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Alcatel's MWC lineup includes a glowing-back smartphone, Windows tablet

By Kaloyan C.

Updated: Feb 27, 2017, 1:18 AM

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Today, on the showfloor at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Alcatel has revealed its latest lineup of mobile devices, which includes three phones and a tablet. While the company was never known for offering high-end devices, the new reveals still manage to be somewhat interesting.

Kicking off the lineup is an extremely unusual phone that can only have come from a lesser-known vendor such as Alcatel: the A5 LED. As the name (sort of) implies, the device has quite an interesting feature: a back panel covered in colorful LED lights. Unlike similar devices, such as the e-ink equipped YotaPhone, Alcatel's approach isn't to than try and cram a full second display in the back, but rather just make it shiny instead, more a fashion statement than a utility. The LED panel can function as a notification light, a music equalizer, or can be custom programmed by the user. Apart from that, the phone is a low-to-mid ranger, with an octa-core, 1.4 GHz MediaTek processor and a 5.2" 720p screen. It runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and has an 8 MP back and 5 MP front camera, both of which feature an LED flash.

Along with it, three other devices were also revealed: two smartphones, the Alcatel A3 and U5, and a 2-in-1 tablet, called Alcatel Plus 12. The A3 is what Alcatel calls "the most affordable 5" HD smartphone", while the U5 is "the most affordable 5" 4G smartphone", and that tells you pretty much all you need to know about them. The Plus 12 is a 4G-enabled Windows 10 tablet, though with the obvious problem of having the LTE receiver built into the keyboard, rather than the body of the device. That, however, is somewhat rectified by the keyboard's ability to act as a mobile hotspot for up to 15 devices.