This smartphone’s box doubles up as a VR headset

Virtual Reality is going to be the next big thing for 2016. We are seeing more action cams with 360 capabilities and more smartphone players are jumping on the VR experience.

Instead of forking money on fancy Oculus or Samsung Gear VR headset, the next Alcatel OneTouch smartphone will give you a VR experience out of the box, quite literally.

Meet the Alcatel’s new OneTouch Idol 4S. Before we talk about the device, check out its clever packaging. Instead of a recyclable paper box, the Idols 4S is packaged in a hard case that doubles as a VR Headset. No worries about support as the headset is Google Cardboard compliant. It’s a pretty clever use of packaging and we wonder why nobody has thought of this earlier.

In terms of specs, the Idol 4S is a step above Alcatel’s usual low to mid-range offering. The front 5.5″ display pushes a high-resolution Quad HD AMOLED display and it is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 652 processor with 3GB of RAM. On-board it gets 16GB of storage that’s expandable via microSD. The main camera is said to be a 16MP f/2.0 shooter while the front comes with an 8MP selfie cam that’s assisted by a flash light. From the photo above, it does look like a cross-mix between a Galaxy S6 and a Sony Xperia Z3 series. It appears to be using glass and metal for its body, and there’s a protruding power button on the right side.

Combining a VR capable headset box, the overall Alcatel OneTouch Idol 4S package is expected to be priced at US$400 (about RM1658), which is able to give the HTC One A9 a run for its money. Also to be announced is a lower spec Idol 4 that comes with a smaller 5.2″ display with a Snapdragon 617 processor and 2GB RAM.

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