Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
With an 1150mAh battery to keep it going you might think the Alcatel OT-980 isn't up to much. Alcatel rates it as good for eight hours GSM talk, and up to a massive 35 hours of music.
That seems a bit hopeful to us. The battery did keep our test phone going for more than the usual day you'd expect to get from any smartphone, but we had to recharge half way through day two.
Even with light use, we reckon a charge every couple of days will be in order, and you'll probably find that a bit of mains power once a day is a good thing.
Google Maps is built in, and the GPS had absolutely no trouble pinpointing our location – even when we were indoors and sitting near but not right next to a window. That's something not every handset can say so plus points here too.
Alcatel has pre-installed quite a range of third party apps to help boost the OT-980's performance right out of the box. We've already mentioned the A Online Radio streaming radio service.
We got a little bit addicted to a Bejeweled clone called Bebbled, and there is an accelerometer-using marble-though-a-maze game called Balance Ball too.
More usefully, there's a password manager called BioWallet Signature that uses your own handwritten signature as its overall password access system, a file manager that lets you move, copy and delete folders and files, and a freebie shopping list manager called OI Shopping List.
Of course all of these can be downloaded from the Android market, but it is nice to see a smattering of freebies pre-installed.
Those who come to this handset unfamiliar with Android, as some budget users might, could find they help them to start exploring the richness of the apps that are available.
