The Alcatel 1X first made its debut in February at MWC, then Alcatel confirmed a couple of months later that the 1X would be making its way to the U.S. Now we know when it'll launch.
Alcatel's 1X will be available from Amazon next week for $99.99. It'll make its way to Best Buy and Walmart.com, too, launching at those retailers in the coming weeks. The Alcatel 1X is sold unlocked and is compatible with GSM networks.
In case you need a refresher, the Alcatel 1X runs Android Oreo (Go edition), a version of Android Oreo that's optimized to run entry-level hardware. Additionally, Google has optimized many of its apps for these devices so that the Go editions take up less storage and save data usage.
Alcatel has equipped the 1X with a 5.3-inch 960x480 display with 18:9 aspect ratio, a quad-core MediaTek MT6739 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 2460mAh battery. There's also 16GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot that'll let you add 32GB of additional storage.
Rounding out the Alcatel 1X's hardware specs are 8MP rear and 5MP front cameras, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a rear fingerprint reader. On the software side, Alcatel touts that the 1X includes Social Mode to help you take, edit, and share photos, as well as a Social Square mode that'll let you view recent photos on one half of your screen and use the camera viewfinder on the other half.
At $100 unlocked, the Alcatel 1X is an intriguing device for anyone in the market for an ultra-affordable device. The specs are pretty entry-level, but because Android Oreo (Go edition) is optimized for that, the lower-end specs should be an issue with regard to performance. If you're in the market for a low-cost device, the Alcatel 1X could be worth considering when it launches next week.