yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] redeyss:
Double tap to wake, go to settings and it's the first setting under "device" enable slider to double to wake.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Don_GT:
Double Tap

I have Nova Launcher installed and double tap does not work. Double tap does however work on the stock Alcatel skin. In the Nova Launcher settings you have to pay for the premium to get the double tap feature.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] redeyss:
I've got nova prime running with double tap to wake and sleep working. You could always pin a "screen off/sleep" app to your home and tap it to sleep.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mackster248:
How do you apply double tap to wake and sleep via Nova? I don't see it in the Gesture settings within the app.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] redeyss:
Assuming you have the paid version, nova prime. Download "screen off and lock" app from play store first. After installed, nova settings, gestures, assign screen off app to double tap gesture. Alternately, just double tap empty portion of screen while running nova as home and you will be prompted to allow screen off app to assume that gesture. Let me know if you get it, good luck!
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mackster248:
Perfect. Thanks man! Works great.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] redeyss:
So far I'll mirror mackster's review, spot on! Nice phone and quick with great screen. I crushed it while installing my apps but it didn't get hot, just a little warm, which impressed me.

I'm worried about the camera. I took about 8 shots and so far not so good. Let me play with it for a couple days and I'll get back to you. I too was using a G2 the last few weeks after selling my G3. G2 camera has ois and was pretty decent. Idol 3 reminds me of nexus 5 cam, decent but only under ideal light, which is what all the pre release reviews said. G2 seems to get a sharper image in good light.

This really looks, feels, and behaves like a $600 phone from late 2013/early 2014 IMHO. I paid $199 and I'm worried about scratching or dropping it, then have to remind myself it cost a third of a flagship phone and I'm going to use and abuse it without all the anxiety that comes with a huge price tag. Probably slap a glass screen protector on it and a skin if available but that's it!
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mackster248:
Same here! I planned on not using a case on this thing... but it's so damn thin that I may have to lol. It's just hard to hold due to how thin it is. I asked dbrand if they would make skins for this phone, and their reply was "maybe". So I'm holding out for dear hope that they are. Yeah, camera does seem a little bad. And you're right about the G2's camera in great lighting conditions, it really is well above average in that aspect.

As much as I love this phone (so far), Alcatel really blew it with the name lol. I hate the "idol" name and that font at the back of the phone. If dbrand makes skins for this, I'll be fully happy.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Shodan5150:
Same here as well.No major issues using apps. Installed and used phone for awhile didn't get hot at all. Only performance issue I saw was closing many recent apps from recent app screen. Screen is nice and very bright. Blindingly bright. The speakers a loud and sound good. Also the sound out of the audio jack is very loud too which I'm happy about. I tried to use the stock launcher but I missed some features from Nova so I had to install Nova Prime. That's not a knock against Alcatel tho. Today I'm happy with it. We'll have to play around with it for awhile.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] redeyss:
Guys, I'm struggling with this camera! Just did a series of comparison photos with my G2, one M8, and the idol 3. Indoor shots of my son with overcast light coming in windows behind me. Colors washed out and details soft and muddy. M8 had best color reproduction and G2 had best detail and sharpness. I switched to Google camera and results improved noticeably but not dramatically, with truer color and crisper images. I tried with and without "eis" electronic image stabilization enabled and didn't seem to make a difference. This could be a deal breaker for me but I'll keep trying, please post your results.

PS, t. Stark perhaps a photo thread is in order.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] gavolo:
can u try camera mx or some others from appstore? been using it for sometime.

the sensor itself shouldnt be that much of a difference since its the same widely used i guess. :(
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] redeyss:
I will try camera MX but hope to hear from others so I know it is or isn't a defect in my particular phone. Yes its that bad....
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] guapinoy:
Did you set it to 13 megapixels? I haven't done a comparison with my g2 yet. From the little pics I took. It seems okay.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] redeyss:
Yep 13mp and played with settings. G2 has Xcam mod but still miles better. Will try and post pics later from PC.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] TonyStark R.I.P.:
Moved
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] deepasadish:
my impressions after 2 days:

positives:

1. awesome battery life. i would guess 6+ hours screen time easy.

