By Kate Solomon on Tuesday, 23rd March 2010

Budget handset manufacturer Alcatel is all set to launch its first Qwerty clamshell mobile phone and ladies, this one’s for you. You might have gathered that from the fact that it’s bright pink – but that’s not all! The Alcatel OT808 is the perfect handset for catching up with gossip – the press release assures us that you can use it to stay in touch with friends! How innovative.

What they mean, of course, is that there are plenty of social networking features, including access to sites like Facebook, Bebo and Twitter. It also features a full Qwerty keyboard, a 2-megapixel camera which comes complete with webcam function, a 4GB SD card slot and a 2.4-inch TFT display.

For some reason, Alcatel have opted to make the OT808 a square flip phone. Is it supposed to look like a compact mirror or some kind of sanitary product or one of those kinds of things that we girls carry around in our bags? We can only imagine this leading to fumbling-around-in-your-handbag-and-coming-up-with-the-wrong-thing embarrassment. At 7cm square, the OT808 will never fit into those little handbag phone pockets either.

It may not be the perfect phone but it is cheap and, we suppose, fairly cheerful. You’ll be able to pick it up for £49.99 on pay-as-you-go from the start of April from a wide range of UK retailers.