INQ1 review

The INQ1 has been promised as the phone for the Facebook crowd, and on that it delivers – just make sure you’ve got a solid data package first.

Even though social networking apps can be downloaded to Apple’s iPhone and smartphones anywhere can browse to such sites, the INQ1 features Facebook and its Web 2.0 brethren preloaded and accessible with the click of a button in a cleverly integrated way.

Indeed, it’s not just about easy access to the web. Facebook is integrated right into your contact list, showing profile photos alongside phone-based contact details. In the images section, there’s a folder for photos taken with the phone, as well as one linked to your Facebook account.

Facebook isn’t the only web toy included. Many top players make a showing, including Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo and Google. Still there are some notable exclusions, including Twitter.

With built-in Skype, some have suggested this is 3’s next-gen Skypephone. Whether they will or won’t bring out a third version of that phone, 3 lets you make free calls using the VoIP system – even on pay-as-you-go plans.

Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger are both available for instant messaging. There’s a tab for quick access to Google, although a free GMail app needs to be downloaded first to check your email.

Yahoo also offers a weather toolbar on the main screen in case you can’t be bothered to look out the window – and given the meteorological woes in the UK lately, no one could blame you.

These sites are linked into the messages section, which on a normal phone would include texts and maybe email. On the INQ1, it brings together IM, chat, Skype, 3 email and Facebook, so everything’s in one place, and alerts are displayed on the main screen. Very handy.

The web browser is solid for accessing other sites, and there’s also a built-in RSS Feed reader. The favourites section is preset with optimised versions of eBay, MySpace, Bebo, Last FM, 3’s music store and even Yahoo search – in case the Google search tool that pops up in the browser isn’t what you’d prefer. If it is, you can easily toggle to it.

Icons along the bottom of the INQ1’s bright screen allow one click access such apps and websites, while other so-called ‘widgets’ can easily be added as well. If clicking with the main selecting button is too much work for your fingers, a button on the side of the phone lets you scroll and select.  If you can’t be bothered to click along, there’s even a one-click widget scrolling option, which opens whichever icon you’ve landed on

While the INQ1 is designed to make mobile web easy on a phone, it makes it pretty easy via a computer, too. Simply connect the handset using a standard mini-USB cable to your laptop, and the INQ1 can be used as a 3G dongle, too.

Aside from the social networking savvy, the INQ1 is a decent-looking slider handset. In brushed-metal and dark grey plastic, it looks like it should be more expensive that it is, and feels solid despite being relatively light at 110g. The 1.25 inch by not-quite 2-inch screen is super bright, but a bit small for viewing sites like Facebook, although the accelerometer flipping the screen does help.

On most of the Web 2.0 apps, the text is shrunk down to a tiny size, requiring a bit of squinting to make it readable for anyone with less than Superman-level vision. My first attempt to login to Facebook failed as I didn’t see I’d typed my own name wrong.

This slider phone has a easy to use keypad, but it’s clear when using the INQ1 how handy a full QWERTY keyboard would be. Maybe in the next version?

The INQ1 charges off the mini-USB, and that’s how the headphones hook in, too. Down one side of the handset, there’s a button for direct access to the fairly basic 3.2 megapixel camera, which takes rather grainy pictures and also offers a similarly basic video camera function.

Aside from internal memory of 50MB, the INQ1 will also take 4GB miniSD memory cards, but it lives under the battery so hotswapping isn’t possible.

Unsurprisingly, the phone is both HSDPA-enabled and features 3G of up to 3.6Mbps, not that such speeds were available in whatever dank coverage hole I was testing in, as Facebook crawled to load.

Operator 3 promises 329 minutes on standby, but with the phone constantly alerting to messages from Facebook and other sites, it was impossible to leave it on standby to test.

With that in mind, should you pick up the INQ1, get a decent data package – 3 recommends a few on its site – as this phone is built for the mobile web, but you don’t want to pay everytime you pick it up, either.