Whether you’re looking for a secondary burner phone or you don’t want a smartphone, Alcatel’s latest is an option to consider if you’re on Verizon’s network. It’s called the Alcatel Go Flip V, and yep — it’s a flip phone.
The Go Flip V offers the essentials, with a 2-megapixel camera capable of capturing 720p videos, 8GB of internal storage (plus support for a MicroSD card up to 32GB), and built-in Wi-Fi hot spot capability to provide 4G LTE speeds for up to 10 devices.
There’s a 2.8-inch internal screen, and the 1.44-inch external display allows you to see who’s calling without needing to open the phone. Alcatel said the feature phone does support accessibility features like Real-Time-Text (RTT), Text Telephone (TTY), and has hearing-aid compatibility. The phone’s not much of a looker — especially compared to other feature phones like the Nokia 8810 4G.
It’s not the most powerful or feature-packed flip phone in Verizon’s lineup — the Sonim XP5 may hold that distinction as a rugged device costing $336 — but it is the least expensive without sacrificing much over its stablemates. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 210 processor, with 1GB of RAM.
The Go Flip V packs the rest of the essentials too, with GPS navigation, a web browser, file manager, music player, and 3.5mm headphone jack so you can get from A to B with music, directions, and the web at your disposal when needed.
You’ll have to charge the 1,350mAh battery with a Micro USB cable, and don’t expect it to last weeks. Alcatel claims 24 hours of usage time on 4G, though standby time may net you 12 days if left unused. This battery life is par for the course for Verizon’s basic phone lineup.
My Verizon services are also available for bill pay and account services, as well as Verizon Cloud for contact backup, but there is no app store of any kind to download additional applications or games.
This is the second-ever phone launched by Alcatel on Verizon’s network, the first being the Alcatel Avalon V smartphone in April.
The Alcatel Go is on sale Thursday, July 11, for $100 at Verizon stores and on the company’s website.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.