Alcatel Idol 4s review: VR Gateway

Performance

The Alcatel Idol 4s runs on Qualcomm's still rather new MSM8976 Snapdragon 652 SoC. It is actually quite capable thanks to its quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A72, plus quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 setup and currently sits at the very top of the 600 series, definitely surpassing some older 800 models in performance.

It is also paired with 3GB of RAM, which, despite the ongoing push to 6GB, we still consider perfectly adequate for most Android workloads and usage scenarios. The Adreno 510 GPU is also pretty powerful, definitely good enough to handle QHD resolution. All things considered, the Alcatel Idol 4s is looking pretty beefy on paper and the benchmark results confirm this.

Looking at GeekBench 3 scores, we can definitely see the powerful octa-core setup pull its weight. When faced against specs and price rivals, the Idol 4s trumps them all when handling a multi-core load. In a single-core scenario, the Xiaomi Mi Max and Redmi Note 3 do appear to take the lead, but by a really small margin, easily within the margin of error. Plus, the latter does lack two whole Cortex-A72 cores in comparison.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  4869
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  4759
• Vivo V3Max
  3978
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  3861
• Huawei P9 Lite
  3799
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  3570
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  3321
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  3147
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  3038
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2745
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  2493
• OnePlus X
  2297

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1573
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  1536
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  1505
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  1466
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  1254
• Vivo V3Max
  1238
• Huawei P9 Lite
  899
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  689
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  628
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  616

On top of raw CPU power, AnTuTu also factors in RAM, GPU and other various performance indexes from across the hardware platform and it all adds up to an even more impressive benchmark lead for the Idol 4s.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  82744
• Vivo V3Max
  76170
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  75051
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  74488
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  64591
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  59850
• Huawei P9 Lite
  52768
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  38359
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  35291
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  33414

Graphics performance mostly tells the same story. In 1080p mode, the Adreno 510 maxes out the OpenGL 3.0 test and comes really close to the top on the 3.1 run.

As for the onscreen numbers, it is important to bear in mind that the Idol 4s has a lot more pixels to push due to its QHD resolution than most other 1080p contenders. Even then, it doesn't fail to impress.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  15
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  15
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  15
• Vivo V3Max
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  13
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  13
• OnePlus X
  9.9
• Huawei P9 Lite
  7.8
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  5.5
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  4.8
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  4.2

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi Max
  15
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  15
• Vivo V3Max
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  13
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  12
• OnePlus X
  10
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  9.4
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  9.2
• Huawei P9 Lite
  8.3
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  5.5
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  4.2

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  10
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  9.4
• Vivo V3Max
  9.4
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  9.3
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  9.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9.1
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  8.1
• Huawei P9 Lite
  4.6
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2.6

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  9.7
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  9.4
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (S652)
  9.1
• Vivo V3Max
  9.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9.1
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  7.9
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  5.1
• Huawei P9 Lite
  4.9
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2.1

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  5.6
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  5.5
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  3.8
• Huawei P9 Lite
  2.8

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi Max
  5.4
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  3.4
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  3.3
• Huawei P9 Lite
  3