The forgotten phone: Samsung Chat 322

Was it a smartphone or a phone? The Samsung Chat 322, also known as Samsung Ch@t 322 or Samsung C3222, was an alternative to the expensive BlackBerry. We will discuss the device this Sunday in our section ‘The forgotten telephone’.

Samsung Chat 322

In the past, there were phones that could do more than just make calls. They were used to send messages, explore social media and listen to music. One of the phones that was popular at that time was the Samsung Chat 322. A device that had the appearance of, for example, a BlackBerry Curve, with the full QWERTY keyboard.

The Samsung Chat 322 had a compact and user-friendly design, measuring 109.5 x 60 x 12.3 millimeters and weighing just 95 grams. The device had a physical QWERTY keyboard, allowing users to type messages easily and quickly. The 2.2-inch color display had a resolution of 220 x 176 pixels. What really set the Samsung Chat 322 apart was its messaging capabilities. The phone allowed you to send and receive text messages without any problem. In addition, the device supported MMS messages, which allowed you to share images and videos. The physical keyboard made typing messages a lot easier than on touchscreen phones, although not every user was equally enthusiastic about the keyboard’s operation.

Although the Samsung Chat 322 was not a real smartphone, it still offered some internet functions. The device had GPRS and EDGE support, allowing you to send and receive emails, read news and spend time on social media. While the internet experience on this phone was limited compared to today’s smartphones, it was still a nice addition. A WiFi version of the Samsung Ch@t 322 was also released, which, as the name indicated, also had WiFi as an extra addition. In any case, a fairly unique feature at the time was that the device had support for two SIM cards.

The Samsung Chat 322 also had some multimedia features. The device had a built-in MP3 player and you could use the FM radio. The device offered a microSD card slot, which allowed to expand the memory to store more music and photos. By default, the memory was not very extensive at approximately 50MB. There was also a 1.3 megapixel camera on the back with the ability to film in 15fps. On board was a 1000 mAh battery that delivered average performance.

Samsung released the Chat 322 for an amount of around 90 euros. Especially in the prepaid segment, the phone was a nice and more affordable alternative to the more expensive messaging phones, such as those from BlackBerry. The device was available in black, white and black-pink.

Samsung Chat 322 summarized in 3 points:

• Full QWERTY keyboard
• Dual SIM for two SIM cards (DuoS)
• Integration of social networks