Our HTC ChaCha Review

HTC is a leader in innovative cell phone technology. The HTC ChaCha hit the mobile phone market as the Facebook phone. It has been welcomed by a wide range of industry insiders and praised by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg. But don’t let the Facebook label limit you. This phone packs a powerful punch and offers many versatile applications.

First Look at the HTC ChaCha

What will most likely strike you when first holding the HTC ChaCha is the blue Facebook button, prominently placed below and to the right of the keyboard. The phone is lightweight – just 124g – and very comfortable to use. The white, molded plastic body is highlighted with brushed metal. The battery access is plastic which makes it less substantial than in other models. If you are an old school HTC user you will be glad to see the return of the chin. The chin was introduced with HTC’s first Android mobile and lost popularity over the years. It is back and in style with the HTC ChaCha. You can hold the device to view the screen – the keyboard is set at a natural angle towards you. One small snafu – the chin makes a slight bulge when you put the phone in your pants pocket.

Design

The HTC ChaCha keyboard is comfortable and accessible. The keys are easy to use with a rubberized component. This mobile is categorized as a messaging phone. However, as mentioned before, it is a huge hit within the social media world. The Facebook button at the bottom of the keyboard brings up Facebook ASAP. The tip of the device is home to the 3.5mm headphone jack and the standard lock button. The left side is where you will find the volume controller and USB charger and sync port. On the bottom of the device HTC includes a small microphone port. Two cool cameras make the phone a big plus for social media and messaging. The first phone is a 5MP autofocus located on the back of the phone. This is the usual; camera found on mobile phones. It comes complete with LED flash. More interesting is the VGA camera on the front panel that is great for self portraits. Just snap and upload whenever you are on the go.

What We Liked

The HTC ChaCha runs on the top rated Gingerbread from Android. This is a huge surprise as the other social networking biggie to hit the market with even more advanced features than the ChaCha – the Motorola Atrix – is equipped with the old Froyo. We love the latest version of HTC Sense (3.0). You immediately discover four homescreens that can be manipulated with the touch of your fingers. The touch screen is quite sensitive – no lag time which is huge bonus for us and for you. Finally, unlike the iPhone, the HTC ChaCha will let you export files across applications with ease. For example, if you target text on a cool webpage just highlight, tap and share. This allows every sharing across all apps.

What We Disliked

The plastic battery case can be a major problem if you plan on changing batteries or SIM cards often. The phone comes with a sticker warning not to put too much pressure on the screen when removing battery cover. Reviewers state that they came close to pressing through the screen when trying to open the battery case. Fortunately, most of you will hardly ever need to open this area of the device. Missing from this version of HTC cell phones is the quick and easy to use pull down notification bar that includes toggle options – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and more. Why would the HTC designers leave such a vital tool out of their social networking device?

Our Final Verdict

Should you purchase the HTC ChaCha? As with most mobiles it all comes down to what you plan to use the phone for – your lifestyle. If you are into social networking it is a no-brainer, this is the phone for you. If you want to share multiple files across a variety of apps, this is the phone to choose. Even with the few drawbacks the obvious advantages far outweigh any negatives.

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	HTC ChaCha
General
Form Factor	Candybar
Dimensions	114 x 66.5 x 10.9 (mm)
Talk Time	350 mins
Standby Time	350 hours
Weight	120 g
Quad Band	Yes
Photo and Video
Integrated Camera	Yes
Camera	5.00 megapixels
Camera Flash	Yes
Video Player	Yes
Phone
Voice Recognition	Yes
Integrated Keyboard	Yes
Smart Phone	Yes
Internal Memory	160MB
Memory Card Type	SD (32GB max)
Messaging
Instant Messaging (IM)	Yes
Screen
Colour Screen	Yes
Connectivity
3G	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
Email	Yes
HSDPA	Yes
WAP	Yes
Web Browser	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
GPS	Yes
Music and Radio
FM Radio	Yes
MP3 Player	Yes
Additional Content
Downloadable Content	Yes
Downloadable Games	Yes
Downloadable Ringtones	Yes

HTC ChaCha Full Specification

General

Photo and Video

Phone

Messaging

Screen

Connectivity

Music and Radio

Additional Content