back to article HTC ChaCha Qwerty Android smartphone

If there is such a condition as telephonic incontinence then HTC is clearly a sufferer, as it churns out a handset for just about every conceivable demographic. With the ChaCha, the company is focusing on text warriors with a hard Qwerty keyboard and some social networking tweaks. HTC Cha Cha Upbeat performer: HTC's ChaCha …

COMMENTS

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  1. Eugene Crosser
    Trollface

    Facebook button,

    I wonder if it can be reprogrammed to start Google+ app instead...

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Quids in?

      You do wonder if they get a few pennies from Facebook for plugging their site?

  2. Tommy Pock

    Looks ideal

    I've been using a SE X10 Mini for a year so the 320x480 of the HTC would seem positively extravagant to me. The missus' Blackberry is a joy to type on, I have to say, but I couldn't live with one. I was even considering a Palm Pre 2 at one point, but then I realised that's just silly. While the Cha Cha's battery isn't the best it's certainly better than my X10's 900mha charge-daily effort.

    Thanks for the review

  3. @brykins

    Close.....

    If the screen were the size of the whole black area, and the processor was one of the new 1.2Ghz dual cores, then this would be just about my perfect phone. Coming from Blackberry, I love the apps on Android, but really, really miss the keyboard.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cue anothe lawsuit

    Nice, but it does look a lot like a Blackberry without the secure email features. If Apple can sue Samsung over similar shaped icons, I'm sure Blackberry would have a case too. Or perhaps they are a bit more grown up and would take the imitation as flattery.

    I can never keep up with who is suing who these days.

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Form factor

      Erm Nokia and others have been doing the whole landscape orientated screen with buttons for ages. You can't really copyright that form factor, calculators have been doing it for years :)

      It looks nothing like a Blackberry anyway. They're usually dull sober colours, almost like you've dressed up your phone in a suit. Although I did see one with some clip on back the other day that was rather colourful.

      1. RegisterThis

        Plus a few Blueberrys and Raspberrys

        I have also been aware of a few 'blue' and 'red' versions of the Blackberry often referred to as Blueberrys or Raspberrys by their owners ...

        ('blue' and 'red' in quotes as I tend to 'round off' colours to the more basic ones whereas I am sure the ladies would have specific names for these 'specific colours' which would be more descriptive to those in the the know!)

  5. Danny 14

    nah

    better off with a desire Z. More flexible and a better bigger screen.

    Blackberry phones look like the treos of old though.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I have a Desire Z

      .. and this ChaCha has something the Desire Z doesn't have..

      A HANG UP BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      I'm thinking of replacing my Desire Z for this ChaCha for that very reason alone.

  6. mrmond

    Saw this in europe a while ago

    And thought, a phone with an facebook button ? Everyone thought is was stupid.

    Didn't realise it was Android with a touch screen though which makes it more tempting. But if the layout effects widgets it would surely be even worse with games.

    Stick with my San Francisco running 2.2 for now.

  7. David Given
    Thumb Up

    Clamshell form factor?

    Now, if only they'd make one that folded in the middle I'd be happy --- I've been waiting for a clamshell Android phone to replace my horrible (but tiny and highly usable) Alacatel OT-808 for ages. Smartphone screens are just too big and too fragile to live in my pocket.

  8. Jonathan Lancaster

    name

    At least it's doesn't have some blatantly 'aspirational' name as other htc variants seem to. Dream, desire, hero, incredible, ace, stallion, marvel, vision... I was fully expecting the next one to be called the HTC ifyoubuythisphoneyourlifewillbebetter - but there again the concatenation of those words does lead to a rather unfortunate ambiguity.

  9. Tom 38

    Flash! (aaahaaah, saviour of ..)

    """

    The Flash support appears to be only Lite however, so you’ll get some animated banners, but not necessarily the full streaming video experience.

    """

    This made me chortle. They've included enough flash so you get the annoying, tedious properties of flash - you get the stupidly large flash adverts that slow down your browsing - but not enough so that you can use any of the useful benefits of flash, like streaming video.

    When it comes to Flash, Stevie J is right - it's a dog and it should die. There's nothing in flash that you can't do using HTML and JS.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting..

    ... but does it actually make phone calls and if so how well?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    IT'S GOT A HANG UP BUTTON

    But only 512MB of internal flash :(

    Remember, if someone pinches your phone, they have your external memory card which is UNENCRYPTED...

  12. Hypnotist

    Is it...

    really 10% better than the Nokia E6?

    Need something to access Lotus email with to replace my falling-apart-ALREADY BB Curve...

    1. juniperz

      Lotus Traveler for Android

      I am using Lotus Traveler for my Notes email on an Orange San Francisco or on my old Nokia E71.

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Lee Duckworth

      Keyboard power buttons

      they usually put them up top out of the way nowadays, you really have to be doing some serious jazz-hands to hit them accide.....

  14. dansus
    Thumb Down

    Disappointing..

    I tried the keyboard, it was rubbish, not a patch on Nokia or BB.

  15. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
    Unhappy

    Nokia :(

    Still waiting to see if a successor to the N900 will ever emerge :(

  16. Bela Lubkin
    Coat

    Mondo Phone

    "slimline form factor (114 x 65 x 11m)"?!

    Let's assume the screen's 90% of the width, so ~58.5m. Divide by 480 and we see that pixels are about 12.2cm across -- about the size of a standard CD.

    Sorry, won't fit my pockets... not even in this...

  17. Robredz
    Linux

    Now a Flip with a werty that would be nice

    I wouldn't mind a flip with a good touchscreen on one side, and a full qwerty, on the other side, maybe the size of or a tad bigger than my old faithful Motorola V9, a much tougher phone than the Nokia C:6 that replaced it. Add Web OS2 from the Palm Pre2, a dual core processor, good battery life plenty of storage and a micro SD slot. Ah well i can dream and doodle.

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