditions. You often get oversaturated shots, trying to compensate for overall colour loss at times. The camera app doesn't lag significantly and is generally usable when switching between different modes. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.0) camera is just fine for outdoor selfies and making video calls. 

 

Powered by a 5,100mAh battery unit, the phone lasted a whole day more often than not and of course, a bit more if the E-ink or Max mode were used more. It can be charged from 1% to full in around 1.5 hours using the bundled 33-watt charger. WiFi and GPS performance are good enough, while its 5G reception is okay but not good enough to be the best in the category.  

 

All in all, the Alcatel v3 Ultra is an interesting new option in the market that tries to stand out with its Nxtpaper display technology and a bundled stylus under 20k. While it offers long battery life, it doesn't quite hit a home run when it comes to sheer performance and camera quality. It will be interesting to see if Alcatel is in the Indian market for the long run this time and how else they differentiate their products going forward.

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