Facebook addicts will be able to get their fix a whole lot quicker and more easily courtesy of Vodafone and HTC who today announced the Salsa and the ChaCha, available in stores Wednesday 6 July.

The HTC Salsa has a 3.4″ 480×320 resolution screen and a body reminiscent of the Hero and the Legend with a slight curve at the bottom. The HTC ChaCha more closely resembles a blackberry or the Nokia e71 with a full qwerty keyboard under a 2.6″ screen, also with a 480×320 resolution. Both have a solid high quality feel which we have come to expect from HTC phones.

The most exciting feature of these two phones, which well and truly makes them ‘Facebook phones’, is the dedicated Facebook button on the front. The Facebook button not only gives you instant access to Facebook, but also pulses when you can share content from your phone. When you’re listening to a song, browsing a web page or taking a photo for example, you can share that content directly to your Facebook profile with the touch of a button. A long press of the Facebook button also gives you direct access to Facebook places for a quick and easy check-in. The Salsa has a dedicated camera button on the side, rare in android phones, and the ChaCha allows you to set up any of the keys on the qwerty keyboard as shortcuts, very handy.

Each phone is powered by an 800MHz single core processor and 512mb ram, which won’t top any benchmark competitions but is very capable of powering the Android 2.3 and HTC Sense software. HTC Sense has also been extensively customised for Facebook integration and to ensure great performance given the hardware specs. The HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa will be exclusive to Vodafone and $0 on the $29 cap over 24 months or $0 on the $45 Infinite plan from 6 July.

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Anonymous

Best title to a post ever.

Cooper

Too expensive when you can get Nexus S for the same price on postpay and very few spend $299 prepaid on a phone – i think they missed the mark for Australia – maybe the ChaCha will do OK but the Salsa as a full touch device is not worth getting over a Nexus S/Galaxy S/Optimus Black all with faster processors & better higher res screens.

Anonymous

These should have been available on prepaid as no doubt they’ll be a hot item for the younger generation.

I don’t see these selling well on post paid plans to be honest. The facebook button makes me not want one to be honest and I’m a facebook user.

Matt Booth

They will be available on prepaid at $299

Anonymous

Thanks for the quick reply. Now that makes total sense. They gotta target the right audience as these phones scream prepaid in Australia at least.

Cheers

Jake Oliver

I know a lot of people don’t really like the bottom “lip” on those older phones, but personally I think they are great places to hide the antenna. 

JeniSkunk

So the first of the website crippleized Droid phones has arrived in Australia.
Wonder how long it’ll be before Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube demand that manufracturers do Droid phones crippleized for their specific anti-social nyetworking websites.

Dylan Waghorne

anti-social networking.. HURHURHURHUR

Matt Booth

They should have gone with Google+ 🙂

Anonymous

+1