About two weeks ago, a group of bloggers were invited by Smart Communications to get a closer look at the HTC Handsets available for Postpaid subscribers.
There were four models of HTC demonstrated to us and after the briefing each of us were ask to bring home a test unit. As for Digitalspidey, we chose to take home and test HTC Chacha. I was intrigued with this unofficial Facebook phone released by HTC recently. PTB has its full review of Chacha.
Before we go further with our own experience with HTC Chacha, here are the HTC handsets available for subscription with Smart.
- HTC WILDWIRE S – Price and Specs is here.
- Free on Smart Unli Data Plan 1,500
- Free 120 Texts, Free 60 Call Minutes
- UNLIMITED 3G Internet
- HTC DESIRE S – Price, Specs and Review is here.
- Free with Smart Unli Data Plan 2000
- Free 200 Texts, Free 150 Call Minutes
- UNLIMITED 3G Internet
- HTC SENSATION – Price, Specs and Review by PTB.
- Free with Smart Unli Data Plan 3000
- Free 240 Texts, Free 300 Call Minutes
- UNLIMITED 3G Internet
- HTC CHACHA – Price, Specs and Review by PTB.
- Free with Smart Unli Data Plan 1000 or
- Unlimited Data Plan 1500
Now, moving on the mini review of the HTC Chacha. We will not make a thorough review since PTB has it already.
However, there are few more things that you deserve to know so that you are aware of its features and few flaws likewise.
Let us tell you straight that this can slip off your hand while using it. The curve design however helps you in making calls just fit and exact on your mouth and ear.
- AUTO-ROTATE FEATURE
It has auto-rotate feature but not applicable to all apps that comes with it, you have to configure it and turn in on. Go to Settings and select Display to enable/disable it.
Following are sample images with the Auto-rotate on.
You can use it in Facebook apps, also when viewing photos.
Apps like Foursquare and Youtube.
Also in viewing maps.
- BLACKBERRY Charger is an alternative
While there is standard USB a charger that comes with the package, we discovered that Blackberry charger can be an good alternative. See photos for reference.
- The dedicated Facebook Button
The guys at Smart told us that we can’t call this as the official Facebook phone, so we just name it as the unofficial FB phone. The Facebook button when pressed will take you immediately to the screen where you can either post message to your wall or post picture via HTC Sense.com app.
- And then the BUG
Yugatech reported this already and we confirm that the keyboard layout of HTC Chacha has a little bug. Check the photo so you can easily identify the bug. You will easily spot it when you start to look for the @ sign in the keypad.
The @ sign on letter Y when pressed with FN key produces “£” instead. The @ sign can be found on letter P instead.
Now we do not know how HTC will correct this bug as of this posting.
OVERALL, HTC Chacha is a pretty nice phone so with all other HTC phones shall we say. It’s built is not cheap, it retails at P15,000.00 in the retail market. But Smart offers it for FREE on Plan 1000 or Unli data Plan 1500. Oh, its worth mentioning that since this is a QUERTY cum touch phone, it is not the phone for everyone but if you are a Blackberry user, you will migrate easily on this one. It comes in black, white and purple colors.
Nice info there. But I think the auto rotate feature would be difficult to adjust to as the buttons themselves don’t auto-rotate. 🙂