With a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (MSM8960) processor inside, this so-called HTC Myst #UL (a code name) will be popping up with the same processing power as the AT&T-bound original HTC One X. Here this leaked phone – courtesy of @evleaks is said to be the HTC Opera resurgent. But what’s the point of revealing a Facebook phone here, now, after denying the need for one several times and only being able to release said phone with mid-tier specifications?

This device is being suggested as coming with a 4.3-inch display thats 720p in resolution – that equalling out to be 320PPI. Inside you’ll find 1GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage with no microSD for expansion, and a couple of cameras. Up front you’ll find a 1.6-megapixel shooter while the back-facing camera is 5-megapixels strong.

According to the same set of leaked information, this device will be popping up (finally) with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and will be available with 4G LTE or HSPA connectivity. This means it’ll be available on AT&T, at least. it’s been suggested that this device may work with “Ultrapixel” technology in its camera, but we’re going to go ahead and doubt it – HTC wouldn’t trump their HTC One hero device with a Facebook phone this close to launch with the same camera and a much, much weaker display onboard.

Expect this fully mid-range device to be appearing with a big silly Facebook button some time near the start of Spring, 2013. Expect a big launch courtesy of Facebook itself, and a quick flop soon thereafter. UNLESS, of course, they find a way to offer the phone for a price that’s so extremely appealing that the public just can’t say no. We shall see!

During his years at Microsoft prior to switching to HTC, Luke headed up a series of projects in the Creative Department including Windows XP, Xbox, Microsoft research and the beginnings of what was then Windows Mobile. Since he joined HTC, the company has become a burgeoning powerhouse of handsets that steal headlines and chassis that just feel great to hold.

Luke’s days at HTC ending in April mean he could very well have still been working on devices we’re seeing getting released today. We’ve got reviews of a whole batch of HTC devices that Luke most certainly had a hand in creating, each of them reviewed for your pleasure here: T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide, HTC EVO View 4G, HTC EVO 3D, HTC ChaCha, HTC Salsa, and more! Check out our big time [HTC PORTAL] for all your Luke-era HTC business!

[via Engadget]

BGR claims that its trusted inside sources revealed that the HTC ChaCha will be launching on AT&T in the coming weeks. In fact, the launch could happen as early as one week away. However, the other Facebook optimized handset, the HTC Salsa, will not be making its way to AT&T anytime soon, if at all. This bit was separately confirmed by BGR directly with HTC.

Unlike the HTC Salsa, which features a full touchscreen, the HTC ChaCha or now the HTC Status has a smaller screen to fit a dedicated QWERTY keypad that makes the handset reminiscent of a BlackBerry. The 2.6-inch touchscreen screen has a 480 x 320 resolution. There’s a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a VGA front-facing camera, microSD card slot, micro-USB port, GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi support. Make sure to check out our full review.

[via BGR]

Hardware

The ChaCha – which will also be known as the HTC ChaChaCha in some territories, where “chacha” has less salubrious meanings – is one of HTC’s more distinctive handsets when it comes to design. QWERTY Android phones are still in the minority, despite the popularity of messaging-centric devices like BlackBerry; those we do see tend to include a slide-out keyboard, rather than use a candybar form-factor.

So, the ChaCha gives you a 2.6-inch 480 x 320 resolution touchscreen above a full QWERTY thumbboard, with a row of the usual touch-sensitive Android function buttons – home, menu, back and search – and dedicated call/end keys sandwiched in-between. On the left hand edge there’s a volume rocker and a microUSB port, though unlike the Salsa there’s no dedicated camera shortcut on the right. The power/lock button and headphone jack are on the top edge.

HTC made something of a reputation for itself with its “chin” design, and the ChaCha is more jutting than most. The company claims the bent profile positions the screen at the right angle when you hold the phone for typing, as well as keeping keyboard and display off the surface of the table – and thus scratch-free – when placed face-down. In practice, it divided opinion, some liking the distinctive shape and others wishing it was flat. Measurements are 4.5 x 2.54 x 0.42 inches, though given the thickness takes into account the bend, the ChaCha feels thinner in the hand than the specs would suggest.

