Review of HTC ChaCha

This is a global GSM phone. It can be used with T-Mobile USA and AT&T, but without 3G.

Introduction:

One, two, cha cha cha, three four, cha cha cha, HTC, ChaCha [Cha]. Doesn't it make you want to jump to the Facebook beat? No? Oh well, never mind. Whether they make you want to update your status or roll your eyes, Latin dances have inspired the names of both of HTC's new social phones with Facebook buttons, hoping to draw some excitement and buzz from the vivacious Latin culture into these sociable smartphones. With our review of the Salsa being less than spicy, largely thanks to the price, with similar specs and a physical QWERTY, all at a lower price-point, we're hopeful the HTC ChaCha's the Facebook phone with all the right moves.


Design:

The HTC ChaCha's price is lower than the one of the HTC Salsa, and its build is accordingly mid-range as a result. It does still feel well put together with no squeaking, creaking or cracking in sight. The screen's small at 2.6 inches, though the full sized QWERTY kind of makes up for it. The blue, white and silver colour scheme won’t be for everyone, but feels quite young, 'Facebooky' and cohesive. With an odd bend in the centre of the phone where the screen meets QWERTY, the HTC ChaCha sits in the hand well, and when face down on a surface, neither screen or keyboard make contact with it preventing wear and tear.

The HTC ChaCha sits in the hand well

You can compare the HTC ChaCha with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

HTC's ChaCha is blessed with just 2.6 inches of landscape screen. Fortunately for this smartphone however, size isn't everything, with its HVGA resolution (480x320) delivering a very good level of detail, leaving its main Android competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Pro two steps behind. You can also expect good viewing angles and some responsive interaction, which is great. Sadly, with the reformatted landscape Sense UI and tiny screen, much of the type is too small for comfortable reading, so might not be ideal for those with visual impairments.

In stark contrast to the slew of candybar phones taking a minimalist approach to physical keys, the HTC ChaCha has 46, not to mention the four capacitive buttons located under the screen. The majority of these physical keys can be found on the four tiered QWERTY, each key isolated and curvaceous with a pearly feel. Above the QWERTY lies a call and an end button while the Facebook button sits at the lower right hand side of the phone’s front. Side step to the left side of the HTC ChaCha for the volume rocker and microUSB port, while up top is a power button and headphone jack. Flip the phone over to get to the 5MP camera, LED flash and loud-speaker, not to mention a stylized thick silver band that adds a little visual zing.

The keyboard of HTC ChaCha

The sides of the HTC ChaCha

The QWERTY itself is a treat to use, with keys being easy to identify and press not to mention a good degree of click feedback.
Interface and Functionality:

With HTC Sense 2.1 re-oriented for the landscape screen, the HTC ChaCha contains a host of device specific peculiarities. Starting with the positive, the lock screen borrows from HTC Sense 3.0, as you can set four shortcuts to access directly from it, though no live updates run in the background. Now onto the not so good: for starters, there's no pull down quick settings functionality in the notifications tab, just the standard Android notifications. On top of that, you can only access your apps drawer from one out of the possible 7 homescreens. So if you are on screen five for example, you would need to return to screen one to do so. Alternatively, you can access it through the menu button, but this is still a two click process which we feel should have just been one. Otherwise, the landscape oriented Sense UI operates predictably, with the standard HTC Sense widgets on board which add considerable functionality to the Android experience.

The HTC ChaCha runs HTC Sense 2.1, re-oriented for the landscape screen

The HTC ChaCha's Facebook integration transpires in the form of the Facebook button and the chat app. When the button is pressed, it interacts with whatever's going on in the background, and pushes it to Facebook. From the homescreen, short press it to update your wall, long press to update your location using Facebook places. In the music app, you can share the track you're listening to straight to your profile with a single click, while in the gallery app, you can send images straight to your wall. The button also acts as a 'Facebook shutter release' for the on-board camera, focusing, shooting and uploading in a single step. One element that stands out about the Facebook integration is the ease with which contacts can be tagged in images, though most other aspects do manage to feel gimmicky.

