I don’t know what I was expecting from the INQ1, Three Mobile’s successor to the Skype phone and a tool for all almost all your social media needs on the go. But for some reason, the solidly built handset with its comfortable and intuitive interface actually surprised me.Make no mistake about it, the INQ1 is a well made phone. The brushed aluminium body hides a solid sliding mechanism that reveals the phone’s keypad, with its large numerical buttons that are satisfyingly large and easy to press. For such a cheap handset, it’s amazing how solid this feels in your hand – other handset manufacturers should definitely be taking notes.
The key aspect of this handset though isn’t its solid build, but its integration with social media tools like Facebook, MySpace and Instant Messenger. And once again, it does the job amazingly well. Not only is there an integrated iPhone app on the phone, but using 3′s network, it will keep you constantly connected to the service, updating you when you receive a message or when someone updates their status just like you’re receiving a text message.
On top of that, the phone will pull down your Facebook friends’ contact info and merge it with the contacts in your phone, including profile pics. It does the same thing for Skype, too, and presumably MySpace, although I didn’t (and won’t ever) have a MySpace account to check it out. Photos taken on the INQ1′s 3.2 megapixel camera can be directly uploaded to your social media accounts as well.
It’s not the perfect phone though – browsing the web is as painful as every other phone with a 2.2-inch screen, and even though Facebook, MySpace, Skype and Windows Live IM are included, there’s no Twitter, Friendfeed or other social networking programs. There’s also no Wi-Fi, although the phone comes with 3′s excellent data rates, which should get most people through a month of status updates and IM conversations.
Battery life was also extremely surprising – even with both Facebook and Skype running in the background, the phone was still kicking on after a few days use. Hell, one week, when I didn’t use it at all, but left it switched on, it managed to last for a full 5 days.
This isn’t a phone many of us will ever buy, but for the teenage demographic, it’s practically the Holy Grail. At $179 on a $29 prepaid cap it’s extremely affordable, it’s well built, has a 2-year warranty and is more socially connected than the PM on Twitter. If only all cheap phones were so appealing.
Bonnie L.
January 29, 2009 at 1:24 PM
I agree with the review (and then some!) I got the phone for christmas and it’s been awesome for keeping in touch with all my uni friends. I love the phone book function where it basically integrates the social networks that my friends are all on, so I can not only call them but also decide how I want to contact them (email, IM, facebook etc). I had my reservations at first because Inq is a new brand and such but decided to give it a go as it seemed pretty cheap for all the functionality which is included, and I’m very glad I did. The phone is made for social networking if you are an addict like me :D
Report PermalinkJosh
January 29, 2009 at 3:28 PM
I just bought this phone yesterday and love it. I am on the $39 cap which comes with 1gb of data per month. I do have on question though, when I checked my account balance this morning I only had 773mb remaining, and I barely used any internet/social applications. This doesn’t seem right at all to me. Even if I was in the “roaming” area I don’t think I could have used up this much data. Other than that I think it’s an awesome phone – finally something that doesn’t have all those functions I’m never going to use, and instead does exactly what I want it to do
Report PermalinkCarey
January 30, 2009 at 12:14 AM
Josh, your first month is usually pro-rata, so that 733mb will be the remainder until your next billing cycle starts! Sounds like that’s whats happended.
Phone seems good! Thanks for the review
Report PermalinkJono
January 30, 2009 at 3:05 AM
Josh, your data allowance for the first month is pro-rated. Since you only signed up yesterday, but your billing date is less than a month away, they adjust it to account for that fact that your first billing month will be less than a real month. Next month you’ll have the full 1GB. Also, if you were using any data while “roaming” it wouldn’t come out of your allowance at all – you’d simply be charged $1.65/MB for it. The INQ is designed though that it turns off all the background data usage (ie Facebook and Skype updates) whenever you’re roaming, so you don’t get hit with surprise charges.
Report PermalinkRyan
January 30, 2009 at 4:57 PM
What do you mean by “integrated iPhone App”?
Report PermalinkBennet
March 10, 2009 at 11:10 PM
i am just wondering, if it is constantly connected, how much data would it use in a month? I know that it has unlimited facebook, but with live messenger and all that, wont that chew your usage??
Report PermalinkJames Hancock
June 18, 2009 at 3:29 PM
can this phone be bought outright? i am on the optus network and would like to buy this phone outright….is this possible and if so how much?
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