CES: Alcatel launches the world's thinnest smartphone

LAS VEGAS: ALCATEL announced what it dubs the world's thinnest smartphone on Monday at CES in Las Vegas, the Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra.

Alcatel, best known for its bespoke dumbphones, used the Las Vegas consumer technology show to unveil its most impressive smartphone to date. The device measures a tiny 6.45mm thick, despite packing a 1.2GHz processor under the bonnet.

A far departure from Alcatel's previous releases, the Idol Ultra also features a 4.7in HD AMOLED touchscreen, showing the firm is now looking to take on the big names in the smartphone industry.

There's also an 8MP rear-facing camera on the Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra, alongside an 8MP rear-facing camera, a 2MP front-facing camera and Google's latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean mobile operating system. It'll be available in a number of metallic colours at launch, although there's no word on UK pricing or availability yet.

"The Alcatel One Touch brand has grown exponentially since entering the U.S. market eight years ago," said Nicolas Zibell, president of Americas & Pacific for Alcatel One Touch. "And with the launch of our new smartphone collection we plan to take things to the next level."

Not content with launching what it claims is the world's thinnest smartphone, Alcatel also used CES to show off the first smartphone to feature the Mediatek MT6589 quad-core chipset, the Alcatel Scribe HD.

Check back later for our hands-on with the Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra. µ