I have been assessing the Alcatel U5 many of which seem to have appeared on the market recently, at prices ranging from "new" at about £80 to pre-owned at £30.
It is a very solid phone and its first advantages is that it is a 5" phone with an aspect ratio of 5:3 making it ideal for us -and unattractive to smart phone geeks who now wants phones long and skinny at aspect ratios of 18:9.
I set it up with the Bridgepal app then tried the Launcher option from the Director menu. I got half way, in that when the power button was pressed it first of all went to home page but an upward swipe took me straight into Bridgepal.
The phone does not accept Caffeine which is meant to save battery power. However it is a nuisance having the phone go out and having to re-press the power button.
I therefore put the Display "sleep" control to NEVER and left it on all day, charged initially to 100%. I did simulated scoring on it during this time and found the the phone was still going happily at 38% after 8 hours so I have adopted this approach.
It has a 2000 mAh battery
I have found the touch required to be quite light, and the bidding characters easier to use being larger.
I left my router a Netgear DG2000 down in the conservatory and everything seemed to work quite happily though 2 brick walls and room spqces.
So at the moment I think this is an ideal phone for Bridgepal, nice footprint, solid with a good display, and long battery life, not the cheapest, but you get what you pay for.
One last tip. The phones come in Working Condition Good Condition and Excellent condition. the difference in price between Working and Excellent is about £5. I very strongly advise you shell out the extra £5. They really are in excellent condition.
The working condition ones very definitely have been worked quite hard and are thoroughly scratched and battered.
