Is SingTel INQ Mini 3G overhyped?
I had a brief encounter the SingTel INQ Mini 3G at the launch event yesterday by the invitation of 24seven. Prior to the event, there were some discussion on twitter that SingTel INQ Mini 3G is overhyped, which I beg to differ. The tweeps were comparing SingTel INQ Mini 3G with Smartphones like HTC Hero and iPhone!
Hello? You can’t really compare a budget car like Chery QQ, with a luxury car like Mercedes right?
Picture taken during my second appearance at SingTel INQ Mini 3G event
My iPhone was running low on batt when I reached the event location yesterday after a morning of tweeting at SMBSG7. The peeps from 24Seven were kind enough to allow me to charge my iPhone! The best thing was, they loaned me a SingTel INQ Mini 3G to relieve my twitter withdrawal.
My short rendezvous with SingTel INQ Mini 3G was a pretty good one! While it felt a little sluggish at times, it managed to serve my needs! There are a few features that I liked about this phone:
- It does “RT UserID” when you retweet. Most twitter apps on iPhone don’t retweet this way, you know!
- It downloads your Facebook phone contacts into your phone!
- It connects to Windows Live Messenger!
- You get notifications in the phone inbox when you receive a message on Facebook.
Of course we do not expect phone that is ZERO DOLLARS (2 years 3G Flexi Lite AMPed plan or the iOne Plus Youth plan) to be perfect, right? Here are some limitations of this phone:
- It doesn’t show mentions and replies on twitter.
- The Facebook application is linked to the Mobile Web version for most of the time.
- You can’t upload photo taken using the built in camera to facebook or twitpic it. (Correction: Photos can be uploaded to Facebook from the Picture Album app, not from the Facebook app.)
Would you like to have a try of the SingTel INQ Mini 3G phone? Be at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza on 21 Sep 09 to try it out for yourself! Jesseca Liu will also be making her appearances between 2 to 6pm.
Bloggers Photo Challenge
If you are lucky enough, you may stand to win the phone by taking part in the daily lucky draw or a pair of F1 Tickets when you take a photo with one of the featured bloggers between 4 – 6pm!
I must say that we had a lot of fun camwhoring and playing with the phone at the event! A big thank you to SingTel and 24Seven for having us there!
P.S. Just a note to the peeps from INQ mobile: You may wish to produce non-camera versions of your social media phones to meet the needs of the Military guys!
It is a social media phone as advertised. Another thing which is a left down. There’s no wifi for it. Have to get a data plan if you plan to get the phone.
Although I don’t do NS, but I totally see why the INQ phone w/o camera will be a big welcome for NSF!
Cool phone, have been reading up about all the excitement on the phone. But, I’m serving the nation next year so it’s not a good time to get this phone.
Unless, they release a non-camera version. It would be even better if it comes with wifi.
One question, does it allow you to e-mail?
You can email with it!
Hi Victor,
Thanks for the blog – you’ve got it spot on what we’re trying to do, which is liven up the very boring and conventional feature phone market. We’ll be bringing out some high end phones next year, but right now we don’t see the point competing head to head with iPhone which is a fantastic device. INQ is all about bringing good integrated internet communications s/w to everyone, in a nice easy to use simple package.
All the best
Frank Meehan
CEO, INQ Mobile
Hi Frank,
Thank you for dropping by! I certainly look forward to future releases from INQ. Do consider producing non-camera version!
I reckon this product will take some market share from BB. I’ve been a Nokia Symbian user for years, then moved to Windows Mobile, and now on Blackberry, after I found iPhone typing less than productive.
However Blackberry, although a pretty good work-device, does have its limitations.
The upcoming versions of INQ with qwerty and push Gmail, may take some non-enterprise users off the BBIS service.
I may be one of those, especially if I can reply using multiple profiles, from the pushed Gmail.
Shen
This product is not meant take market share from the smartphones/smarter-phones (READ: Hello? You can’t really compare a budget car like Chery QQ, with a luxury car like Mercedes right?).
Instead, it is taking on the budget phones by the other phone manufacturers
I remember reading somewhere that INQ will be adopting Android as the OS for some of the upcoming phones. We will see when that happens