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The INQ Chat 3G does have one of the best cameras on it from the INQ range, with a 3.2MP effort more than good enough for taking pictures. There are a fair few options to play with on the phone - basic, but if you're the sort of normal person who basically takes the odd snap on your phone now and again, it's more than enough.
The Chat 3G has a decent autofocus option, with a fairly quick centre point finder - however, the shutter lag is such that if you move the camera much when the picture is being taken you'll end up with a big blurry mess.
We couldn't find the brightness balance option seen on other INQ phones, although the likes of Sepia and Negative photography modes are always a fun addition to proceedings.
The video camera, as you can imagine, is a basic affair indeed - it's basically a stereotypical choppy, low frame-rate option that will only be good for taking a movie of your 'mate' being 'hilarious' when he jumps into a bin from on top of a bus shelter - and afterwards you showing your other mates and saying 'no, that's the bus shelter window - that's him, that white blob thing, there'.
One thing we did like about the camera is the ability to share the pictures quickly and effectively - we managed to start up the camera, take a picture and have it off in a multimedia message in a matter of seconds, which is again impressive for a phone of this price.
More importantly there's an option to push the photo further than just another friend's phone - you can post to the likes of Facebook or even send through an email if you don't want to lose picture quality.
The media options on the INQ Chat 3G are as basic as they are on the rest of the INQ range, with there being no 3.5mm headphone port to plug your own cans into. You can use the bundled headphone adaptor, but we're not sure many will really want to do that on a regular basis when so many other phones have the option inbuilt these days.
If you're a little bit tech-savvy, we recommend getting some Bluetooth headphones - the INQ Chat 3G works very well with something like a set of Jabra Halos or the Altec Lansing BackBeat 906s, and it makes the phone seem a lot cooler instantly.
The music player on the Chat 3G is very basic indeed - you're mostly limited to play, pause and navigational buttons via the D-Pad when the phone is unlocked, and given that it's circular it's very difficult to use it in the pocket.
As you can imagine, video is pretty poor quality on here, and if you've not got doubleTwist software installed (although it comes with the phone) you're going to find a lot of video incompatibility here. Again, you don't buy a phone like this for the media player - if you're that bothered, save up for the Samsung i8910HD - it might cost a couple of hundred more, but that's the level you should be looking at.
