INQ Mini 3G. Simple as

INQ have the kind of mobile phone manufacturing record that is the stuff of dreams: one mobile phone (the INQ 1) released, one trophy as Best Mobile Handset – 2009 Global Mobile Awards on the mantelpiece.

So, where next for the newbies in the mobile phone world? A swish new 4-inch touchscreen device? An A-GPS handset integrating with a sophisticated navigational software license? A 14MB camera that produces DVD quality videos and makes you toast in the morning? Well, no, no and no.

And while it’s a shame about the lack of toast-making, the INQ Mini 3G is all the better for these guys keeping to the ‘keep it simple’ mantra. And not just because this will be about one of the cheapest phones on the market, as these INQ Mini 3G deals testify.

It’s more that INQ seemed to have realised what so few manufacturers do these days: that doing something very well indeed, even that things not as superficially exciting as what other people are doing, is more important than pretending (but failing) to do lots of flashy things well. So the INQ Mini 3G only has a 2MP, has no WiFi, no GPS, no nothing like that at all, in fact. But that’s not the point. You don’t buy this phone if you want these things. You buy it if you want the most intuitive, most easy to use, and most downrightly cheap phone out there that lets you connect to all your favourite social networking, messaging and email sites.

There we are then. Simple as that. Read this INQ 3G Mini review for some more background if you want, but take our word for it: it don’t get much simpler that the Chat 3G. And we think that’s a very good thing indeed.