Some of you may have seen a few of my random posts over on Facebook over the last few days which relate to this mysterious device the HTC Cha Cha… It sounds like it should be a phone that dances or something but no! It’s a Facebook phone with a full keyboard. In fact it’s pretty much the modern version of the classic HTC S620 which used to be one of my favourite HTC phones. (and yes I know that one was on Windows Phone OS and this one is Android) So already It’s on my nice to have books for it’s form factor.
The irony is, over the years I’ve moved away from the physical keyboard and yet I have gone back to it with this device and it feels a bit clunky at first. There’s less screen space and the orientation of the screen is the opposite way round to most phones. (landscape rather than portrait… more about the problems that come with that later) There’s a good little camera with a flash on it on this phone and the image quality is great for everything I’ve used it for so far… Facebooking pictures and updating my status regularly.
Whilst the form factor takes you back to the early 2k era and reminds everyone very much of the Blackberry there are a few drawbacks that are no fault of HTC but more issues with the Android OS and lack of developer understanding about screen rotation and usage. Here’s a classic example. The LinkedIn application installs on this device no problem at all. Looks great but is set on the front screen as portait not landscape and does not pick up the auto detect option within the OS to turn it the other way round. Ironically all the icons show up properly and render smaller on the smaller screen and are totally usable but turning the device sideways to use it drove me slightly nuts after 3 days of using it. And it wasn’t just one application either which means that if you do buy this device and are planning on using apps then you have a high likelihood of seeing this issue.
The Android OS is good but this one is a call to developers to go back to the basics of designing for all screen layouts and using the OS supplied hookins. As far as big brands like LinkedIn I’m surprised to see these amateur mistakes. I guess as a mobile developer from years gone by I have higher expectations than most but even so, this shouldn’t happen! (Rant over… maybe I should get back into Mobile dev & design)
So here’s a few pictures of the Cha Cha in all it’s glory, including it’s Facebook button and the auto post to Facebook options! Yep you saw that right… One bit of feedback I gave to the HTC team is that they could do with switching the would you like to auto send all your images to Facebook when you first take a picture from yes on the left to yes on the right. After all you will by default want to say yes as you read from left to right. The default position should always be No with an option to switch to yes. Also a double opt in should be used here to let the user know the risks associated with uploading every picture they ever take to Facebook. HTC have taken this feedback and we’ll see what they do with it in an update or next gen device! If you see those two things in your next HTC you’ll know where the suggestion came from! 
The price of the HTC Cha Cha varies dramatically from provider to provider but if you are looking for the cheapest deal at the moment then do try this site.
About Sarah Lamb
Sarah is the founder of the Girl Geek Dinners & GirlyGeekdom. She is a lover of gadgets, geeky things and sport! Find out more about her on her website.
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