HTC Status\ChaCha First Impressions

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Anyone else got the ChaCha yet?

Picked one up for my wife yesterday and I have to say I'm quite impressed. Solid build, nice weight, quite speedy too.

Has the Sense 3.0 lockscreen with shortcuts. No Weather\Stocks\Friendstream on the lockscreen though, just a background.

Also comes with a HTC version of Facebook chat, seems ok but can just use the inbuilt chat in the facebook app if you prefer.

Facebook integration is pretty tight, the same as with the other HTC Sense handsets. The Facebook button is quite handy and cool for uploading photos to facebook.

Will update further once we've played with it a bit more

yes

just bought one for myself as I need a keyboard (white/silver)

basically screen looks like wildfire S. very sharp
keyboard is excellent
and surprised there is forward facing camera and radio

signal quality is good and phone quality is good

even the charger is white

very nice so far

please keep updates coming

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Thanks both - please keep updating us on your experiences

can't wait to play with my htc chacha..i do expecte to have it delivered by royal mail in 1 week.

ChaCha is nice!

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I had same feeling. ChaCha is nice. I did not expect the keyboard is so good.
I installed Morelocale2 for Japanese use.
Japanese font is installed, and Open Wnn worked smoothly with the hardware keyboard.
It may replace my Blackberry Torch.

Further usage continues positive impressions.

Personally I wouldn't have bothered with the camber in the middle for aesthetic reasons. However for ergonomic purposes it is positive, in that it puts the screen at a better viewing angle when holding it and also wraps to your ear more nicely when making calls.

I would also have made the facebook button a more general assignable button, perhaps that will come with software

Its nice to have real "make" and "cancel" call buttons. This is always much better for people using their phones to actually make calls but seems to have been dropped on virtually all new iOS, Android and WP7 touch smartphones now.

For folk who thing this is a generic Android implementation, its not, its been tweaked alot for a landscape screen. HTC have obviously thought about how the device will be used and it has lessons learned from the excellent S620 and SNAP.

As well as sense and the display being optimised for landscape, window 1 is now the furthest left of the horzontal scroll (to go to different windows). I prefer this over the standard Android where extra windows are to the left and the right of the main windows.

Marketplace is also adapted for the size of the screen and landscape.

Note that by default, the web browser and other apps hides the status line on the top. thisis a good thing, as its a waste of space (maybe learnt from WP7 which has the perfect hidding of status symbols from permanent display !!!).

So far can continue to confirm that all radios (bluetooth, wifi and 3G) work well and calls are clear. Data also seems to be fine, marginally ahead of my Desire S in terms of keeping the signal (perhaps this is an illusion).

There IS an accelerometer, but most built-in apps seem to ignore it. e.g. the web browser does not go to portrait if you tilt the screen. It also seems that the orientation for portrait is not currently picked up by most market place apps/games. i.e. install "sky ball". You will see that to control the running ball you need to tilt left and right, but on the ChaCha, you need to tilt back and front. Clearly the game is not playable like this.

On the subject of "auto-rotate" screen, I have just found an option in the display settings called "auto rotate screen - after market downloaded applications"
I can confirm when ticking this box, most of my downloaded applications auto-rotate when I turn the phone. however this does not effect built in applications (e.g. mail, web browser, etc.)

some other things to note:
1. Chacha has 800mhz new design cpu (faster then 600mhz one in salsa and wildfire S)
2. Chacha does have an FM radio (bizzarely many previews on the internet say it hasn't)
3. The camera is 5mp with face detection and flash.
4. Note that with the latest version of Android (on the ChaCha - 2.3.3) you can move most applications you install from the marketplace to the SD card. so internal memory is not really an issue.

Lastly the keyboard is nice to use. Each key is spaced nicely and has a positive click

rgds

Originally Posted by colonel

Further usage continues positive impressions.

Personally I wouldn't have bothered with the camber in the middle for aesthetic reasons. However for ergonomic purposes it is positive, in that it puts the screen at a better viewing angle when holding it and also wraps to your ear more nicely when making calls.