2. speakers are absolutely awesome.

3. the screen is very bright. wish we could reduce it (might give longer battery life to boot!).

4. no problems with wifi or other things like heat etc.

5. user experience is fast enough - better than nexus 4.

6. excellent build quality.

negatives:

1. camera (ok for the money)

2. need root desperately. to change DPI.

3. biggest negative - tmobile reception is like 10dB lower than nexus 4. at my work, where signal is poor, i used to get LTE with that phone, but now I can't. seriously thinking on returning this :(.

antutu 64bit score is 33000.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] InFaMouZz:
yes, I've noticed my reception has decreased significantly coming from my HTC One M7 and even the ZMAX is getting better LTE reception. I usually get full bars at home and work but i'm down to 2.

considering returning the phone also and trying out the zenfone 2 since i'm in an area where band 12 is being used by a public tv network and wont benefit me at all.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] arampapaz:
I will be returning both idol 3's I pre-ordered for $199. I will be sticking with the zenfone 2. The idol lacks a bit much in performance for my tastes. It gets very hot even when just reading feeds. The camera isn't as good as the zenfone 2. The only thing I liked better about the idol 3 was its thinness and light weight. Other than that, the zenfone is a clear winner. I was really looking forward to the idol 3 and wanted to love it, but the zenfone 2 is just the better phone for me.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] deepasadish:
can you please compare the cell signal reception of both before you return. i am planning to buy the ZF2 and return my idol 3.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] arampapaz:
I have already packed up the idol 3's, but I can tell you that I have been using the zenfone 2 with MetroPCS which uses T-Mobile towers and have had mostly full bars, especially at home. I used the idol 3 with a T-Mobile Sim and the signal was usually at least one bar less than the zenfone. I really wanted to keep the idol (especially at $199), but the zenfone is just better IMO.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] bhoth:
I too am comparing to the Zenfone 2 US 64gb version, I have had the Zenfone since last Friday and just received the Idol 3 5.5 screen today. The Idol seems more laggy although, I have rooted the Zenfone and de-bloated a fare amount. I agree with an earlier poster that said the Idol is better on the outside, the Zenfone is better on the inside. If I could get the Idol rooted things might change. I will keep it 1 week and return whatever phone I don't like.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] deepasadish:
please compare the signal strength with both phones side by side. i would much appreciate it.

after all, what good is a super fast phone if it can't get LTE where/when it is needed? LOL!
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] TonyStark R.I.P.:
If you folks don't mind, can we please use this thread specifically for reviews only?

The Ⓛⓞⓤⓝⓖⓔ is great for all the rest.

Thanks:good:
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] TonyStark R.I.P.:
Erica Griffin review:

[YOUTUBE]wHQAWF1Z1Jg[/YOUTUBE]
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] deepasadish:
signal strength between idol 3 and nexus 4...

sorry. apologies for my OT posts above.

back on topic, here is a comparison of signal strength between idol 3 and nexus 4 side by side. the pictures are from home where i have excellent reception.

at work, i was able to get LTE with nexus 4 (approx -108dBm). but idol 3 reverts to HSPA+/UMTS. when i force it to LTE mode, the strength is like -120dBm or so.

this is a huge deal breaker for me. i am not sure if the nexus 4 hybrid radio plays a role in the signal boost.

thanks.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] macallik:
Reviews are starting to flow in over at Amazon at a fast clip now. Looks like most of the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Gonna throw my two cents into the ring here in a day or two.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Shodan5150:
[MENTION=4362414]mikeisgo[/MENTION]

