Today is my last day with the phone. After spending 2 full days with it, I have to say that for people who are connected socially via Facebook or Twitter, this is really the kind of phone that you should get. Of course, in my opinion, if I were to get this phone, I will use it as a secondary phone. Read on to find out why.
iNQ Mini 3G is a very basic phone. Most people will not even notice it if it is displayed with the rest of the candy bar design phones. What is interesting is the “inside”. According to iNQ, this phone is built from scratch with social networking in mind. From my observation, iNQ has package Mini 3G into an Art piece. Look at the packaging and you will understand why.
Click Here to See the Packaging
Once you power on the phone, you will notice that the wallpaper, the rich and colorful icons make the phone very different from conventional phone. Here is a look at the main page.
Here is the look of the menu. Every single pic is an icon for an application.
Here is some of the wallpaper that you can select.
What is the Difference with a Conventional Phone?
This is my opinion.
Outlook:
- Not much of a difference between iNQ Mini 3G and Conventional Phone.
OS:
- iNQ Mini 3G: Integrated social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
- Conventional Phone: Need additional software for Facebook and Twitter
Function:
- iNQ Mini 3G: Standard functions as per conventional phone. However, if you look deeply, you will notice that social networking functions are integrated. Example of Facebook integrating into the Message and Contacts menu as shown below.
- Conventional Phone: You will need to access the additional software (ie. Facebook) to have the social networking option available.
Special Highlights:
iNQ Mini 3G: It has a carousel style menu and can be activated by a button (switcher). It is customizable.
It also has AMPed. A software that you can download your favorite song. According to Singtel at the event launch, there might be free one year download coupled with this iNQ Mini 3G contract (need to confirm on Saturday).
Here is Twitter on iNQ Mini 3G
Other social application includes Messenger Live that is using Java.
This phone is using mini-USB. Once connected to a USB port, it is able to perform a few task. This is the menu that will pop-up on your computer screen.
I did not explore all except for file transfer. It is quite straight forward. This is the screen from the phone once you establish the connection.
I have made a video on exploring the phone (not very comprehensive due to the limited time).
Conclusion
- This phone is wonderful if you are always connected to the social media. However, if you are just a basic phone user, this phone may not appeal to you.
- The design of this phone is standard candy bar but I like the idea that iNQ has made the whole package more hype and arty farty.
- Given a choice, I would wait for the Android version where I can integrate all my things into one phone. Currently, the phone is quite basic on functions and this is definitely not for business people.
- I believe the price of this phone will be low and it is targetted at the younger crowd (although Frank from iNQ mentioned that their survey shows that people in the 50s are also using social media intensively).
- The screen is small. Therefore, surfing the Internet or watching video is out (at least for me).
- The camera has no autofocus or macro mode. It also does not have a flash. I hope that they can increase the pixel count of the camera and add a flash to it. The video is not good at low light (most phone camera failed at this).
Overall, this phone may appeal to those who would like social phone for leisure and not mix up with a businesss phone. It is definitely targetted at the younger crowd (with its price (revealed on Saturday) and look). Go and try it out and see if you like it or not this coming long weekend. 🙂
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