INQ Chat 3G

[mobaholic]

A budget Blackberry that's all about social networking

Product: INQ Chat 3G
Website: www.inqmobile/inqchat3g
System Specifications: 2.4-inch QVGA screen, QWERTY keyboard, BREW OS/INQ System 1, 3G, HSDPA, microSD, 3.2 megapixels, Bluetooth, GPRS, Li-ion battery,
Price: Free on contract, £89.99 on pay as you go

THERE ARE PHONES that come along that happen to have social networking features installed and then there are phones that have social networking features at their very core.  Inq mobiles all firmly fall into the latter category of handsets.  Famed for producing the world's first Facebook Inq 1 phone and for having the same name as the Inquirer's nickname (but not related), its latest handset comes along with much the same features as the Inq Mini 3G only with a Blackberry-esque keyboard tacked on.

Inq has now ticked all the boxes in terms of a wide range of handsets, with the Inq 1 slider phone, Mini 3G candy bar mobile and now a handset with a full Qwerty keyboard for those massive missive senders.  The company's remit seems to be primarily to produce mobiles with a social networking slant that are extremely affordable on pay-as-you-go, with standard contracts always taking care of themselves.

It has done a remarkable job with the current range, clearly waking up other handset manufactures to take a good look at themselves and bundle in out-of-the-box decent Facebook and Twitter applications.  This is evident in the first Motorola phone in almost a year called the Dext, with its value proposition being wrapped around social networking sites and interacting with them.

The Inq Chat 3G sits somewhere in between a couple of Blackberry phones in how it looks and feels, and the company is happy to admit that's what its trying to achieve.  The handset comes in at 114.5mm long, 61mm wide and just 12.8mm thick.  The Inq mobile phone could almost look as if it is a market stall knock off of the original Blackberry Bold, whose dimensions are very close at 114mm long, 66mm wide and 15mm thick.  There is even the same bevelled edge to the Inq Chat as that featured on the first Bold.

Its Qwerty keyboard is rubberised, with small keys and no space whatsoever in between them.  The Chat 3G has almost the same compact style as the keys that appear the Blackberry Curve 8300, although the RIM phone has them more evenly spaced out.  It's fairly comfortable to type with and much easier to use than the other Inq phones, with the thumbs taking the brunt of the work.  The squeakiness of the rubberised keys can be irritating, especially if typing fast and sliding digits across the keyboard.  It's rather akin to dragging fingernails down a blackboar.  If the keyboard is operated at close quarters without sliding one's thumbs from key to key that noise can be avoided.

Applications and the underlying OS are much the same as featured on the Inq Mini 3G that we recently reviewed.  It still boasts tight, thorough integration of social networking applications like Facebook and Twitter, with easy access from a button on the side.  There is also the added advantage of Facebook, Skype and Windows messenger contact details automatically being cross-pollinated into the phone's address book.  Featured for the first time is push Gmail, which is a useful tool and one Inq is clearly aiming at the budget Blackberry phone market.  Other popular email variants such as Hotmail and Yahoo are all present and correct, albeit not in push format.  Missing is the expected Spotify client, which is rumoured to be on the horizon as the company has very close ties with that music streaming organisation.

Phones with many applications all running at once need to be powered by a mighty processor, but we think the Inq Chat was left wanting in that department.  The operating system behind the handset is Brew from Qualcomm, known for its multitasking prowess.  This is coupled with a chipset from the same company, which seemed to be bogged down a lot, especially at start up.  On powering up the phone with Facebook, Twitter, email, Skype and Windows Live messager all running at once, the phone was left almost completely unresponsive for a good five minutes.  The lag was also seen every now and then whilst updated either Facebook or Twitter.  During composition of an email the text flawlessly appeared on the screen, although in an instant message text often did not appear whilst typing and then suddenly appeared all at once.  All of which clearly indicates a more powerful CPU and chipset should have been used in the Inq Chat 3G to achieve its full potential.

The Inq Chat 3G 2.4-inch 320x240 screen is larger than the small 2.2-inch screen of the Inq Mini, and yes that 0.2 inch does make a lot of difference.  It's much better in comparison for viewing text, images, web pages and literally everything else.

Blackberry has recently introduced its Bold 9700, where it has moved away from the 2.8-inch screen to a 2.44-inch display.  Although the new Blackberry does sport a much higher resolution of 480x360, the price tag of £389 is a lot harder to swallow when there is now a handset such as the Inq Chat 3G.

Inq has also upped the accompanying camera's megapixel count from 2MP in its last handset to 3.2MP which is return to the form of its original Inq 1 mobile.  There is no rhyme or reason as to why it brought in a lower specification camera in the last model, but it's a welcomed return as it does take a good image for a budget phone.  You'll be hard pushed to find a cheap handset with a 5MP rating so 3.2MP sits nicely in this zone, although we're sure that won't last for much longer with the way things are going.  12MP cameras seem to be the top tier these days, which inevitably means that 8MP could be seen as midrange soon.

Often with the cheaper mobiles compromises are made, none more so than in the battery department. Social networking phones are by default larger power drawers due to almost constant data access for updating Facebook and Twitter.  The Inq Chat 3G fared well in our barrage of battery tests, but we feel it should have done better.

The latest Inq mobile sports a 1500 mAh battery, one of the more substantial ones seen today which means the phone maker hasn't compromised on the mobile's battery life.  In making calls alone the phone managed to last seven hours and twenty-five minutes, a decent time for a phone's base functionality. The network hosting the phone has unlocked its backend for Skype users to make free Skype-to-Skype calls.  We tested that aspect of the phone and in those tests the Inq Chat 3G managed to survive six hours and thirty minutes worth of VoIP data calls.  The quality of those calls on the most part was fairly good over a decent 3G connection.

We also tested out the phone just as a social networking device alone, with no calls being received or made whilst connected to both Facebook and Twitter.  Both of those accounts were populated with quite a few hundred friends and followers, who are frequently updating their statuses.  This is coupled with three email accounts on the handset, where a few hundred emails a day poured through with Windows Live messaging and Skype was constantly running in the background.  The Inq Chat 3G managed to plough through six hours and thirty minutes before the phone died, not quite a full working day and we feel it should have lasted somewhat longer.

In Short
The Inq Chat 3G is the best budget Blackberry clone phone we've seen lately, although it's not exactly trying to be one. The Three mobile network spin-off company is just expanding its portfolio of affordable social networking oriented phones to cater for all tastes, where the Chat just applies to those who feel more at home with a Blackberry looking handset. Despite its shortcomings it is a good, decent and surprisingly cheap phone - a good £300 cheaper than the latest similar Research In Motion mobile. With all the handsets moving towards having thorough social networking integration, just think what Inq could really achieve with some more money thrown at the next model. It might very well be able to produce a good midrange or even high-end touchscreen handset to give the larger, more established phone companies a real run for their money. µ

The Good
Inexpensive, Qwerty keyboard, social networking functional, good Blackberry clone, push email.

The Bad
Massive lag at start-up, squeaky rubberised keyboard.

The Ugly
Could really do with a more powerful processor.

Bartender's Report
8/10

Source:-   here.