Alcatel Go – and it’s all go go go!

When Alcatel says that their latest phone, Alcatel Go Play, is specifically built to withstand the harsh outdoors and is fit for Bear Grylls, we thought that we would take them up on the “challenge”. We wouldn’t just take the phone for a bike ride, nor would we subject the phone to a bit of rain – we went hard core marine style! and by “we” I mean Clare Matthes – she is the one in the Ninja mask below:

In a spur of the moment decision, I signed up for a special forces weekend, where I could live out childhood dreams of being Rambo, well Rambo with a cell phone. The entire trip was devised to make surviving as difficult as possible and therefore to live as rugged and as rough as possible. Never mind man make fire – I did.

We learnt to build somewhere to sleep, make a fire from scratch, lived off rations, but most thrilling of all stood on the skids of a helicopter as it tore around the mountainous terrain.

Prior to the trip I still had my grubby little hands on a device from Alcatel, which low and behold, according to the company promised to stand the test of a life as Bear Grylls.

And so this is the story of how the Alcatel Go Play accompanied me on a weekend of tough living.

Off we packed at four in the morning to meet at some Magaliesberg-based petrol station before being whisked off to a very secret and very uninhabited location.

I’ll admit, I had my doubts as to whether this entry-level-aimed-at-millennials smartphone would make it to Sunday but it did and it surprised me.

The battery life was impressive and the phone stayed on till I returned home on Sunday night. Comparable to some of the phones at the higher end of the scale, this is a slow phone, as it doesn’t pack the fastest processor – this therefore was probably why the battery lasted as long as it did. The high-capacity battery gives up to 500 hours of standby time, 8.3 hours talk time, supposedly 40 hours non-stop music and 2500 mAh.

The Go Play in fact survived everything I threw at it, including multiple dips in water and mud and sand – both intentional and unintentional. The reason – the Alcatel Go Play boasts great protection from water and dust with an external microSD, thanks to a protective tab. I found the thing still worked even when it was under water. (It was merely a mistake – I slipped and sat in water with the phone in my back pocket – but it proved it worked.)

The camera took decent pics. Again, as it’s a smartphone playing in the budget space, the camera is as good as you’re going to get, thanks to the 8 megapixel rear camera and check out my selfies with the 5 megapixel front camera. I was impressed.

Let’s face it, often enough cheap phones look cheap – the Alcatel Go Play doesn’t. As the device’s name even insinuates, the colours are playful. It’s all business in the front and party at the back indeed, as the Go Play sports a simple black screen face and a range of wildly neon coloured backs, which are interchangeable.

Getting knocked around a bit didn’t phase this phone and this phone can definitely take a beating.

Accompanying the Go Play is a matching set of earphones that also pertain to be splashproof, sweatproof and available in the colours to match the phone. According to Alcatel, they’re designed to go anywhere the Go Play can.

But wait… there’s more… Alcatel have cleverly introduced the Go Watch which makes this a dynamic duo. In stylish colours – the watch just adds that extra funkiness to the package.

All in all, when introductions were first made between myself and the Alcatel Go Play, I was ready to take this device on… Needless to say, I think the Go Play stepped up to the plate and demonstrated its clout as the entry-level-not-to-be-messed-with-while-looking-good-smartphone.

About Clare Matthes:

Clare’s father swears she was born waving spirit fingers and singing tah dah in an oh-so-dahling-showbiz-esque manner. Nicknamed “Schnauze” because of her smart mouth and quick whit, Clare enjoys putting the world in words. This sarcastic eye roller extraordinaire has a passion for all things gadget, technology and social media. She sees the humour in everything and never shies away from a good old égoportrait (selfie)