HTC ChaCha overview:

The 2.6-inch display may be small, but it still runs at the same resolution as the larger, 3.4-inch Salsa. It’s bright and clear, and the resolution is a nice balance of keeping on-screen icons crisp but not so small as to force you to squint. We wish HTC had fitted either a trackball or an optical joystick, however; the keyboard has a D-pad but it’s right down in the bottom right corner, and there were times we’d have liked to have controlled the phone one-handed without stretching a thumb up to tap the display.

Still, it’s hard not to fall for the ChaCha’s QWERTY ‘board. Four rows of TicTac-sized hard plastic keys, with a double-width spacebar and D-pad cluster, they’re pleasingly clicky and have just the right amount of travel. The metal fascia means there’s no flex as you type. Numbers are clustered together as secondary functions, triggered with a FN key, and there’s a dedicated Tab, symbol key, comma, period and question mark buttons. Hold down FN + period and the camera loads; the same is meant to happen with the spacebar, opening up the settings page, but our review unit showed no inclination of doing so.

Still, it’s a minor flaw (and one we’re guessing will be tweaked with firmware) in what’s otherwise a brilliant keyboard for punching out texts, tweets, emails and – not least – Facebook status updates and comments. Of course, underneath the main ‘board is the dedicated Facebook button, the functionality of which we’ll cover later on.

Outwardly the ChaCha and the Salsa look completely different; inside, however, they’re far more similar. Both use an 800MHz single-core Snapdragon processor (boosted from the 600MHz chip originally specified) along with 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM. There’s a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash on the back and a front facing VGA webcam up front, along with a microSD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, micro-USB port and GPS. Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0, along with – on this European model – dualband 900/2100MHz HSPA/WCDMA and quadband GSM/EDGE.

Overall, build quality belies HTC’s low-end positioning for the ChaCha: it’s creak- and flex-free, nicely weighted and the white and silver color-scheme – while perhaps not to everybody’s taste – does at least use the same solid feeling plastic and brushed metal as the Flyer tablet.

Software

Like with Salsa, HTC has used Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread on the ChaCha, complete with its Sense UI and app/widget suite. Appearance-wise, though, it’s a very different story: this is the third Sense build we’ve seen in the past month: “2.1 for Messenger” as opposed to 2.1 on the Salsa and 3.0 on the HTC Sensation. The changes are predominantly to suit the landscape orientation of the display – indeed most of the standard apps and menus won’t rotate into portrait orientation – but the light grey color-scheme also makes the UI feel brighter and less dense.

Rather than the center-biased seven pane homescreen layout on all-touch HTC Android phones, the ChaCha defaults to its left-most pane. You can have up to seven of them, filled with the usual icons and widgets, though the first has the app menu and customize keys in its bottom corners by default. There’s no recent-apps scrollbar in the notifications menu, nor access to quick settings. Mildly frustrating, you can’t get back to the homescreen by pressing the end-call button, as you might expect – in fact it only ever ends calls. The lockscreen has the same four icon launcher as on the Salsa and Sensation, though not the latter phone’s weather effects.

HTC has obviously changed much of its UI to cater to the unusual screen aspect, but it’s a mixed bag for usability. The app menu works well, with the All Apps/Frequent/Downloaded filter shifted from the bottom to the side, and that same layout has been carried over into Friend Stream and the Gallery app, among others. It’s straightforward to flick the filter slider and then the list, both with your right thumb.

The same suite of apps as on the Salsa is loaded onto the ChaCha, so you get HTC regulars like Books, Friend Stream, HTC Hub, HTC Likes, Mirror, Peep and the WiFi Hotspot app. Unfortunately, HTC hasn’t gone quite far enough in tweaking the interface for our liking, and this shows up in Friend Stream – the hub of Facebook activity, no less – most of all. Read on for details.

