Samsung Ch@t 222

Editor's Review of the Ch@t 222

The QWERTY-touting, dual-SIM-packing Samsung Ch@t 222, originally announced for India, has made its way to UK shores. However, with such fierce competition from the likes of BlackBerry and Nokia, was bringing it to Blighty such a bright idea?

First-off, we must point out - this the Chat 222 is much, much cheaper than your average BlackBerry smartphone. That's why, unlike the Bold 9900's 2.8-inch (640 x 480) capacitive screen, you'll find a 2.2-inch (222×176) non-touch display.

Although the screen is by no means fantastic, we were pretty impressed with the handset's QWERTY keys. The keyboard offers-up four-rows of tactile a-z buttons, which makes bashing out messages a pretty speedy affair. This keypad comes coupled with a bunch of handy shortcut keys too, including; Call/End Call Keys, Messages, a four-way navigational button.

As we mentioned before, the Samsung Ch@t 222 is a dual-SIM equipped meaning you can pop in two different SIMs inside of it simultaneously. Obviously, it?s especially useful for those who don?t want to carry around two separate phones, but we can't see it having that much appeal here in the UK.

The handset, as you may have guessed, is not a handset focused on media. On the rear of the phone, you'll find a mere VGA (0.3 megapixel) camera, lacking in flash and additional features, which certainly shows in images' poor quality. Still, you'll also find a built-in media player, an FM radio with included recorder, and 43MB of internal memory expandable to 32GB,

Aimed at social networkers - rather than media - the Chat 222 boasts built-in Facebook and Twitter widgets, alongside an IM client and email support. Prepare to be disappointed however, as the handset's lacking in 3G connectivity, and it's also unable to connect to WiFi. This makes using the apps a pretty difficult experience, and browsing the web can be pretty painful.

Samsung claims the Ch@t 222 is ideal for youthful social networkers, thanks to its full QWERTY keypad and built-in apps. However, given its lack of high-speed connectivity, this phone is sure to do little more than frustrate Facebook fans and Twitter addicts, and we'd recommend paying-up a little bit more for a higher-spec handset - the HTC ChaCha, for example.