Alcatel grabs world’s thinnest smartphone trophy with the One Touch Idol Ultra, launches 5-inch Scribe HD too

Alcatel has announced a selection of new smartphones all with their own headline-grabbing feature, including the One Touch Idol Ultra, billed as the thinnest smartphone currently available.

Alcatel has announced a selection of new smartphones at CES 2013, including one it’s calling the world’s thinnest smartphone, and another it claims to be the lightest in its category. The company may be best known for producing various budget-orientated Android smartphones in the U.S., but as the president of the company’s American operations has stated, it’s hoping this new line-up will, “take things to the next level.”

We’ll start with the One Touch Idol Ultra, which is equipped with a 4.7-inch touchscreen, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and an 8-megapixel camera. Alcatel says it’s the thinnest smartphone you can buy, measuring a wafer-like 6.45mm thick. The current record holder is Oppo’s Finder, which measures 6.65mm, meaning it’s .20mm thinner.

The Idol Ultra is joined by the regular One Touch Idol, which has the same 4.7-inch screen as its super-thin sister phone, but Alcatel hasn’t confirmed its exact resolution, although it is calling it HD, so we can assume it’s 720p. The same 1.2GHz processor and 8 megapixel camera are onboard too, and both phones use Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This phone’s claim to fame is its weight, tipping the scales at just 110 grams, which Alcatel says makes it the lightest in its class.

Finally, we come to the One Touch Scribe HD (seen above), Alcatel’s entry into the growing 5-inch smartphone/tablet hybrid range of devices. Again, the display is said to have an HD resolution, so we can expect it to be 720p, as if it was 1080p, the press release would surely shout about it. While it may not be able to boast such a high resolution, it does provide the debut of the new MediaTek MT6589 quad-core processor. 

Launched just before Christmas, MediaTek’s quad-core system-on-a-chip combines CPU, GPU and a multi-mode modem all in one, and is the first to be released using ARM’s Cortex A7 chipset. The One Touch Scribe HD will connect to 4G networks, provides an 8-megapixel camera and uses Android 4.1 Jelly Bean as its operating system. A stylus is visible in the picture, although whether it has the same degree of functionality as Samsung’s S-Pen remains to be seen.

Complete specification lists haven’t been released yet, and there’s no word on how much Alcatel’s new range of One Touch devices will cost, nor is there a release schedule or any news on whether they’ve been snapped up by any U.S. networks. In other words, we know they exist and about their individual headline-grabbing features, but not much else.

We’ll be sure to update here when more news arrives.