I would also have made the facebook button a more general assignable button, perhaps that will come with software

Its nice to have real "make" and "cancel" call buttons. This is always much better for people using their phones to actually make calls but seems to have been dropped on virtually all new iOS, Android and WP7 touch smartphones now.

For folk who thing this is a generic Android implementation, its not, its been tweaked alot for a landscape screen. HTC have obviously thought about how the device will be used and it has lessons learned from the excellent S620 and SNAP.

As well as sense and the display being optimised for landscape, window 1 is now the furthest left of the horzontal scroll (to go to different windows). I prefer this over the standard Android where extra windows are to the left and the right of the main windows.

Marketplace is also adapted for the size of the screen and landscape.

Note that by default, the web browser and other apps hides the status line on the top. thisis a good thing, as its a waste of space (maybe learnt from WP7 which has the perfect hidding of status symbols from permanent display !!!).

So far can continue to confirm that all radios (bluetooth, wifi and 3G) work well and calls are clear. Data also seems to be fine, marginally ahead of my Desire S in terms of keeping the signal (perhaps this is an illusion).

There IS an accelerometer, but most built-in apps seem to ignore it. e.g. the web browser does not go to portrait if you tilt the screen. It also seems that the orientation for portrait is not currently picked up by most market place apps/games. i.e. install "sky ball". You will see that to control the running ball you need to tilt left and right, but on the ChaCha, you need to tilt back and front. Clearly the game is not playable like this.

some other things to note:
1. Chacha has 800mhz new design cpu (faster then 600mhz one in salsa and wildfire S)
2. Chacha does have an FM radio (bizzarely many previews on the internet say it hasn't)
3. The camera is 5mp with face detection and flash.
4. Note that with the latest version of Android (on the ChaCha - 2.3.3) you can move most applications you install from the marketplace to the SD card. so internal memory is not really an issue.

Lastly the keyboard is nice to use. Each key is spaced nicely and has a positive click

rgds

MANY thanks my friend - great info!

Where in London did you buy it from? I'm thinking of picking it up at the Carphone Warehouse sim-free today (8 June)

Do you find the screen is too small? The chacha resolution is better than other similar phones such as Samsung Galaxy Pro and Acer Betouch E210 (I returned the Acer cause I found it hard to read web pages etc on its resolution).

How is the battery life? Do you think it'll last a day?

Sorry for all questions!

Originally Posted by colonel

Further usage continues positive impressions.

Its nice to have real "make" and "cancel" call buttons. This is always much better for people using their phones to actually make calls but seems to have been dropped on virtually all new iOS, Android and WP7 touch smartphones now.

EDIT - pls ignore I quickly read they weren't used to make calls, but VERY glad they are

Cheers!

Originally Posted by hanybanoub

MANY thanks my friend - great info!

Where in London did you buy it from? I'm thinking of picking it up at the Carphone Warehouse sim-free today (8 June)

Do you find the screen is too small? The chacha resolution is better than other similar phones such as Samsung Galaxy Pro and Acer Betouch E210 (I returned the Acer cause I found it hard to read web pages etc on its resolution).

How is the battery life? Do you think it'll last a day?

Sorry for all questions!

I bought from carphonewarehouse simfree on cheapside it was £229
The battery seems the same as the Desire S. i.e. 2 days if you don't use, 1-1.5 days if you get email & browse
The screen is small (2.6"). I bought this over the samsung galaxy pro due to the 480x320 resolution. Its a sacrifice for this type of device, however the resolution is fine (same as HTC Legend, etc.)

Hi All,

My wife has noticed an annoying bug, can someone check for us to see if it s common bug or just our very own

When typing in Gtalk or SMS and a smiley is used, it can turn blue, enlarge a little and stay on the screen with no way to get it off (reboot phone)

anyone else seen this? I haven't done any of the obvious things yet such as uninstall Gtalk and re-install or do a factory reset