Facebook

As on the Salsa, the Facebook button allows you to punch in a new status message after a single press, shares the track or webpage you’re enjoying, or – after a long-press – your location using Facebook Places. Our existing criticisms about support for sharing recommendations from third-party apps, being unable to edit metadata for things like Amazon music downloads, and an inability to handle Facebook Group or Page accounts still stand. We’d recommend reading our Salsa review for all the details.

HTC ChaCha Facebook integration demo:

The most frustrating thing, though, is the amount of screen space you actually get to read all that Facebook content. In Friend Stream, once the notification bar, title bar – with Share button, duplicated with the dedicated Facebook key – and right-hand side filter slider are accommodated, you’re left with a tiny window in which to actually read Facebook and Twitter updates. The ideal solution would be to borrow the UI from the browser, where the menu bars disappear automatically to maximize the usable space, but are easily summoned with the menu key.

In short, while the combination of a great keyboard and a handy shortcut makes posting to Facebook incredibly straightforward, actually consuming other people’s updates on the move is more difficult than it should be. Great if you’re an egotist dedicated to promoting Brand Me; not so much if you actually care about what your friends are saying.

Camera

We were underwhelmed with the 5-megapixel camera on the HTC Salsa, finding its color settings made an unusually ominous purple mess of the sky. Happily the ChaCha’s identical-resolution snapper does a better job. As we’ve often lamented about HTC handsets, the output in general is less impressive – megapixel for megapixel – than some rivals can manage, but the shots are good enough for Facebook sharing certainly. Curiously, they look far better off-device than viewed on the ChaCha’s screen: sometimes we thought photos would be hopelessly blurred based on the short preview, only to find the end result was fine.

There’s still some blotchiness and exposure inaccuracy, but it’s reasonable for an entry- to mid-tier handset. Colors are clear and the touch-focus system – which also works during video recording – is swift. Video clips, meanwhile, are limited to 720 x 480 resolution but are crisp and audio pickup is good.

Phone and Battery

The ChaCha is blessed with both a clear earpiece and a loud speaker for hands-free use, though the latter does acquire some crunchy static at the top end of its volume. Perhaps it’s the curve of the phone, but callers said we were coming through loud and clear; of course there’s also Bluetooth for hands-free use.

Battery life is rated at up to 420 minutes of WCDMA talktime (up to 450 minutes GSM) or up to 660 hours of WCDMA standby (up to 430 hours GSM) from the 1,250 mAh battery. That’s almost 300 mAh less than the Salsa offers, though of course there’s a smaller display to power too. Overall, we managed to get through a day and a half or so of use, with Facebook and Twitter set to their default updates, push Gmail active, and some use of the browser, camera, Google Maps and other apps.

Wrap-Up

HTC may have given the ChaCha an odd name, but get past that and this QWERTY handset is one of the more usable – and certainly one of the most memorable – Android phones around today. There’s a compromise to be made on screen size, but in return you get a frankly brilliant QWERTY keyboard with little in the way of a learning curve. If your smartphone is also your multimedia powerhouse then the ChaCha is unlikely to appeal, but if you spend more time messaging then the thumb ‘board pays dividends.

The software isn’t perfect, but make no mistake: it would take very little for HTC to finesse the UI to better take advantage of the screen. In fact, just as with the Salsa, the ChaCha’s main issue may well be persuading would-be buyers that there’s more to it than the Facebook branding. The dedicated Facebook button is a gimmick, but taken as a whole the HTC ChaCha is far more compelling than the silly name might suggest.

Thanks to Three for the loan handset.

Hardware

Out of HTC’s two Facebook-centric phones, the Salsa is perhaps the less inspiring design-wise. Reminiscent of the HTC Legend, it has a unibody metal chassis with a plastic “chin” section, camera surround and battery cover/antenna, all finished in various shades of purple. Considering it’s intended to be a relatively budget device, build quality is surprisingly high: the 4.3 x 2.32 x 0.48 inch, 120g handset is just as creak-free as the range-topping Sensation.

