Can refined design be a key selling point when choosing a smartphone? With its Shine Lite, Alcatel has in any case done what it took to seduce the consumer even when this phone is sold below 200 euros.
With a beautiful part made of chrome and glass, the Shine Lite does not usurp its name and places great emphasis on its shiny appearance. Some will find it flashy, others quite to their liking. It is, however, indisputable: the finish of this smartphone is excellent, especially at this price level.
Strange ergonomic choices
Question ergonomics, we regret that the lock button is placed at the top of the right edge, above the volume buttons. Difficult to reach easily with the right thumb. This is also the case with the fingerprint sensor located a little too low on the back of the device to be easily pressed with the index finger.
If the screen offers a rather good measured contrast of 1,357: 1, it is however a bother in terms of brightness, with only 380 cd / m². A little fair to be easily readable, in a very bright environment, even if the high contrast reduces this defect. Anyway, the display quality remains generally satisfactory, with a very correct resolution of 294 ppi.
Forget the games
With its modest MediaTek MT6737 processor at just 1.3 GHz and its 2 GB of RAM, the Shine Lite is not a lightning bolt of performance either. Despite the HD-only definition (720 x 1280 pixels) of its 5-inch screen, which does not use the 3D graphics chip too much, the smartphone has trouble managing resource-hungry 3D games.
We thus measured only 25 frames per second in the review carried out with the Epic Citadel application, which is insufficient for a number of titles. On the other hand, navigation in the interface turns out to be generally fluid, even if one sometimes resumes tapping an icon several times to launch an application.
Autonomy and photo also hardly
Unfortunately, the Shine Lite also doesn’t catch up on endurance. Yet equipped with a battery sufficiently powerful at first 2460 mAh, it provides only 10 h 09 of autonomy in call, which is really little, and 6 h 52 in versatile use, a result just passable. Unlikely to pass the course of the day without having to recharge.
Finally, the photo is not level either. Autofocus struggles to focus quickly even in bright surroundings. In low light, it is completely overwhelmed and provides very dark and poor quality shots. Same thing for the video with an autofocus which again constantly seeks to take stock. Partially fuzzy sequences guaranteed.
