In all the years I've owned a mobile phone, until very recently I've never actually had to buy one because as the parent of two adult children I've always reaped the benefit of their cast offs. The most recent of these was a Samsung Pixon and I just couldn't get on with it, not least because it was so small it kept slipping out of my bag and ending up on the floor of the car. As I'd been toying with the idea of moving from pay-as-you-go to a contract for a while, I opted for Tesco Mobile and received the Samsung Ch@t as part of the deal. The Ch@t will henceforth be referred to as the Chat.

Despite a couple of decades of working in IT, I'm not the most phone-literate person on the planet and neither am I particularly interested in acquiring one with lots of bells and whistles. Like most people of my age, I just want a phone that makes calls, sends texts and can take the odd photo if absolutely necessary. The Chat more than fulfills my requirements plus it came with a qwerty keyboard.

This review will be from a very non-technical perspective.


The Samsung Chat 335

This phone is branded as an entry level smart phone aimed at people who text frequently but also want some internet connectivity and that's exactly what this phone provides. It looks smart and attractive and is easy to hold in the hand. In fact, it looks a lot like a Blackberry having a similar layout and a qwerty keyboard. The only difference is the Chat is slightly thinner and doesn't quite do what a Blackberry does.

The layout is very simple with only two buttons apart from the on/off ones, everything else being accessed via the mini mouse pad. I found this quite difficult to get to grips with in the beginning but practice has made perfect.


What the Chat does do

It makes phone calls, obviously, and texting is very simple using the qwerty keyboard making it far faster for someone like me especially as I'm old school and put in every punctuation mark (much to my children's amusement). With wi-fi connectivity it's also possible to check emails and even do a spot of social networking if you're so inclined. (I'm not!) The phone comes with pre-installed links to Google as well as all the main social networking and messaging sites plus a few others.

Despite the low megapixel count on the camera (2MP), it takes reasonably good photographs of the snapshot variety. Whilst getting acquainted with my phone, I took some very fetching photographs of my living room rug!

The Chat, like all new phones, doubles as a radio/MP3 player and the sound quality is pretty good, though the headphones supplied are standard issue.

This phone has a long battery life with one charge lasting me for most of the week though admittedly I'm not constantly on the phone or Googling which probably accounts for its longevity any heavy phone users may find the battery doesn't last quite so long.


What the Chat does not do

If you're fond of games, this probably isn't the phone for you. The Chat comes with two sample games preloaded which can be bought but I'm told there is very little else in the way of apps out there to download if you wanted more.


In conclusion:

This phone is described by Samsung as 'an entry level smart phone' which in layman's terms means it has the style of a smart phone without any of the substance which probably makes it a complete non-starter for many who want their phone to do everything. For people like me, however, who only want to make calls, send texts, or check emails whilst out and about, or quickly referencing something, this is ideal.

The phone comes in pink or black and currently retails at £50


The main specifications are:

2.4" TFT screen
3.5mm jack for headphones (supplied with the phone)
Micro USB port for charging and PC connectivity
60MB internal memory
MicroSD card (2GB card supplied) with capability up to 8GB
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
2MP Camera with video capability
Google, Facebook, Twitter, MSN and Yahoo preinstalled