Up front is a 3.4-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen, with the usual row of touch-sensitive Android keys – home, menu, back and search – underneath. On the chin, however, is the new Facebook button, a physical key which can light up depending on when HTC’s custom Facebook services can be used. A volume rocker is on the top left-hand side, above a microUSB charge/sync port, while the power/lock button is on the top edge by the 3.5mm headphones socket. Finally, there’s a dedicated camera shortcut on the right edge, a rare – and welcome – addition to HTC’s Android line-up.

HTC Salsa overview:

On the back is a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash, while a VGA resolution camera upfront takes care of vanity shots and video calls. Inside, HTC sensibly upgraded the original 600MHz processor for a faster 800MHz chip, obviously short of the 1GHz or higher dual-cores we’ve seen lately, but sufficient for an affordable device. It’s paired with 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM, along with a microSD card slot.

Connectivity includes HSPA/WCDMA 900/2100 and quadband GSM/EDGE, along with WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. There’s A2DP support for stereo Bluetooth audio connections, along with a g-sensor, digital compass, proximity and light sensors.

The display may run at a lower resolution than the WVGA we’re used to from current mid- to high-end Android phones – or, indeed, the qHD of the Sensation – but it’s still reasonable quality. Viewing angles are broad without discoloration or inversion, though colors are only average for a regular LCD. It’s not going to scare off Super AMOLED Plus, but it’s better than many budget Android phones we’ve seen.

Software

Like HTC’s other recent Android handsets, the Salsa runs 2.3.3 Gingerbread. There’s a modified version of HTC Sense, too, though it’s v2.1 rather than v3.0 as on the Sensation, with a number of Facebook-specific features that other HTC devices won’t share.

You get the same active lockscreen with four app shortcuts as in v3.0, though not the animated weather, gallery or Friend Stream updates, and the seven-pane homescreen doesn’t endlessly scroll or have the eye-catching 3D effects. That’s probably a sensible decision, given the limits of the processor. There are all of HTC’s usual custom apps – Friend Stream pulling in Twitter, Facebook and Flickr updates, Peep for Twitter, the HTC Hub and HTC Likes apps for downloading new themes and widgets plus getting recommendations, the Mirror app for using the front-facing camera to check your eyebrows are equally bushy, and the WiFi hotspot app – and the augmented notification drop-down with recent app shortcuts and quick settings access, together with some new widgets and functionality for the social networking obsessed. What you don’t get, though, is HTC Watch, the company’s movie purchase/rental service, nor OnLive streaming gaming.

Facebook

A dedicated Facebook prompt has been added to HTC’s startup wizard, and the usual homescreen clock widget has lost its weather info in favor of a Facebook status update from one of your friends. There’s still the same Friend Stream widget, along with the smaller Friend Channel widget, but now HTC has added a Facebook Chat widget and accompanying app, since the Salsa supports real-time IM through the social network. As you’d expect, this shows online status and allows you to have text conversations, though not share photos or other multimedia like BBM or Apple’s upcoming iMessage for iOS 5. Oddly, HTC’s Chat client only supports portrait use, not landscape.

HTC is betting on the dedicated Facebook button being of most interest to users, however. One tap and it opens up the Wall Post dialog, allowing you to quickly post a message to your own wall or, by choosing their name from the drop-down list, the wall of one of your Facebook friends. You can also upload photos, either taking one there and then with the Salsa’s camera, or choosing an existing shot from the gallery. If you’re listening to music at the time, hitting the Facebook button automatically shares what track is playing to your wall; similarly, pressing it while in the browser shares the page you’re currently viewing, and pressing it while viewing a photo allows you to upload the shot. You can choose an existing or a new gallery to add it to, adjust the privacy settings and add tags and a description to each picture.

