Overview of HTC ChaCha & HTC Salsa Facebook Phones with Dedicated Facebook Button

For last few months of 2010, rumors of the Facebook phone surfaced, and with each new article written and rumor shared, Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, quickly denied the rumors. Nevertheless, Facebook has not stopped smartphone manufacturers from making devices dedicated to the "uber" Facebook user, making using Facebook easier. This resulted in the announcement of the HTC the Salsa and the HTC ChaCha at the 2011 CES International event, and the media is dubbing the devices "Facebook Phones."

The HTC smartphones, however, are not real "Facebook phones," meaning that Facebook did not officially release its brand for use with the phones' naming conventions, and Facebook does not sell or endorse the phones. Check out the basics about the four different phones, and what, if anything, people will do with them-or if anyone will even buy them.

HTC Facebook Phones Overview

With the HTC Salsa and the HTC ChaCha, the idea is to provide a dedicated button on the handset branded with Facebook's logo. Essentially, with a single touch of this button, the user can access everything a typical Facebook application would provide, but using fewer steps; no downloading or running the app, just push the button and go. Users can access profiles, share updates, videos, photos, and do just about anything else that users can do on the Internet version of the popular social networking website using the Facebook button.

HTC Salsa & HTC ChaCha Specifications

The HTC Salsa is a typical candybar style smartphone and is the larger of the two. The Salsa has a 3.4-inch touchscreen display and offers a resolution of 480-pixels by 320-pixels. The Salsa also uses a 1520 mAh battery that lasts for just about eight hours on WCDMA and nine hours on GSM, on standby, the battery can get up to 530 hours. As for connectivity, the Salsa offers 3G/EDGE services and GPRS as well.

The ChaCha looks more like a BlackBerry than anything else does; it is thicker, with the 2.6-inch display on top and the physical keyboard on bottom. The resolution is the same as the Salsa, only the display itself is smaller. The ChaCha uses a less powerful 1250 mAh battery, which lasts about seven hours on WCDMA, and up to eight hours on GSM while on standby, it can last up to 660 hours.

Salsa & ChaCha Similarities

While the two Facebook phones look very different, the devices offer many of the same features and specifications including a 600 MHz processor, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, VGA front facing camera, 512 MB of ROM, and 512 MB RAM. Both will also feature the Google Android mobile operating system, presumably Froyo2.2, with HTC's custom-built Sense UI over top. Both smartphones also offer Wi-Fi connectivity, the only connectivity options the devices have in common, since it is the only connectivity type the ChaCha offers.

Who Needs a "Facebook Phone?"

Each smartphone platform and wireless carrier offers its own, reliable Facebook application that works just fine and most of the Facebook applications available offer many of the same basic features and productivity options, while being easy to use. Long-time Facebook users do not typically have any problems logging onto their profiles from their smartphones, since they have been doing so for years and have learned the various quirks present with their devices and apps.

The interesting thing is that most modern smartphones released today offer screens in the neighborhood of 3.5 to 4-inches and resolutions of 800-pixel by 640-pixels, such as the HTC EVO 4G, which offers a 4.3-inch display, or the Samsung Galaxy S Pro, which offers a 4-inch screen. Many smartphones also offer megapixel cameras, such as the Droid X and Evo 4G (again), better processing power and Android 2.3.

Sure, with the Facebook button, users can take photos and videos, then simply push the button, and upload those photos and videos directly to their profiles. Nevertheless, is this one feature worth retiring older and probably better-featured devices? Here is the million-dollar question; does anyone really need a Facebook phone?

Overall, the Facebook button is a great idea, but any die-hard social networker would probably need more than a simple button to make the switch, or at least smartphone with similar specifications of other, modern smartphones. This is especially true if the prices of the ChaCha and Salsa are similar to other smartphones on the market when the devices are finally released in the US.

Sources:
"Facebook for iPhone Application Download," Facebook
"Facebook for Android Application Download," Facebook
"HTC Salsa Specifications & Features," HTC
"HTC ChaCha Specifications & Features," HTC
Ben Patterson, "Facebook Phone Rumors Persist Despite Denials," Yahoo News Tech Blog
"HTC Unveils Two Social Phones with One-Touch Facebook® Access," PR Newswire
"Smartphone Specifications (side by side comparison graph)," GawkerAssets