Back in 2011, Blackberry was a texter’s dream. But when it came to texting on Android, you hardly had any decent options. HTC decided to change that by introducing a very unique device in its time, the HTC ChaCha.
Today, let’s revisit the device that’s nearly a decade old, but still shines because of its beautiful design. Well, at least for a few, the HTC ChaCha was a beautiful phone, which isn’t surprising given HTC’s reputation back in its day!
The HTC ChaCha was special not just because of its full-sized QWERTY keyboard or even its silver and white design. It was unique also because it came with a dedicated Facebook button. Basically, HTC decided to go Cha Cha Cha with Facebook in 2011 because the social media platform was booming back then and it was quite popular for all the good reasons, unlike today!
The FB button was more than a gimmick. It worked contextually and it could basically share anything from a recently clicked photo or a song that you were listening to, directly to Facebook. There was even a special FB chat widget integrated inside the Sense UI. In short, it was a Facebook addict’s dream!
HTC ChaCha’s Facebook integration wasn’t subtle. Even some of the buttons on the keyboard had the iconic FB blue color. But overall, HTC ChaCha’s design stood out, and in a really good way. The phone featured a beautiful aluminum unibody design with a white and silver dual-tone color scheme. Also, it was slightly curved which meant the keyboard leaned towards you, aiding in your typing experience.
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The ChaCha brought together a touch screen display and a full-sized QWERTY keyboard. Of course, in order to accommodate the QWERTY keyboard without making the device abnormally long, HTC added a small sized 2.6-inch display in landscape orientation. It looks weird at first but the Taiwanese smartphone maker did tweak its Sense UI to cater to the new orientation. Despite its efforts, which honestly was pretty commendable, the 2.6-inch display was simply too cramped. Traditional Android OS isn’t really built to cater to tiny screens and that fact was highlighted by ChaCha’s screen. There were 4 capacitive buttons on board as well, which ate up more of the space that should have been allocated to the display.
What ChaCha sacrificed in its display experience, it made up with its QWERTY keyboard. The texting experience may not have been as great as a Blackberry, but for Android, it was pretty good. There was the Snapdragon S1 800MHz processor, 512MB RAM, as well as 512MB storage which was expandable. Given HTC ChaCha’s placement as a mid-ranger, these specs were pretty good. Android Gingerbread with Sense UI 2.1 on top ran pretty smoothly.
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The HTC ChaCha came with a 5MP camera at the back with a single LED flash. There was a front-facing VGA camera as well, but not quite suited for selfies. It actually existed for video calls.
You got all this for a price tag of $300, which for its time was pretty good!
The HTC ChaCha might not have been a best seller but it forms a unique part of HTC’s journey when it was at its peak. The company seemed to do everything right back then.
How many of you remember the ChaCha? Did you ever manage to get your hands on it?
Check out some of our previous Throwback Tech Thursday articles below!
- Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit the Best Selling BlackBerry Curve Series
- Throwback Tech Thursday: Engaging the Legendary Nokia N-Gage!
- Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit Samsung’s Crazy 10X Optical Zoom Smartphone
- Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit Nokia’s Crazy Lipstick Phone (7280)
- Throwback Tech Thursday: Nokia N9’s Weird Selfie Camera Revisited
- Throwback Tech Thursday: World’s First Android Phone Revisited
- Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit the World’s First Camera Phone & Its Selfie Camera
