Alcatel literally bets big on phablets with 6-inch A3 XL: hands-on
5

Design

The appearance of capacitive Android buttons under the phone's screen isn't necessarily our favorite choice, but it does mean that you get you use every last square inch of the A3 XL's display, and it has a certain appeal for users who may not be extremely comfortable with smartphones, serving as a visual reminder of how to navigate around the handset.
Another unusual design decision, but one we're able to appreciate, is splitting up the A3 XL's card support into three distinct slots: instead of a crowded hybrid dual-SIM/microSD tray, you've got fully separate slots for not just two SIM cards, but also a microSD card, letting you use as many or as few of those as you'd like without having to sacrifice others.
Formally, the A3XL has a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner for user authentication, but we also checked out variants of the hardware that lacked that scanner altogether. From the sound of things, different markets may see the A3 XL arrive with or without that feature present.
Display

Still, it's big, it's decently bright, and even if pixel density leaves something to be desired, we can imagine users getting a lot of enjoyment about watching TV and movies on a screen this large.
User experience
You're not going to find a lot of extraneous software features on the A3 XL, nor a heavily modified system skin. Instead, what you get is some largely straightforward Android action, and thankfully that involves Android's latest incarnation, 7.0 Nougat.

Camera
As announced, the Alcatel A3 XL is equipped with an 8MP main camera capable of shooting video in up to 1080p resolution, as well as a 5MP front-facer. But right now, the full story on this phone's camera capabilities is far from clear, and we looked at A3 XL hardware that had a 13MP main sensor, as well as hardware that only came with a 6MP camera. And depending on which of those variants we're talking about, camera software also changed. Much like the fingerprint scanner and maybe even the SoC, it looks like we're going to have to wait for the actual release of this handset in various markets around the world before we're able to say with utter certainty exactly what you can expect from the A3 XL's camera.
Battery

Expectations
Phones like the Alcatel A3 XL remind us that smartphones aren't one-size-fits-all, and what sort of capabilities matter in a handset are going to vary wildly not just from user to user, but also market to market. It very much remains to be seen if this particular intersection between features, pricing, and performance will actually resonate with shoppers when sales begin over the next couple months, but we're very curious to see how the A3 XL's story plays out.
Things that are NOT allowed: