Bobby Tonelli

My Final HTC ChaCha review:

After playing with the phone for some time I realize that the ChaCha and its big brother Salsa are really a start of what I think we are going to see in smart phones down the line. Integration with social networks is the big thing this year: iOS with twitter, HTC with Facebook, and WP7 with both. We will look back at 2011 and say “launching my Twitter or Facebook app to post something is so last year”.

Does that mean that the ChaCha is the device to have? That depends on your needs. I know, the politically correct answer we read all the time in tech reviews but one that does carry some logic.

The ChaCha first and foremost is a solid phone. Its built well, good battery life, nice design, and very pocketable.

Where the ChaCha does excel is in its Facebook integration and the nice balance of keyboard and touch screen. This isn’t a first for the latter, but well executed.

My earlier preview listed the pros and cons and I do stick to these even after a week.

(please see earlier post)

http://goo.gl/xe6VO

The ChaCha and the Salsa were built for consumers who are Facebook die hards and love posting and being connected.

I do hope that Facebook Pages and Groups will be implemented soon. I feel that these additions will make the ChaCha/Salsa an interesting choice for potential businesses that utilize FB in that way.

Besides this, the integration works quite well for the average user. Does it fully replace the Facebook app? Almost.. The phone does a great job of detecting content that can be shared among your friends and that is half the battle. Photos have never been easier to post up on FB. Integration of FB chat is nice as well, besides the fact that you cant see your friends profile pic. (Take note: if you have a few thousand friends, your chat notifications might be a bit overwhelming and your battery will suffer, so use it when you have the time to respond and a plug by you) :)

So what are my issues with it? Only one.

For me the screen is a bit small for the large amount of content. Too many chats going on, requires scrolling, media plays well but still small in size, web browsing requires resizing pages etc. BlackBerry or Nokia users that like keyboards are probably more used to this size of screen, but for someone like me who enjoys the 4” + size of my Sensation, its a bit cramped.

Overall the ChaCha is a great mid range device for many, and for those power users, a great companion device. The faults have more to do with Facebook than HTC, but seeing how this is a joint venture in many areas, it would have been nice to see the ChaCha/Salsa get a few extras from FB that make it a bit more unique.

3.75 out of 5 Stars