A great concept, but let down by hardware and software. (INQ1 Mobile Phone)

Member Name: Jondot

Product:	INQ1 Mobile Phone
Date:	16/06/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, looks OK, well made in terms of materials

Disadvantages: Just awful. Unreliable, slow, poor camera, no front camera... it's endless.

Oh deary me. I got this phone free when I renewed my contract on Three, and it only lasted me a week.

Not because it went wrong, but because I couldn't stand using the damn thing. So I sold it on eBay.

Let's firstly look at the positives of the INQ. It's cheap. It's quite small. It's fairly well made. You can charge it via USB.

That concludes the list of positives.

Really it's just not a very well produced phone. The concept is good - Facebook and Skype integrated seemlessly into a phone. Unfortunately the concept and the final result are two very different things.

Let's start with the obvious things. The OS (menus etc) are pretty lethargic. It takes an age for it to switch on properlly, for example. The web browser (depsite 3's claims that the INQ is great for the internet) is atrocious. It's the most perplxing thing in the world to use, and is horribly slow to navigate up and down the pages. The camera is dreadful - it's the same resolution as the one on my K800i, and yet manages to be 300 times worse. I couldn't take a single picture (inside or out) that wasn't blurred beyond recognition. And what on earth were 3 thinking not sticking a front-facing camera on?! What's the point in a video call if you can't see who's calling you? My laptop wouldn't recognise its bluetooth capabilities either, while it's fine with my Sony Ericsson. And through the period I had it, the reception was very flaky. I missed countless calls and texts because it couldn't pick up any signal in areas that I could with my SE.

Don't bother trying it in the 3 store either - I tried it for about 15 minutes and thought it was fine. It's when you get into using it day-to-day that it all starts to go wrong. Just don't. Please. Go for a cheap Sony Ericsson phone - the G502 or the K660i, they're much better to use.

Summary: It might seem tempting, but just don't. Really don't. Buy a Sony Ericsson.

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