HTC Salsa Facebook integration demo:

A long-press on the button, meanwhile, and that lets you check in using Facebook Places. You can either choose from a list of nearby locations already registered, or add a new location (complete with a description). It’s worth noting that Google’s Latitude alternative to Facebook Places is also preloaded, as is normal on Android devices, though there’s no way to use the Facebook button shortcut to post to both services.

It all works, but there are still some gaps. For a start there’s no Facebook Group or Page support: if you’re the owner of a fan page, you can’t add updates to it or respond to comments using the page’s “identity”. Similarly, there’s only support for a single Facebook login at any one time, so you can’t load a second set of credentials for a different account.

We’d also liked to have seen broader support for the button itself. The music sharing works with the default Android media player app but not third-party apps, so you can’t share what you’re listening to via Napster, Spotify or DoubleTwist, for example. Similarly there’s no ability to share a business result from Google Maps, an app listing in the Android Market, or a YouTube video from the official Android YouTube app.

There are also some frustrations around metadata and what you can edit: share the track you’re currently playing, for instance, and some will have links to Amazon listings along with album art thumbnails, while others will merely say “Listening to [ track ] on [ album ] by [ artist ]” pulled from the ID3 tags. The latter you can edit yourself, whereas the former cannot (aside from flipping through multiple album art, if available).

Some of our lingering complaints about Friend Stream – and, indeed, how smartphones generally handle social networking aggregation – persist. The Salsa is Facebook-centric, but there’s no way to get Friend Stream to prioritize news pulled from Facebook versus Twitter (or vice-versa); it’s all too easy for recent Facebook updates to get lost amid the – generally more frequent – tweet onslaught. Right now, the only workaround is to use separate apps for Facebook and Twitter. Similarly, you can’t share to both Facebook and Twitter using the dedicated button, though you can via the regular Friend Stream widget.

Camera

The Salsa’s 5-megapixel camera can shoot stills or up to 720 x 480 video clips, a far cry from the 720p or 1080p HD of other handsets we’ve been looking at recently. The dedicated hardware button is a nice touch, offering two-stages to lock focus and then fire off the shot, though there’s a little longer between actually pushing it all the way and the frame being captured than we’d like. We ended up with some blurry images by overestimating the Salsa’s eagerness.

Hold things steady, though, and daytime pictures are good. Colors could do with being a little more vivid for our liking, though that’s easily tweaked with some post-processing; odder was the noticeable purple tint the Salsa gave the overcast skies in our sample shots. Meanwhile the exposure and white balance can be sluggish to react to changes in lighting. Give it a few seconds longer, though, and it generally catches up.

Video, meanwhile, is fair but can be jerky during faster pans, and the same lagging exposure issues can leave clips murky and showing more noise than necessary. Audio is prone to wind noise. At least the low resolution makes for speedy uploads to Facebook, triggered with a tap of the sharing button.

Phone and Battery

In-call performance was solid but nothing special, with the Salsa’s single microphone lacking any fancy active noise-cancellation abilities. The loudspeaker is underwhelming, meanwhile, making music sound crackly and tinny, while calls aren’t as loud as we’d have liked.

The standard Li-Ion battery is a 1520 mAh pack, which HTC rates for up to 474 minutes of WCDMA talktime (up to 540 minutes GSM) or up to 530 hours of WCDMA standby (up to 445 hours GSM). In practice, with push Gmail turned on and HTC’s defaults for Facebook/Twitter updating, we managed two full days of use out of the handset, impressive indeed.

Pricing and Value

Pricing for the HTC Salsa is yet to be confirmed at time of writing, though HTC has previously said that it intends the handset to slot in-between the Wildfire S and Desire S in carrier line-ups. That would indicate somewhere between £185 ($300) and £300 ($489) SIM-free and unlocked, pre-tax, or “free” on new agreements between around £10 ($16) and £18.50 ($30) per month depending on carrier.

