I am currently trying out the new INQ Mini (the ‘Twitter’ phone) for two weeks courtesy of those nice folks at 3mobilebuzz (http://www.3mobilebuzz.com/) and thought I would post my thoughts and likes and dislikes of the phone after a week’s use.
Firstly, the handset itself is an extremely nice looking and small phone, feels very well built and very good to hold. The keyboard is pretty good to use for dialling and texting with excellent predictive text and battery life is among the best I’ve seen on a mobile. I’ve had it on now for about a week and haven’t had to charge it yet!
When you first get the phone it comes, like it’s predecessor the INQ1, in a very attractive box with some very impressive artwork on it (see photo) - also included is a charger, earphones, and some pocket-sized quick reference instruction cards covering the basic functions of the INQ Mini.
The first feature I tried on the phone was the Twitter application, I’d been looking forward to trying this but have to say this was a major disappointment. Firstly, completely the wrong time and date were displayed on all tweets despite my having set the correct time and date when I first switched the phone on. Next, only the very most recent tweets are displayed, if you wish to view older messages you have to go online and log-in to the mobile Twitter site which to me seems a little daft, why is it not possible to view older tweets within the application? Also, it does not update itself automatically like the Facebook application does, it can only be updated manually.
I then set up the Facebook application which is a lot better, it updates automatically although there is a bit of a time lag between the application and the actual mobile website but aside from that a pretty good application, although to be honest for accessing Twitter and Facebook while on the move I would much rather use Dabr and the mobile Facebook website.
After trying these I moved on to the camera which for a phone of this size and price is pretty decent in normal lighting conditions, one useful facility is being able to take a photo then upload it to Facebook, quite handy. The lack of a flash is disappointing though.
On the home screen it is possible to have various widgets which include Weather.com, Google Search, Yahoo! Search, World Clock and up to 3 RSS feeds of your choice, I like this feature and was something I used a lot when I owned the INQ1. At the bottom of the home screen is the ‘switcher’ for accessing the various features, press left or right on the centre navigation then press the centre button to select. The switcher can also be accessed from any application or feature in the phone by pressing the button on the right hand side of the handset and further applications of your choice can be added. The INQ Mini also comes pre-loaded with push Gmail, Windows Live Messenger, Skype and of course there is a hotkey on the home screen for going online to the excellent Planet 3 portal.
Another useful feature is that on the Contacts list you can synchronize with your Facebook contacts so they are displayed alongside your regular contacts. It is also possible to purchase from 3 alternative back panels for the phone (it comes with a red cover) in a choice of colours.
To sum up this is a bargain priced and very attractive and well designed mobile, I personally wouldn’t buy one to use as my everyday mobile and will be remaining with my LG Viewty, but if you only simply wish to use it for making/receiving calls, texting and accessing Facebook and mobile internet and for taking acceptable photos I would recommend it and am grateful to the folks at 3mobilebuzz, particularly Cally for giving me the chance to try it for a fortnight.
Likes : Excellent battery life, good quality screen, nice looks, well designed, decent camera, homescreen widgets, the switcher, integrated Facebook app
Dislikes : Disappointing Twitter application, time lag in Facebook application, no camera flash.
