This 6-inch phone comes with a smaller Bluetooth handset for making calls

alcatel-pop-mega

As smartphones grow larger, they start to look less like phones. If you can’t stand to be seen making phone calls on a lunch tray, low-cost smartphone maker Alcatel OneTouch is preparing a relatively inexpensive device for prepaid carriers that pairs a big 6-inch Android phone with a stick phone-like device that can make calls and send texts when paired through Bluetooth.

The Onetouch Pop Mega LTE won’t be the fastest phone, but it could be a good deal for many. It will be available from Straight Talk — which is Walmart’s preferred prepaid carrier — for $250 unlocked starting next month.

Photo via Phonescoop

Photo via Phonescoop

The phone will come with a 6-inch, 960 x 540 display powered by a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chip. The Pop Mega is capable of a speedy LTE connection. You only get 4GB of built-in storage, but it’s expandable with a 32GB microSD card. The 8-megapixel front camera and 2MP front-facing camera aren’t going to be the best you can get, but I’m sure they’ll be adequate.

But you don’t just get one device for the price — you also get the OneTouch Buddy, which looks like a classic Nokia (or Alcatel, naturally) candy bar-shaped feature phone. It’s not a full phone, though, and it can only make calls and texts when paired with its phablet through Bluetooth. That also takes a toll on its battery life, which only runs two days. The idea is that the 6-inch Pop Mega is often too big to take out of your bag, so you’d opt for the Buddy instead.

Sony SmartBand Talk

Sony SmartBand Talk

This idea isn’t new but I’m not sure if it will work except perhaps as a placebo to get touchscreen-resistant Luddites to adopt mobile computing. It’s been tried before by HTC, which offered an optional $90 Bluetooth handset called the Mini+, but that was an add-on accessory and did not come in the box. Sony has also experimented with a similar idea, releasing the SmartBand Talk earlier this year, which lets users take calls from their wrist.

HTC Mini Plus

HTC Mini Plus

But as of now, these devices are merely glorified Bluetooth headsets in a different form, and they don’t work without a paired phone, so you’re still lugging the 6-inch device around. The “second phone” concept will start to get exciting when you can leave your phablet at home.

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