INQ Chat 3G

Not everyone wants to invest in an all-singing, all-dancing smartphone just to get their hands on mobile messaging and social networking services, but not everyone wants to wrestle with third-rate apps on a cheap, small-screen feature-phone either.

That’s the dilemma the INQ Chat 3G sets out to resolve — it’s a low cost smartphone with a comparatively limited set of features, but it still ticks the boxes for most people who want a bit more from their mobile.

At first glance, the INQ 3G could be mistaken for a BlackBerry smartphone — it’s a similar size and shape to a Bold or Curve, with a screen at the top, a Qwerty keyboard at the bottom and a strip of buttons running along the middle. Build quality isn’t quite up to BlackBerry standards and the all-plastic case feels a little cheap, though that’s not to say the INQ 3G is flimsy — far from it. There are no creaks or rattly bits on the slim case, and the seams all fit together snugly. The device is a little plain viewed front-on, but the back cover can be swapped for one in a different colour for a dash of personalisation.

INQ has three models in its line up and as befits its ‘Chat’ name, this one has a full Qwerty keyboard. The keys are small and closely packed, but they’re made from hard plastic and each one has a tall, rounded profile. This make the keyboard very easy to use with two thumbs and it’s fair to say that its one of the best on any Qwerty handset we’ve reviewed.

The keyboard is at least backlit, which is just as well as the grey-on-black legends used for alphanumeric characters are otherwise difficult to read. Unfortunately, the backlight doesn’t illuminate the read-on-black secondary legends used for punctuation and other symbols, and these are all but impossible to read in less than ideal lighting conditions — even for someone with 20/20 vision.

Unlike most smartphones, powering up the INQ Chat 3G from cold doesn’t take long and the user interface is commendably simple. Customisable shortcuts for applications and web sites run along the bottom of the screen, each accessed with the centrally placed four-way control button.

The default selection of installed apps covers most of the bases — Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger and Skype, along with email and web browser applications. Additional Java-powered apps are available from GetJar.com — almost 4,000, at the time of writing — and these cover the gamut from games to utilities.

The 320 x 240 screen resolution limits the sophistication of the apps, as does their reliance on Java, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for a device like the INQ Chat 3G. Speed — or lack of it — is more of a problem though, and there is considerable lag and bouts of non-responsiveness (not to mention the odd crash) when using certain apps.

Email set-up is very simple, but lack of support for IMAP folders makes the INQ 3G Chat less useful for power users. A unified inbox makes it easy to manage messages from several accounts though, and the aggregation of email, Twitter direct messages, Facebook alerts and Messenger chats into one place is also a nice touch. We’re less excited by the basic web browser, though — it defaults to the mobile versions of web sites, where available, and is very, very slow. Fortunately, this is easily remedied with Opera Mini. (Update: INQ tells us that Opera Mini is now installed as standard on the 3G Chat.)

Although the INQ 3G is reasonably well-equipped for listening to music — it has a microSD card slot (no card is supplied) and is supported by the free DoubleTwist music manager — it doesn’t have a 3.5mm earphone socket. Instead, there’s the dreaded combined microUSB port for charging and audio, and a microUSB headset in the box. This doesn’t sound too bad, but we’d prefer the option of using earphones of our own choice.

3 offers the INQ 3G Chat on a range of tariffs — pay monthly deals start at £10 and offer a mix of unlimited text messages and free minutes, with a free phone; otherwise, the phone costs £100 on PAYG. Not a bad deal, all things considered.