We’d certainly opt for the Salsa over the Wildfire S. The larger display and front-facing camera are obvious benefits, as is the faster processor: the Wildfire S is 200MHz behind the Salsa. HTC has also been able to fit a larger battery to the Facebook phone, and the construction is sturdier. Of course, you’re also getting all the same Android/HTC functionality and more on the Salsa, though if you’re not an avid Facebook user then that might not be too great an advantage.

Wrap-Up

The Salsa is an odd little phone. If HTC hadn’t bothered with the extra Facebook garnish, and instead made a low- to mid-tier Android handset with the sturdy chassis of the Legend, two-day battery life and most of the more appealing features from HTC Sense 3.0 only with a more affordable price tag, we would’ve readily said it probably had a best-seller on its hands.

The Facebook integration, though, muddies the waters somewhat, if only because it doesn’t quite make sense in this first iteration. Support for the dedicated button is limited, and while the new widgets work well, there’s little here that the official Facebook app for Android doesn’t offer on its own, albeit with maybe a key-press or three more to access it. If we could remap the button to suit our own social network of choice – make it a Twitter key, for those who have that as their addiction, say – then that would add some extra flexibility. As it stands, though, the Facebook part of the Salsa feels half-baked.

Still, you’re under no obligation to use it, and that leaves us with a low-cost, functional device that cocks a snook at plastic-bodied rivals. Facebook messaging addicts may want to wait for the HTC ChaCha, with its physical QWERTY keyboard, and the 800MHz processor may not be up for heavy-duty gaming or HD video, like the dual-core high end devices on the market, but everyday users are getting a solid all-rounder with admirable longevity on a single charge.

The Nexus S 4G smartphone hit Sprint and Best Buy stores yesterday, looking very round, and running Gingerbread.

Some new HP notebooks are here, for both business and consumers, the HP ProBook 5330m and the EliteBook 2560p and 2570p, plus the HP Mini 210.

Moar tablets! That’s what we say. Here are two: The BeBook Live is an affordable Android option, coming this summer, and the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 is running Windows and channeling a netbook.

The HTC Salsa and ChaCha Facebook phones dance in for pre-order.

That’s it for our Morning Wrap-Up, stay tuned as the day goes on for more news and analysis.

The ChaCha is a small screen smartphone running Android 2.2. It has a small 2.6-inch LCD with a physical keyboard underneath. That screen has a resolution of 480 x 320 and supports capacitive touch. The ChaCha also uses a 600MHz processor and has a 5MP rear camera along with a VGA resolution front camera. The HTC Salsa on the other hand has a full size touchscreen with no physical keyboard to be found.

It’s screen is 3.4-inches with a resolution of 480 x 320. It has a 5MP rear camera and uses the same 600MHz processor. It runs on HSPA/WCDMA 900/2100 MHz and Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz networks. The smartphone also has Bluetooth 3.0 and lots more. Its font camera is also a VGA resolution unit. Both of the phones are pre-ordering now with the ChaCha at £249.99 and the price of the Salsa is £319.99. The ship date is June 26 according to Amazon and you can bet the contract price at carriers will be cheaper than these unlocked Amazon prices.

[viaAndroid Community]

Back at the launch of the ChaCha in February – where it officially debuted alongside its touch-only sibling, the HTC Salsa – HTC would only say that the phones were due to go on sale sometime in Q2 2011. These events would certainly seem to indicate that the German launch will take place around June 18; HTC has made an increasing effort to involve the public in their device launches recently, hosting a party in London for the arrival of the HTC Sensation last month.

Still, the ChaCha and Salsa could well go on sale before mid-June, elsewhere in Europe, and AT&T has confirmed that the two Android smartphones will see US releases too. More details on the phones in our hands-on coverage from MWC 2011.

[via Android Community]

HTC, in my opinion, is in the top tier of companies that are innovating within the mobile sector. The level of thought they put into the experience consumers have with their phones is impressive and refreshing. This thinking is what led them to take another step forward and add deep Facebook integration into two of their latest devices.

