Phones you were crazy about back then: HTC ChaChaCha

In this section, we remember the mobiles from a few years ago and that they were special for better or for worse. After recalling the Motorola Flipout, the LG Optimus 3D and others, today it is the turn of one of the mobiles with a more curious name and concept, the HTC ChaChaCha.

The HTC ChaChaCha was an Android mobile with a full keyboard, small screen and a Facebook button it left no one indifferent. It was launched at the same time as another oddly-named mobile, the HTC Salsa, also with a Facebook button but with a full screen instead of a physical keyboard.

HTC ChaChaCha technical specifications

As on previous occasions, the first thing to do is to put yourself in a situation. The HTC ChaChaCha was presented at Mobile World Congress in 2011, although it took a few months to become available for sale. The most curious thing about this is that changed name upon arrival in Europe

We’re talking about 2011, the same year of other mobiles that we remember in this series, the LG Optimus 3D, the Sony Tablet P and the Sony Xperia Play.

This is the time when high-end models like the Samsung Galaxy SII had 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 2MP cameras on the front and 8 MP on the back.

The HTC ChaChaCha had a full QWERTY keyboard, so its screen was only 2.6 inches with a resolution of 480 x 320. In terms of power, the truth is that it was a bit tight even for the time, with half a giga for RAM and storage and a processor with a single core, at 800 MHz. cameras, the front was VGA, while the rear was up to 5 megapixels.

What was special?

Today, if a manufacturer launched a mobile like the HTC ChaChaCha, there would be many factors that would seem curious to us. To begin, the full QWERTY keyboard, with function keys, sliders and shortcuts for common functions like opening the camera. Now, in 2011, touch-tone phones were still relatively popular, with launches like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro or the Motorola Droid Pro.

Write down the last name “Pro”, and do these touch-tone phones were considered more productive be able to compose e-mails more easily than with virtual keyboards and touch screens – or capacitive – which were not very there.

HTC ChaChaCha however It was not a mobile to work, but to discuss and use social media. On Facebook, to be more precise.

For this he had a special Facebook button, placed in the frame without much order or concert so much that it looked more like a sticker. However, it was not an ornament, but it served to immediately interact with Facebook, automatically uploading the photo we see, sharing a status with the music we listen to or allowing you to check in at full speed in Facebook Places. By the way, this button was on when it was possible to use it.

HTC’s layer, HTC Sense, has been drastically changed

Designed specifically for chatting (on Facebook Chat, if possible), HTC ChaChaCha has included a modified version of its layer called HTC Sense Messenger 2.1, improvement adapted to the small screen and based on Android 2.3

While today the concept of a phone with a special key to communicate with Facebook occasionally caused yawns – and it was in 2011, to be honest – Zuckerberg’s social network was the most popular in the world. ‘time. It’s not so much the Facebook button – misplaced and of questionable utility – but the fact that an app had a physical button

Is there something similar today?

Compact, with a small screen, a full keyboard and a Facebook button

HTC ChaChaCha encompasses almost all of the features opposed to today’s market trends. Was a small metal mobile, barely 115 mm high and 64.6 mm wide, whereas today we call terminals like the Sony Xperia 5, 158 x 68 mm, a compact mobile.

Against current trends, it also goes QWERTY screen and keyboard, has completely disappeared. Small screen and large keyboard, whereas today its thing is that the screen is as large as possible and the physical keyboard, non-existent.

Finally, the name. HTC ChaChaCha and HTC Salsa were somewhat ridiculous names, but admittedly they have more grace than the boring string of numbers and predictable evolutions that most lines have become: versions A1, A2, A3 and so on. .

No, there is no mobile these days with a button for facebook and there are really few mobiles that include more buttons than is strictly necessary.

The only exception we see in the buttons to start the assistants like the famous Bixby button. It doesn’t help you automatically post photos to Facebook, although at least it allows you to quickly interact with the software, sometimes being able to customize the action to take.

In summary, HTC ChaChaCha was a rare cell phone until its time, and of course, it’s so much more eight years later when the trends completely changed. There is nothing like it today and it doesn’t look like it will be anytime soon.