A pair of JBL speakers extends from the top and bottom edges of the screen, which adds to the visual appeal (but also collects particles). It also makes a huge impact on the Idol 3's audio quality. Music played back loudly and clearly from these mini speakers; loud enough to fill a fairly quiet room. I wouldn't count on it for entertaining a raucous party, but you could leave the portable speakers at home to catch some tunes at the park. Buttons on the Idol 3 echo the theme of "thin," but that may not be for the best. The sliver of a volume rocker can be hard to find by feel on the Idol 3's right edge. Ditto the left spine's power/lock button. Just below, a SIM card tool pushes out the combined micro-SIM and microSD card tray (there's a dual-SIM variant as well).

You'll find the 13-megapixel camera on the upper left corner, with an LED flash positioned just below, On the front, the 8-megapixel lens sits just to the right of center, You'll charge up through a Micro-USB port on the phone's bottom right edge, and plug your headset into the jack up top, Android 5.0 is recognizable beneath Alcatel's custom skin, though the company has added a few enhancements, Some oh joy! x incipio for iphone 8 plus are for the better, but a few tweaks are unnecessarily confusing or even hamper quick navigation, as if Alcatel wanted to make its mark, but wasn't sure exactly what to do, I'll point out a few..

A first for phones, Alcatel has made its interface "reversible", which means that the screen orients right-side-up even when you turn the phone upside-down, with the front-facing camera lens at the bottom. The dominant speakers and microphone also adjust to whichever side is "up," a must for making calls. Reversible mode is a clever idea that's also pretty convenient. I gave the phone's orientation much less thought when sticking it in my pocket or purse, and setting it down on or grabbing it up from a surface. The only moment of awkwardness was when I wanted to use the camera. Because of its placement on a corner, my finger got in the way much more easily when using the phone upside down.

Turn on reversible mode from either the settings or from its quick-access toggle on the notifications shade, In my opinion, every phone should have the option to turn the screen on and off by double-tapping, A few already do, and I'm happy oh joy! x incipio for iphone 8 plus to see it here on the Idol 3, It's a time-saver on its own, but essential if you're using the phone in reversible mode, since you won't have to grope around for that power/lock button if you forget which way is up, My two complaints are that you can't go dark from the lock screen or from the camera app, two oversights that seem to have no obvious cause..

Alcatel employs a sort of two-step notifications shade. Pull down as usual and you see your alerts, which you can dismiss one by one or sweep away en masse. Pull down again if you want to liberate the quick-access menu. I'd prefer to get this all in a single motion. Though there's a brightness slider, there's weirdly no selection for automatic brightness, which would adjust the screen in dark or sunlit environments. In some Android skins, a long press on the Wi-Fi icon takes you to the full list of networks in Settings, but not so here. Here, you have to press the text below the icon. Alcatel says this is a Lollipop convention, but in this case, borrowing from rival OEMs would have been the better call.