Our Social Fabric
Like mobile phones, Facebook is now so deeply woven into our social fabric that it is hard to imagine a world without it. Facebook has more than 500 million active global users, 200 million of which are also actively using Facebook on mobile devices. People that use Facebook on mobile devices are twice as active as non-mobile users. From that perspective it makes complete “Sense” that HTC would integrate a service like Facebook so deeply into their mobile phone experience.

Telephony brought a paradigm shift in the way we communicate as a human race and Facebook again brought a paradigm shift in the way the Internet can be used to connect the human race. Communicating and connecting is at the core of our needs and the innovations in mobile computing continue to advance and enhance those needs.

Facebook is to Consumers what Email is to the Enterprise
If you are like me and e-mail is at the center of how you work you will relate to this analogy. I recall my first job at Cypress Semiconductor and getting set up with corporate e-mail for the first time. After about the first week I was addicted since the core of my job relied on being able to communicate with all who were tasked with my project. My email experience again changed drastically the first time I was set up with a mobile device that was connected to my work email allowing me to get email anywhere and any time.

As email is at the core of the fabric of how enterprises work so is Facebook becoming the center of how consumers connect. This is why mobile Facebook users are more active than non-mobile users. What makes the ChaCha and Salsa unique is not that they are just two new devices that allow you access to Facebook while mobile but that Facebook is an active part of the entire device experience.

The hardware and software created on these devices assume you want to do more than access the mobile version of Facebook on your device. These devices have what I would call an intelligent Facebook integration.

Consumers who use either of these devices, I feel, will have as profound a moment with this Facebook integration as many of us did the first time we got access to wireless email. If mobile Facebook users are twice as active now than non-mobile users, I would fully expect those consumers who use the ChaCha and Salsa to be even more active mobile Facebook users.

HTC may have very well just set a new bar on how consumers will begin to think about how their mobile device fits into their life. These two new devices present more than just a phone with access to apps and the mobile web. They represent what may be the start of a true mobile social experience.

It’s uncertain if the so called Facebook phones—Facebook integrated phones—will be exactly the same as the HTC ChaCha and Salsa that were shown today at MWC, but they will definitely have the same integrated social features. The most notable social feature introduced today by HTC was the single Facebook button that lights up when viewing something on screen that can be shared online.

“In the U.S., AT&T and HTC are exclusively bringing this unique user experience to the market later this year,” said an AT&T representative. However, specific details of the device are not yet available.

As for the dozen of so Android devices, AT&T expects to pick up phones from Samsung, HTC, and Motorola. “It goes without saying this is part of our commitment to have the industry’s best Android portfolio this year,” the AT&T spokesman said.

[Via All Things Digital]

The HTC Incredible S, is perhaps their least appealing device with an” inside-out” industrial style. Performance and features are similar to the previous Incredible , but notable differences include an added front-facing webcam that supports HTC’s new video call app as well as Mirror app. And the device now is GSM compatible. Check here for hands-on video and images.

The HTC Wildfire S is the company’s cheapest phone but the new model seems to be a huge improvement over its predecessor. It has found its own identity now sporting a more angular chassis and also stepped up to an HVGA display from its original QVGA display. However, it lacks a front-facing webcam and therefore cannot utilize HTC’s new video call app. Check here for hands-on details and images.

The HTC Desire S is their bestselling smartphone and has a chassis milled from a single piece of aluminum. The new model’s responsiveness is similar to its predecessor, the Desire, as it still uses 1GHz single-core Snapdragon, but now has added a front-facing webcam that supports the HTC’s new video call app and Mirror app. The production model will be running Android 2.4 Gingerbread. Check here for a hands-on video and images.

The HTC ChaCha and Salsa are the two new smartphones that deeply integrate with Facebook. Of the two, the ChaCha has the better hardware. The Salsa has the bigger screen but feels like a lesser build. It’s difficult to judge the software at this point because the demo units did not seem to have final software loaded. However, they did demonstrate that the integrated Facebook buttons light up when viewing something on screen that can be shared online. Actual production units with final software won’t be available until Q2 2011. Check here for hands-on video and images.

