Originally Posted by virginmediauser:
“I'm thinking about swapping my current phone a k770i and i have just come across the 3 INQ and have been looking up on it and it does look quite good from the pics and youtube videos i've seen.
Does anyone here own one or tried one as i'd quite like to get some thoughts on it before i decide if i want it as i took the k770i without thinking and i don't like it that much apart from the fact it looks good.
cheers”
I bought my girlfriend an INQ1 for Christmas.
The phone is good looking and feels high quality, with a pleasing sliding mechanism and decent-size buttons. We did initially have a problem with the battery cover falling off, but we fixed this by pushing the memory card in very hard so that the battery was seated better - although, to be honest, I still think the battery cover is poorly designed.
The biggest problem is the reception capability of this phone compared to other phones on the 3 network. I have used 3 before with a chunky old Motorola phone and not suffered any significant reception issues, so I know we're in a good signal area (Colchester, Essex), but this phone switches erratically from full 3G reception to 2G reception and to "Emergency Calls Only", even when you're not carrying it around and it's just sitting on the window sill. This is a significant issue and I would suggest you wait to see if 3 fix it with a downloadable software update before you commit to an INQ1.
The jury is still out on battery life at the moment.
The integration with Facebook, Skype and MSN is neat. The MSN log-in seems to periodically expire, so you have to log in again at least once a day, but once you've logged in to Skype and Facebook, you stay logged in for ever. The phone doesn't seem to like doing "intensive" Facebook things like looking at pictures full-screen at times when you don't have 3G reception, although it will let you read status messages and view profiles. Skype and MSN don't seem to have any 2G restrictions.
The best feature of this phone in my opinion is the integrated Contacts list - you can import your contacts from Facebook, MSN and Skype and then merge them together, so you have one entry per person containing their user names on all those services (as well as their email address and phone numbers). The status of each contact will also be displayed as you scroll through the contacts list, so you can quickly see who is online on Skype, MSN etc. The contact list will also display, by default, the profile picture from Facebook, which really brings it to life.
Only Skype gripe I've noticed is that incoming Skype calls appear generically as "Skype Service" - i.e. it doesn't tell you the user name. Call quality on Skype seems acceptable, although I haven't rigorously tested it yet.
Don't be fooled by video demonstrations on YouTube into thinking this phone is integrated with Last.fm, YouTube, MySpace etc. It is not. There are quicklinks set up to those services, but not all of them work.
As an alternative to the INQ1 you might want to check out the 3 Skypephone S2, which seems to have many of the same features at a lower price, although the S2 phone feels a bit cheap in my opinion compared the INQ1.
Hope these comments help.