When Skype Goes Mobile: INQ1

Guest post by Martyn Davies, News Editor at VoIP User,  Principal Consultant at Dialogic, Podcaster at Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast, and contributor to the Voice of VOIPSA blog. @martyndavies on twitter.

The INQ¹ is the third generation of phones from the “3” network (Hutchison 3G) that has Skype integrated into it. The INQ1 is designed and made by a division of 3, so the handset is currently for 3 only, and more handset models are expected to follow this year. On 3, Skype calls are free, which means that INQ1 to Skype (on a PC/Mac) calls are free as well as INQ1 to INQ1. 3 also offer flat-rate data (even for prepay customers), and this gives a lot of freedom to use IM and social networking without the bill worries.

Brushed, Bright and Vibrant

The INQ1 comes beautifully packaged in a cuboid box with a Japanese painting design. Opening the box you see the handset itself (in my case silver, there is also a matt-black version), with all the cables, power supply and so on underneath. The handset itself has a brushed metal case and feels strong and substantial; the screen is bright and vibrant, and the sound is good and loud. The handset is quite thick because it has a slider that reveals the keypad underneath. The slide action is strong, and tactile. The keylock is automatic when you shut the handset.

I won’t go in to the full specs, as they’re available on the 3 website [editor: inserted following this review], but it has an adequate camera for still/video (with comparable quality to my Nokia E71, although without flash).

A stereo headset is provided for hands-free and music listening, although unfortunately this has quite an ugly connector that goes into the side, making the phone less easy to put in a narrow pocket. There’s one connector for everything, a mini-USB that accepts the power supply, data cable and the headphones. It has 3G data (HSDPA) and can be used as a PC modem (tether), via cable or Bluetooth.

It also has a micro-SD slot, so you can store quite a bit of music or photographs/videos.

Social Mobile Software

The key feature of this handset is obviously the integration of Skype and other social networking features. 3 have been pushing this hard with the Skype (S1, S2) phones, and the INQ1 is offered with the same free calling to Skype contacts. The Skype client in this phone works well, and offers presence, IM and calling as you would expect. The only niggle I had was in the implementation of Skype chats, which seemed to want to open a new chat window every time someone posted to the chat.

Once you have logged-in with your Skype credentials, the client offers to integrate the contacts into your address book. In fact it does this trick for Facebook (FB) too, and this turns out to be a very compelling feature of the INQ1. Once done, all of your contacts appear in the same contact directory, with an icon to show which social network each contact comes from. There is also a ‘favourites’ list; so it is possible to make a preferential list of your ‘real-life’ friends, so that you don’t get swamped by FB and Skype contacts if they number in the hundreds. When you receive a call, caller ID is used to match up with the FB list, so the handset can display the photo of your friend downloaded from FB.

A further integration feature is that all the messaging inboxes also appear in a single list. The Messages screen shows you inbox (= texts), FB inbox (also pokes and requests), Skype chats, Windows Messenger chats and email. It’s great to have that all in one place. The email is slightly schizophrenic, in that 3 offer an email aggregator (to pull emails out of existing accounts), but there is also the separate Gmail application.

There are other useful applications too. In addition to Gmail, there is Google Search and Google Maps (a cut-down version with no location features). The music player is quite useable, and can log-on to your Last.fm account and ‘scrobble’, i.e. tell the world in real-time what music tracks you are listening to. The web browser works well, and I find that I use it a lot in ‘landscape’ mode, as turning the phone sideways does switch the display. This landscape trick also works in the music player.

Navigation between applications uses a side-button (the ‘switcher’) that controls a horizontal app ribbon at the bottom of the screen. You can quite happily run multiple apps (e.g. browser, Skype, music player) and switch between them quickly and efficiently.

Most of my criticisms of the handset are really trivial: The FB font is incredibly tiny and (unlike the browser) couldn’t be changed using the +/- buttons; the landscape mode screen should work in all apps; the volume control wasn’t granular enough, and jumped to fast from quiet to “too loud”. Also, because I’ve been using Twitter a fair bit recently, it would have been nice to have a built-in app for that.

All in all, it’s a well-made phone with a lot of features of a smartphone for much less money (£80). I imagine this handset appealing most to people in their teens and twenties, and with these kind of features built-in to a prepay handset, I'm sure there will be a lot of interest.  3 is the smallest of the five UK mobile phone networks, but they’ve already seen that the Skypephones help retain the notoriously fickle prepay customers. What 3 are trying to do in this area of Skype/social software integration is still unique, and kudos to them for creating their own path among the mobile operators.

tags: skype, 3, hutch, Hutchison Whampoa Limited, hutchison, inq1, facebook, fb, mobile, handset, inq¹, review, uk

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

From 3's data sheet:

Overview

The INQ¹ handset is the next device to feature in our internet category and is designed exclusively for 3. It takes the principle of easy-to-use internet to new levels and is the world’s first fully integrated social networking phone. Purpose built for 3 customers in the UK this handset is designed to get the best out of the biggest and best 3G network in the UK.

Highlights

Internet services such as Facebook, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Last.fm are deeply integrated into the handset, transforming the mobile internet experience that consumers are used to.

But rather than constrain internet usage with artificial caps on downloads we’ve created a new tariff which, for only £15 a month, provides UNLIMITED mobile internet access, UNLIMITED texts, UNLIMITED 3 to 3 calls and 75 cross network minutes. Or for £20 a month you can get the same deal, but with 200 cross network minutes.

Pricing Info

• £79.99 on PAYG
• Free on Mix & Match tariffs
• Free on the INQ¹ £15 and £20 tariffs

Key features:

• Advanced integration of Skype, WLM, Facebook and Last.fm, plus home screen widgets
• Integrated phonebook with Facebook status & profile picture, Skype and WLM presence
• Switcher key and menu carousel for easy navigation to major internet sites
• 3.2MP camera, 2.2” screen, and auto-landscape browser
• HSDPA 3.6Mbps technical spec, and pre-loaded with modem drivers making it a plug and play dongle
• Picture blogging; upload photos directly to Facebook

Full Specifications

• Size: 97 x 47.6 x 14.4 mm
• Weight: 110g
• Battery: 329 hrs (standby) 324 mins (talktime) application dependent
• Connectivity: Bluetooth A2DP, USB 2.0
• Camera: 3.2 Megapixel
• Network: HSDPA enabled
• Games: Java compatible - xgames preloaded
• Screen: 2.2”QVGA -262K colour TFT
• Memory: internal 50MB - external to 4GB (Note 1GB card supplied in-box)
• Music: MP3 player
• Integrated Facebook
• Integrated Skype
• Integrated WLM
• RSS support
• Widget support

See also:

• INQ1 flickr photo set