Phone is great at this price, does all I need, review inside

[Android14]

Hello guys, I had the LD Esteem from when it was newly released on MetroPCS until this week.

I replaced it with this Alcatel One Touch Fierce. If you are still wondering about this phone, just get it. It works great and has very few downfalls.

Pros: Faster than LG Esteem, Has android 4.0+ so it can use all of the modern apps which my old phone could not use. The phone is faster going through menus and opening webpages, and doing everything. Battery lasts longer, Screen is bigger, lighter and thinner. Everything important, this phone has it and it works fine. Price is great, so can be used as a placeholder for people waiting on another phone or price drop for one of the expensive ones.

Cons: Camera does not have autofocus. Sound is kind of low by default(need to change that with apps, then it is fine)

Bonus: This phone can be rooted using one click and done through the phone, no PC needed. Just get Framaroot app, I have a step by step on how to do this in "all things rooted" section of this forum for this phone.

 

[TechSys]

Android 4.2.2 to be exact.

I haven't had an issue with the camera yet, seems to autofocus on anything I need. Maybe I need to take it for a more vigorous test.

I will agree, framaroot does work. I did mine tonight without a problem. I tried used titanium backup to remove apps, but it kept force closing on me. Found a free app called App Master which worked well at removing bloatware.

I removed all of the google stuff, except for the play store, google settings, gmail, google+, and hangout. Everything else that had google as part of the name is now gone. Started to remove the emergency alerts but decided not too since I have it disabled (except for the president alert crap). Might do that later though. Of course metro411, chrome, and news and weather also went
I took more out but can't remember what they were. I freed up quite a bit of space. Right now it is sitting at 1.6GB free, but I have some other things installed.

Back to the capabilities. I tried an app for a speedometer and tested it against the speedometer in my van. It was right on spot. I also tried a compass which was accurate. Right now, for my job, I have a level app and it is great.

The only thing I can see happening is if they push an update we won't be able to install it because of the root. Not a real problem, but can be annoying (like it was on my now defunct coolpad quattro).

 

[Android14]

Android 4.2.2 to be exact.

I haven't had an issue with the camera yet, seems to autofocus on anything I need. Maybe I need to take it for a more vigorous test.

I will agree, framaroot does work. I did mine tonight without a problem. I tried used titanium backup to remove apps, but it kept force closing on me. Found a free app called App Master which worked well at removing bloatware.

I removed all of the google stuff, except for the play store, google settings, gmail, google+, and hangout. Everything else that had google as part of the name is now gone. Started to remove the emergency alerts but decided not too since I have it disabled (except for the president alert crap). Might do that later though. Of course metro411, chrome, and news and weather also went
I took more out but can't remember what they were. I freed up quite a bit of space. Right now it is sitting at 1.6GB free, but I have some other things installed.

Back to the capabilities. I tried an app for a speedometer and tested it against the speedometer in my van. It was right on spot. I also tried a compass which was accurate. Right now, for my job, I have a level app and it is great.

The only thing I can see happening is if they push an update we won't be able to install it because of the root. Not a real problem, but can be annoying (like it was on my now defunct coolpad quattro).

The camera has no autofocus function, it still takes OK pictures, but if you try to take a close up of a paper with text on it from 2-3 inches away(very close), it will come out blurry since the phone can't auto focus. My LG Esteem was great for "photocopying" by doing this, now with this phone, I can't so that anymore. Another example is I got a QR code reader app and it tells me "this phone has no autofocus, so might not work on certain qr codes"

Its not a big problem, just certain pictures won't come out right.

As for OTA updates and removing bloatware. I use Rom Toolbox Pro to do all those functions like remove apps and anything else, it does pretty much everything you need for a rooted phone because it has all of the best root apps in one. You can also freeze the apps on it so that they stay on the phone, but can be put back on if you ever need that.

Maybe if you just freeze the apps and don't remove them all, then an OTA update might work. Most times its when you remove the stock apps, then the OTA sees the differences and can't work.

 

[TechSys]

Thanks for that info. There are so many "tools" out there it's hard to find out which ones are the best to use. I'll give that one a try.

 

[ohmannuel]

I'm looking for a list of safe to remove apps, I remove with Clean master and titanium backup. Is there just a list of safe to remove apps in general or is each phone different? (I understand bloatware depends on carrier and maker). Thanks

 

[gdasilva16]

i got this phone a few days ago, and i really like it. didn't root yet though.

 

[codyedmonson]

i got this phone a few days ago, and i really like it. didn't root yet though.

If you root read through the forums to see what all you can and can't do before you do anything, also ask before doing something you feel unsure about, we have no recovery so its better to be cautious than **** your phone up and be screwed for a phone. Just a friendly heads up.