HTC announced two Android powered phones with a built-in Facebook button in the hardware during the Mobile World Congress 2011. The two phones are the HTC Salsa and the HTC Chacha. The difference is that the Salsa has no keyboard while the Chacha has one. So what does the Facebook button do? According to HTC it lets you do several Facebook activities like updating status, posting photos, sharing sites, and everything else you can do on FB.
Other interesting features include:
- Facebook Status of Friends pop-up on screen when they call
- Facebook-branded homescreen widgets (Since this is Android after all)
- Integrated Facebook chat in messaging
In terms of specs, check out the excerpt below from a PC Magazine article:
The ChaCha has a 2.6-inch, 320×480 screen and a full QWERTY keyboard; the Salsa has a bigger 3.4-inch, all-touch 320×480 panel. Both phones have VGA front-facing cameras and 5-megapixel rear-facing units, and both are based on relatively low-end 600Mhz Qualcomm MSM7227 processors, so they won’t be very expensive.
HTC said that AT&T is “exclusively bringing this unique user experience to market later this year” in the US, though it’s a little unclear whether that means these specific phones or customized, AT&T-branded models.
HTC also showed some potential love for T-Mobile. The new HTC Incredible S works on T-Mobile’s unusual AWS 3G band, so it’s a good bet the phone will come to T-Mobile. One warning, though: HTC says the phone is only coming to “European and Asian” markets, although none of those markets uses AWS.
In a separate statement, Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg said that we should expect “dozens” of Facebook phones within the year.
