Well there you have it ladies and gents, both the HTC Salsa and HTC ChaCha are heading to Vodafone in the next month or so (clarification soon, no doubt) on unknown plans. Both these devices are mid-range but specialise in Facebook integration, as you can most likely tell by the blue Facebook buttons on the bottom of each device.
These devices are both aimed at the savvy social networker, with special additions to Sense UI tightly integrating Facebook into a lot of the phone’s basic functions. The clock widget shows recent updated status; photos and videos can by uploaded straight to your Facebook wall by pressing the Facebook button and there the addition of a Facebook Chat widget, to ensure you can see which of your friends are online 24/7. One can only imagine the battery drain this could bring.
Both devices are powered by an 800MHz Qualcomm CPU and run Android 2.3 as well as having 5MP cameras (VGA front camera) and 512MB of RAM. The difference is mainly in the formfactor, with the Salsa being a full touch screen device and the ChaCha having a physical QWERTY keyboard and the Salsa’s battery is larger than the ChaCha’s at 1520mAh over 1250mAh. I personally love the look of the ChaCha, and will be reviewing one in the next few weeks and Lucas will get his hands on the Salsa early next week. What do you guys think of the ‘Facebook phones’?
interesting idea. I would look at the chacha if I was in the market for a new phone
I don’t really see the point of them to be honest as there are plenty of other cheap smart phones that can do the job of allowing people to access facebook on their phone. Be interesting to see how well they sell though.
If they’re cheap enough for tweens to afford (implied by the use of dated specs), they have done their homework
Perfect replacement for all the e63 using fb addicts that have heard this new “android thing” is pretty cool. Eeeeasy money
Agreed. If they’re priced low enough to compete with the E63 they will have a license to print money!
That Facebook button looks really out of place. Bit of a gimmick, I guess, but I’m far from being the target market.
I’ve had some hands on time with both. 800Mhz + 2.3 is good. Pretty snappy little numbers.
The Cha Cha should be a hit to be honest. Probably the best physical qwerty I’ve used since the G1. Salsa is just a legend refresh/update – which means it should sell well too.
The clock widget with facebook status is present in Sense 3.0 generally, including on the Sensation. It’s not special to this phone.
useless