Are you aware you can change the volume of the alarm under Settings > Sound & Notification?
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mikeisgo:
Yep. I did. I set them to the lowest they could be without being off, and they were still loud.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Shodan5150:
Maybe if you try a 3rd party alarm app and use the alarm sound slider inside the app? I don't know if that would do anything or not but worth a try of you haven't tried it yet.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mikeisgo:
I though about that. It seems to have helped to bring in some alarms from other devices. It could be the stock sounds are just mixed really loud so even the lowest software volume doesn't lower them that much.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] macallik:
^^^ You might want to check out Timely as an alternative alarm app. It also has the 'gradually increasing sound' alarm setting so that it starts off even lower than the lowest that the Idol 3 can go and then builds up.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] stl1859:
It appears that someone compared gaming performance with a Galaxy S6 Edge !! I will not use this phone to play games - so I do not understand one bit of this - but wanted to post the link to the video :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GeFcUa-Uc4
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Shodan5150:
Here's a comparison video with the ZF2 by PocketNow. It gives a lot of props to the Idol 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OazsBaMSIlw

---------- Post added at 01:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 AM ----------

Here's another comparison video against the ZF2 from Phone Dog. It's also very favorable for the Idol 3. I did notice the reviewer got some of the specs wrong tho, but no big deal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwjblmmkXLI

I asked them for the video weeks ago. There may be some others out there as I asked about 6 reviewers for comparisons.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] jmill75:
Came from the S6 Edge to the Lg G4. Really like the look of the Idol. In fact I had it in my cart to buy. Love the screen and size, near stock Android is what really had me. Considering the price if I liked it I would return the G4 in my 14 days. Watched all the reviews and was getting ready to hit BUY, then I came here. Seeing all of the real life reviews has me worried. Definetly need a decent camera because I have kids, also extreme lag would really get on my nerves. Now not sure what to do. May just buy it and return it if its not up to par. Dont get me wrong, I realize this is geared as a "budget" device.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] macallik:
MobilePhoneReview tackles the Idol 3 vs ZenFone2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mnqv7rp9pow
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mackster248:
If you're not too worried about saving money, I say don't get it. This phone has been very frustrating for me. I don't care that the cam isn't good, what bothers me is the performance. Everything just lags for me, takes forever for apps to open up sometimes. Othertimes the phone just freezes. I've already tried a factory reset to see if that fixes things but it didn't. This phone has potential, but it really needs root and CM12 for that potential to be unlocked. I'm definitely blaming software and not the hardware for the performance issues.

I ordered a brand new HTC M9 from Swappa for $475 to replace this.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Shodan5150:
After I did a factory reset I have had very few problems. Performance increased and the cell signal drooping has stopped. I would say try it. You can always return it.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mackster248:
I've tried that with no luck. I probably will end up returning it.

Though for what it's worth, their customer service has been amazing. Was tweeting a friend on how bad my experience has been and Alcatel's US social media manager contacted me and has been e-mailing me back and forth trying to find a resolution. I doubt a fix can be found, but still nice nonetheless.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] famewolf:
..and for every story like yours there is one like mine. Coming from a nexus 4 this phone has been flat out amazing...in addition to my usual apps to extend battery life etc it's worked without a hitch for everything I've thrown at it...I've had a few very minor glitches that got resolved...it didn't like one of my microsd cards..probably because I formatted it on my linux machine. The only annoyance for me has been the occasional "stutter" that occurs when playing audio whether from local media or microsd....it's kinda jarring when listening to an audiobook as it throws you out of the story. It's been mentioned in articles and apparently is supposed to be fixed in future updates. I'm very pleased with how stable it has been..I tether HEAVILY with it and my laptop...have been using it with waze while out of town and it's never hung....only occasionally lagged and usually when I was running several things at same time etc. I wish I had been able to get it for $200 instead of $250 but thats an issue with my poor timing..not the phone. ;)
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mackster248:
I see. I came from an LG G2 where everything was instant and fast for me, probably why this has been a tad frustrating for me. Either way, I'm glad plenty are enjoying this device. Sky is the limit once it gets custom ROMs on it.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] famewolf:
Agreed. Sorry to hear it sounds like you got stuck with a lemon. If it was me I would try an exchange first. Is the ZP 2 already rooted? Hmm could have sworn you said that was phone you were going to but looked back and it was an HTC M9...I used to be an HTC only phone owner but I got tired of HTC abandoning their old hardware when it still had plenty of life...specifically when the HD2 running windows mobile 6.5 was given no upgrade path to Windows Phone 7 even though they released pretty much identical hardware that did support WP7. Switch to Nexus and now that Nexus phone's are in the nosebleed section I branched out to a noname...I'm on a grandfathered t-mobile plan so it's better for me to buy my phone's elsewhere.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] stl1859:
Just curious - was your G2 running Kit Kat - or Lollipop , and if Lollipop , was it 5.0.2 , or was it 5.1 ?