The chat implementation therefore ends up being the high-point of the HTC ChaCha's Facebook arsenal as coupling the app with the QWERTY keyboard makes it incredibly easy to start gossiping away with friends. Facebook Chat comes in the form of a widget that sits on your homescreen listing all your available contacts. Open the application to manage conversations as well.

Facebook integration

Additional software that comes loaded on the HTC ChaCha includes all your usual organizer tools as well as Books oddly enough. We say oddly enough as it performs exceptionally badly on the 2.6 inch screen.

Contacts	Calculator

Camera and Multimedia:

The 5MP camera on board appears to be the same as that found on the HTC Salsa, and likewise is a highpoint of the handset. Images deliver good levels of detail, with colour and contrast levels being solid overall. It falls down in high contrast scenarios unfortunately, but at the price-point, is one of the best performers we've come across with a nice sharp macro shots and an LED flash to help with darker situations.

Camera interface

Samples made with the HTC ChaCha

Strong	Medium	Low light	Darkness with flash
Indoor samples

Video capture isn’t as strong, with resolution topping out at 780 x 480 and patchy frame-rates. Video looks passable on the phone's small display but curb expectations if looking to play back captured content on larger displays.

HTC ChaCha Sample Video:

You won't find any additional codec support on the HTC ChaCha, so if you want to play any formats other than MP4s, you'll need to get a codec rich media player from the market. MP4s do nevertheless play back well up to a resolution of 800x480 and if you can handle the screen-size, looks good.

With HTC's music app on board, music playback is very predictable with no perks like DLNA in sight. Audio quality is also pretty good overall though through the headphone jack.

Watching videos	Music player

Internet and Connectivity:

Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G coupled with Wi-Fi will help you keep your HTC ChaCha a click away from Facebook at any given time. On top of internet connectivity, the handset also packs a GPS to help you check-in to your Facebook places, as well as Bluetooth 3.0.

Fingering your way around websites is a little cramped thanks to the small display, but fortunately the HVGA resolution means content looks good and doesn't need to be excessively zoomed in on to make it readable. There are also arrow keys on the QWERTY if you want to bypass using the screen, making our overall impression better than a lot of the QWERTY competition out there. Multi-touch works well and pages load up quickly, with text reflowing to fit the page nicely.

The GPS locked on to our position nice and quickly and worked well, though naturally the small screen doesn't lend itself to ideal GPS use.
Performance:

Thanks to the 800MHz processor, despite not being a fore-runner in the speed race, the HTC ChaCha isn't exactly a slouch either. The re-oriented Sense UI runs smoothly for the most part. Admittedly, it force stopped a couple of times and generally feels less stable than we're used to Sense feeling, though HTC assured us our version had an early release that would be updated soon to correct for the more glaring shortcomings.

In call performance is good, with callers sounding clear and loud enough, reporting that we, in turn sounded audible. The handset delivers average signal strength and didn't throw up any issues when going online.

Battery life is pegged at 7 hours talk time and 18 days standby which is about average. This translates to a full day of medium usage with about 20% remaining.


Conclusion:

If you find it hard to take the HTC ChaCha seriously with its funny name and interesting take on social networking, we'd like to take the opportunity to assure you that without the blue button, the ChaCha is still a solid performer. While it can be a little buggy, with better hardware across the board than its main competitors and Sense UI adding a decent amount of functionality, the HTC ChaCha delivers a good amount of fun, functionality and affordability. If you want a cheaper offering, consider the more straight-laced and moderately specced Samsung Galaxy Pro.

Thanks to Three for providing us with the review unit. The HTC ChaCha is now available on Three with all-you-can-eat-data.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Kernel 2.6.35.10-g2029a1e
Baseband 47.14.35.3030H_7.47.35.17
Build Number 1.18.401.1.CL74171 test-keys

HTC ChaCha Video Review: