Alcatel A-series Smartphones

Alcatel an A-series — a line of smartphones.

2019: Detection of the preset malware

On January 11, 2019 there was information that the British company Upstream detected the preset malware on the Alcatel smartphones.

Specialists of Upstream paid attention to the suspicious traffic proceeding from smartphones of some clients. According to the made investigation, a problem contains in the application for demonstration of a weather forecast under the name "Weather Forecast-World Weather Accurate Radar" developed by the Chinese company TCL Corporation which possesses brands of Alcatel, BlackBerry and Palm.

The application is pre-installed on a number of models of the Alcatel smartphones and also was available to other users of Android devices through the Google Play Store directory (the number of program loads exceeds 10 million) — there it was submitted as Simple Weather (the official version of the application of Weather).

Initially specialists found out that the application collects data (information on location, the e-mail addresses, the identifiers IMEI) and sends them to servers in China. As it became clear later, the malicious code hidden in the program works differently in certain regions. For example, in Brazil, Kuwait, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Tunisia the application tried to sign users on expensive paid services. In total specialists blocked more than 27 million attempts to subscribe for paid services that could cause the general damage in the amount of $1.5 million.

The harmful behavior of the application was not limited only to data collection and a subscription to paid services – the program worked as advertizing with software. Opened the application in the background the hidden tabs of the browser and loaded web pages on which clicked on advertizing banners. The activity of the application daily generated from 50 MB to 250 MB of traffic, causing additional financial damage.

For January, 2019 Google already deleted the application from Play Store. Not clearly, how application versions (preset on smartphones, and placed in Play Store) were infected with a malicious code. On one of theories, one of TCL Corporation developers whose systems were compromised could become a source of infection. The company so far does not comment on a situation^[1] in any way^[2].

2017

The A7 smartphone is provided

On September 1, 2017 the TCL Communication company provided the Alcatel A7 smartphone.

Alcatel A7 smartphone, (2017)

The device is focused on experienced users with active lifestyle. Alcatel A7 is equipped with the accumulator with a capacity of 4,000 mA · h and technology of fast charging.

The smartphone supports high-speed data transmission of standard 4G LTE (to kat. 6), giving to users enhanced capabilities for access to the Internet. The smartphone is equipped with the eight-nuclear processor, a fixed memory on 32 GB and RAM on 3 GB. Existence of a card slot of Micro SD allows to increase amount of memory to 128 GB.

Alcatel A7 has the main camera of 16 megapixels, a diaphragm to f/2.0 and a phase auto focus. The smartphone is equipped with the front camera with the resolution of 8 megapixels.

Specifications

• Support of standards of communication: 4G/LTE Cat 6 (B3/7/8/20/28A); 3G UMTS/HSPA+ (B1/2/5/8); GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; two slots under SIM cards
• Sizes: 152.7x 76.5×8.95 mm
• Weight: 164.3 g
• Platform: Android 7.x Nougat
• Processor: eight-nuclear, MediaTek MT6750T
• Display: 5.5-inch, IPS LTPS, with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, cover plate of Dragontrial 2.5D, Oleophobic covering
• Main camera: 16 MT with a phase auto focus and two-tone LED illumination, Full HD support (1080p) video filming
• Front camera: 8 MT with LED illumination
• Memory: 3 GB of OZU, 32 GB built in, the slot under memory card microSD
• Communications: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 USB NFC, GPS/ A-GPS, audio I will corrode 3.5 mm
• Accumulator: 4000 mA · h
• Other: Fingerprint scanner, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity sensors and lighting, Electronic compass

Alcatel A7 will be available for sale in October, 2017, in official online store of the company.

Start of sales of smartphones

On July 18, 2017 in Russia sales of two Alcatel smartphones started: 5-inch Alcatel A3 and 6-inch Alcatel A3 XL.

Both devices are equipped with the front 5-megapixel camera with flash and the main 13-megapixel camera with LED flash. The wide feature set among which — the Mask and Selfie show applications which allow to change easily photos and to add amusing parts to pictures is available. The Collage function helps to integrate a photo in thematic selections, and a special "Album for a selfie" — quickly to find the necessary picture.

Alcatel A3 and Alcatel A3 XL locate a security system. Personal data protection is provided by the fingerprint scanner and the Private Mode function. It is enough to configure smartphones as appropriate, and access to the selected applications and photos will be open only for the owner of the device, as a key the fingerprint is used.

Alcatel A3 XL. Photo: gizbrain.com

Alcatel A3 distinguishes ergonomic design: the model ideally lays down in a palm — it is promoted by the thin body with a metal decorative frame. In turn, the big 6-inch IPS Alcatel A3 XL screen of high definition gives bright emotions from watching video and mobile games.

Alcatel A3. Фото: alcatel-mobile.com

Both smartphones support work in LTE 4G networks and function based on the 4-core processor thanks to what it is possible to watch stream video without problems and to enjoy online games.

Alcatel A3 and A3 XL devices can be purchased in official online store Alcatel (alcatelstore.ru) for 7,990 and 9,990 rubles respectively. Alcatel A3 is available in black or white color, and Alcatel A3 XL — white or gray.