I am not sure G2 is fair comparison from purely a performance perspective , since it has a much faster processor ( 2.26 quad core vs. 1.5 quad core on the Idol 3)
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mackster248:
I stayed on KK. The T-Mobile Lollipop ROM had a nasty Wi-Fi bug that I just couldn't deal with. I know, I didn't expect the Alcatel to lightning fast.

I'm really not trying to ***** about the device, I'm glad that plenty of you guys love it and there's plenty of reasons as to why I love it but for some reason my device crawls. Trying to watch videos on MLB At Bat app is slow, going from app to app stalls the device. The phone even freezes at times when I text, or the letter responses have a noticeable lag.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] rtype0:
When running Waze and attempting to use voice commands, my i-3 would just keep "waiting." I was wondering if you could test yours to see if it has similar behavior?

Thanks,

rtype0
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Shodan5150:
Just tested and worked fine. I did have an issue yesterday where it wouldn't respond but recorded the voice trigger again and so far no problems. That may have been because I updated the Google app though.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] famewolf:
Not something I normally use but I enabled voice commands, activated them and mine also stayed forever in a waiting status.

---------- Post added at 12:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:02 AM ----------

What "voice trigger" are you talking about? waze uses a double wave or three finger swipe to activate voice commands and then sits forever in a waiting status with only the option to cancel.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Shodan5150:
oops, thought you meant using the ok google. my bad
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Medina623:
Man I hope they update this device quick because a lot people are returning the device.

Sent from my 6045I
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] xda-soar:
Why is web browsing the most resource intensive application on this phone? This phone handles apps video audio all without heating up and without noticeable lag . But rendering even simple webpages seems to heat this thing up and they really lag . It seems like such a simple thing to handle webpages . can we hope that a software update well improved web handling ? The heat issues I am seeing happen mostly when web browsing .
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] gavolo:
this is probably software end since there are quite a few with same cpu n 2gb ram out there which perform much better. this is why we desperately need root n roms to maximise its potential which hopefully comes as they start to sales in more places. still hoping for it. lol
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mackster248:
Yes, I'm absolutely blaming software here. With root and a custom ROM I have no doubts that this will be better.

Though I sadly couldn't wait and sold my Idol 3 and picked up an HTC M9 for a good deal on Swappa.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] famewolf:
Excellent job on the review..very thorough. You'll find any of the available tpu cases will improve the phone grip without adding much in the way of thickness/weight. I prefer the hybrid case that has a tpu case with a hard plastic back that snaps onto the tpu case. This is the one I purchased (red/black): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=381332972102
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] gideonMorrison:
Orrr save some monies ;) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hybrid-Shoc...89991280?var=500581816441&hash=item2ee3c76570
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] famewolf:
By all means, go with the cheapest one. I just had the link handy from my purchase but I don't think I paid more than $3 so they must have bumped up their price.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] sjs87:
I appreciate the recommendations guys. Even though I know the smart thing to do is put it in a tough case asap, (especially considering my track record with my previous devices lol) I've been holding off on ordering a case because I honestly just love the way this thing looks without it and didn't want to add too much to the large footprint. On that note though, the screen/body ratio is great when comparing it to other phones around the 5.5" screen size.

