HTC ChaCha Review and Specifications

The HTC ChaCha is a social media-focused smartphone that's designed to make sharing and connecting easier than ever. It features a 2.6-inch touchscreen display.

This phone is powered by a 600 MHz Qualcomm processor, which provides a smooth and efficient user experience.

With 512 MB of RAM, you can have multiple apps open at the same time without any lag or freezing.

The HTC ChaCha has a 5 megapixel camera that's perfect for capturing life's precious moments.

Readers also liked: ChaCha (search Engine)

The HTC ChaCha's design is lovingly crafted, with a slight angle to the body that allows you to view the screen comfortably while typing on the keyboard.

The phone's construction is a nice combination of metals and plastic, giving it an attractive design and a slim profile of 10.7mm, making it slimmer than the BlackBerry Bold.

The ChaCha's size is marginally larger than the Bold overall, but the wider spaced keyboard offers individual keys for easier typing.

The ChaCha's phone features are quite impressive. The phone has a clear earpiece and a loud speaker for hands-free use.

The loud speaker does get some crunchy static at the top end of its volume, but callers said we were coming through loud and clear. Bluetooth is also available for hands-free use.

Battery life is a major concern for any phone, and the ChaCha delivers. It's rated at up to 420 minutes of WCDMA talktime, or up to 450 minutes GSM.

The battery can also last up to 660 hours of WCDMA standby, or up to 430 hours GSM. This is with a 1,250 mAh battery, which is slightly less than the Salsa's battery.

Overall, we managed to get through a day and a half of use, with various apps running in the background.

The HTC ChaCha is a beautifully crafted phone, with a design that's both functional and attractive.

The phone is made from a combination of metals and plastic, which gives it a nice feel in the hand.

It's slimmer than the BlackBerry Bold, measuring just 10.7mm, and has a wider spaced keyboard that's great for typing.

The phone is marginally larger than the Bold overall, but the extra space is worth it for the comfort of the keyboard.

The touch controls for home, menu, back, and search are located across the bottom of the display, making them easy to access.

The volume rocker and standby/lock buttons are in their usual places, making it simple to use the phone.

Unfortunately, there's no camera button, but you do get two hard calling buttons beneath the display, which is a nice touch.

The Facebook button is a bit too prominent, but it's a great feature that makes it easy to access Facebook on the go.

The HTC ChaCha is the first candy-bar Android device with a full QWERTY keyboard from HTC, and it's a game-changer for those who love typing.

Discover more: Nokia X3 Touch and Type

The HTC ChaCha runs everything nicely, with the HTC Sense side working well and the keyboard providing a good experience.

The physical keyboard is a game-changer, as it means you're not fighting for screen space like you might be on small-screen devices.

However, other apps don't fare so well due to the small screen size, making it difficult to control them accurately.

The Android Market is tiny on the ChaCha, which is both a blessing and a curse, depending on how you look at it.

Dealing with the Internet is a bit of a pain due to the small screen, requiring a lot of zooming in and out to read content.

Internally, the HTC ChaCha has a Qualcomm MSM7227 processor clocked at 800MHz, 512MB ROM and RAM, and a microSD card slot for memory expansion.

The phone is stable and runs smoothly, but it doesn't have the same snappy user interface as top-tier phones.

Calls come across loud and clear on the ChaCha, making it a great phone for making a lot of calls.

However, the 1250mAh battery life is surprisingly short, requiring daily charging on busy days.

The software on the HTC ChaCha is based on Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, just like the Salsa, but with a unique Sense UI and app/widget suite.

HTC has made some changes to the UI to suit the landscape orientation of the display, including a light grey color-scheme that makes the UI feel brighter and less dense.

The homescreen layout is different from other HTC Android phones, defaulting to its left-most pane instead of a center-biased seven pane layout.

You can still have up to seven panes, filled with icons and widgets, but the first pane has the app menu and customize keys in its bottom corners by default.

The lockscreen has a familiar four icon launcher, similar to the Salsa and Sensation, but without the weather effects.

The app menu works well, with the All Apps/Frequent/Downloaded filter shifted from the bottom to the side, making it easy to flick through with your right thumb.

HTC's usual suite of apps, including Friend Stream and the Gallery app, have the same layout, but Friend Stream shows up the UI's limitations.

Discover more: Comparison of Android Go Products

The ChaCha runs on Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, complete with HTC's Sense UI and app/widget suite.

HTC has used a different Sense build on the ChaCha than on other recent phones, with a light grey color-scheme that makes the UI feel brighter and less dense.

Most standard apps and menus won't rotate into portrait orientation, due to the landscape orientation of the display.

The ChaCha defaults to its left-most pane, rather than the center-biased seven pane homescreen layout of other HTC Android phones.

You can have up to seven home screens, filled with icons and widgets, but the first has the app menu and customize keys in its bottom corners by default.

There's no recent-apps scrollbar in the notifications menu, nor access to quick settings, which might be a bit frustrating for some users.

The lockscreen has the same four icon launcher as on the Salsa, but without the weather effects found on the Sensation.

A different take: Sprint Phones Htc Evo 4g

HTC has tweaked its UI to cater to the unusual screen aspect, but it's a mixed bag for usability.

The app menu works well, with the All Apps/Frequent/Downloaded filter shifted from the bottom to the side, making it straightforward to flick the filter slider and then the list.

The ChaCha comes loaded with the same suite of apps as on the Salsa, including HTC regulars like Books, Friend Stream, HTC Hub, HTC Likes, Mirror, Peep, and the WiFi Hotspot app.

Unfortunately, HTC hasn't gone far enough in tweaking the interface for our liking, and this shows up in Friend Stream, the hub of Facebook activity.

Readers also liked: Samsung Galaxy A6 / A6+

The Soothing Tune plugin has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create calming soundscapes.

Its 7 built-in instruments, including a gentle piano and a soothing flute, can be easily selected and customized.

The plugin's ability to loop sounds creates a sense of continuity, perfect for meditation and relaxation.

With its intuitive controls, users can adjust the volume, tempo, and tone to create a unique sonic experience.

The Soothing Tune plugin's calming effect is enhanced by its ability to reduce background noise, making it ideal for focus and concentration.

Its compact size makes it easy to integrate into any music production software.

The HTC ChaCha's camera is a decent entry-level snapper, capable of taking good enough photos for Facebook sharing. It's got a 5-megapixel sensor, which is the same as the HTC Salsa's camera.

The ChaCha's camera output is generally less impressive than some rivals, but it's reasonable for an entry- to mid-tier handset. Colors are clear and the touch-focus system is swift.

Photos taken with the ChaCha look better off-device than on the phone's screen, which can be misleading. Sometimes we thought photos would be hopelessly blurred, only to find the end result was fine.

The camera interface has a smattering of effects to try out, and touch focusing is available during video recording. Video clips are limited to 720 x 480 resolution, but are crisp and audio pickup is good.

Low light conditions can be a challenge for the ChaCha's camera, bringing a lot of noise in and resulting in blurred shots. This is a common issue with camera phones, but it's worth noting.

A different take: Alcatel One Touch Idol 3