I'll go ahead and order one of those. It looks similar to the spigen slim armor I had on my note 3 which held up through countless hard falls. The screen met it's match when something fell directly on the screen while the phone was just sitting on the table so no fault from the case in that situation.

Getting close to a full week of use now, I can say that aside from some infrequent stutters here and there this feels just as good as a flagship device considering what I use it for. I'm most impressed by the battery life. I took it off the charger at around 8pm Sunday, and by about 6pm Monday I still had 71% left. I obviously wasn't glued to it the whole day but I did snap quite a few pics, shot some video, YouTube, Web browsing, text, a few calls here and there, and listened to Pandora for about 20 minutes. All while on automatic brightness and on mostly factory settings. I should have checked the screen on time for that cycle. I've rooted and/or changed the ROMs on every android device I've ever owned but for now, I'm keeping this one stock.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] famewolf:
This was the first device I opted to put a tempered glass screen protector on....I liked it so much due to no bubbles and other issues I almost always had with the plastic ones even when using wet application methods...I ended up ordering tempered glass screen protectors for my other devices as well. The reason I bring all that up is you mentioning something hitting the phone's screen...supposedly with the tempered glass the protector may shatter but it should prevent the screen from doing so....I hope to never find out whether that's true or not but it's more protection than a plain screen protector is going to do.

I paid around $9 for mine but they are now as cheap as $2 *grumble* http://www.ebay.com/itm/Anti-Scratc...-3-5-5-/321835649251?var=&hash=item4aeee648e3
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] gideonMorrison:
+1 I swear by tempered glass protectors. They made plastic ones superfluous. Brilliant stuff.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] sjs87:
Yea, I forgot to mention that a tempered glass screen protector was also gonna be purchased along with the case. I try to be as careful as possible, and I usually am. But kids are unpredictable. Lol

For now the phone is holding up real well for me no scratches on the screen and even chrome plastic borders are still pristine despite being caseless for about a week. It's in and out of my pocket countless times a day. But I am careful about not putting anything else but the phone in the same pocket. I'm really trying to find something not to like about this phone at this point but for the price, the only thing that sticks out to me is the power/unlock button.

EDIT: screw it... Ordered the case and screen protector just now with my prime account so I'll get it by Thursday. Paid just under $18 total. Probably a couple more bucks than eBay would have been but considering we might have a hurricane hit us next week I'll take the hit.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Karly Johnston:
I like this Dragontrail... no scratches after 3 months and it is quite good at fingerprint resistance. I don't feel like a need a screen protector.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] AmelFl:
same here, 4 months, no scratch, looks more solid than all the gorilla glass phones I had before
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] mahst68:
Bluetooth Audio Quality

Does anyone have experience with how the audio sounds when connected via bluetooth? Is it as good as coming from the phone speakers? does the software allow to equalize the output? looking for a phone just for my car that works good with bluetooth, does not cost that much and has equalizing software built in... My personal phone now is a Note 5 but damn SoundAlive+ crashes when using Google Play Music and turning off the equalization sounds horrible...
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] STcraft:
wait so this phone DOES got a tempered glass screen builtin? if so, Score!
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] macallik:
New Nexus phones were officially released today. Cool phones but I actually don't have the regret I thought I would by buying the Idol 3 early. The least expensive model was almost twice as high as the Idol 3 launch price.

Right now, worst case scenario, I might upgrade to a Nexus phone in ~2 years or so. If Android 6.0 is ported or delivered to the Idol 3 though, I think I will be good for even longer.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] sjs87:
Still 100% satisfied with this phone so far. I ended up installing the tempered glass screen protector, dropped the phone right on its face and heard a crack. Ended up being that just the screen protector cracked and the actual phones screen is unscathed just as others described. I ordered another immediately and installed it. Never getting another screen protector unless it's tempered glass.
[Onetouch Idol 3 General] Buckethead63:
I bought the 4.7" single sim version, the only thing I regret is the 8go internal memory, which is really too small even with a big sd card. Appart from that, the phone is perfect for its price.