The HTC Flyer tablet introduces the use of stylus in addition to multi-touch with more focus on note-taking and content creation. The 7-inch tablet has a slick aluminum unibody with a matte-finish plastic. The build feels more solid than the Galaxy Tab, and also feels easier to hold. The Flyer features a newly updated HTC Sense on top of Android 2.4 Gingerbread resulting in an enhanced user interface. Check here for hands-on video and images.

Other announcements:

HTC announced that they intend to partner with Qualcomm to develop multi-core devices. However, no timeline or any specifics were presented on upcoming multi-core plans.

The HTC Video Chat app made for Android was demoed as loaded on the HTC Desire S and the HTC Incredible S. The app can be used with the front-facing VGA webcams on the HTC smartphones or on the 1.3MP camera on the HTC Flyer tablet. The app features a simple interface but it is unclear for now whether it is limited to devices within its own ecosystem like how Apple limits Face Time to its own devices, or if there is more flexibility.

HTC also demonstrated their new integration with OnLive cloud gaming on the HTC Flyer.

And, an updated version of the HTC Sense was announced that supports portrait and landscape orientations as well as high-resolution displays like the 1024×600 display of the HTC Flyer.

Video demo after the cut

Of the two, the ChaCha makes the best hardware impression. HTC may be envisaging it as a relatively affordable handset, but the matte white and silver casing feels solid and high quality, and the keyboard has decent finger feedback despite the pre-production status. The screen, too, may only be HVGA resolution, but because all those pixels are squeezed down into a 2.6-inch panel, it looks great. The bend in the chassis lets the ChaCha sit nicely in your hands as you thumb out messages.

The Salsa is a little less inspiring, though the bigger screen is likely to be eye-catching in stores. As we initially suspected, it feels very much like the Legend, if somewhat less weighty and premium in its build. The Facebook buttons on both devices light up when you’re looking at something you can share online.

HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa hands-on:

As for software, neither prototype had final software present; in fact the Salsa seemed to be showing a screenshot rather than anything else. You can see it bounce across when we accidentally thumb the display in the video above. That will have to wait until production units are ready for review, and that won’t be until sometime in Q2 2011.

The dedicated Facebook button actually glows when you’re looking at something on the device which can be shared, whether that’s a photo, a link, a music track or something else. Holding it down would trigger Facebook Places, and the traditional Facebook clock widget has been updated with a friend ticker that shows their latest updates.

The HTC Salsa is less exciting, perhaps, if only because it’s so familiar to previous HTC devices. With its HVGA touchscreen it’s basically an updated HTC Legend – even the 600MHz CPU runs at the same speed as the unibody handset- and so we’re expecting much the same from it. Both will go on sale in Q2 2011.

“A lot has been made about an individual Facebook phone, but we’re going to see multiple devices this year,” Zuckerberg explained, referring to third-party manufacturers pushing out their own interpretations. “The ones that are best are the ones that jump in and are social from the ground up.” He described HTC as “taking the initiative” with building deeper Facebook support into HTC Sense; the dedicated Facebook button on the Salsa and ChaCha allows for instant photo uploads, location sharing and more.

“We’re very happy with the direction HTC has taken” Zuckerberg continued “and we look forward to much more to come.” We’ll be grabbing hands-on time with the HTC ChaCha and Salsa as soon as the event is over, so stay tuned.

Hit the Facebook key when you’re looking at a photo, for instance, and the ChaCha and Salsa will automatically offer to upload it. You can tag people in the image, add comments, choose whether to create a new gallery or add it to an existing photo collection, and even define privacy settings. Press the Facebook button while listening to music, meanwhile, and the currently playing track will be listed on your wall along with an Amazon link to preview and purchase it. A long press of the Facebook key pulls up Facebook Places, again with various privacy options attached. It’s also worth noting that, because Sense is the engine behind all this, you can also share simultaneously with Twitter if you choose to.

The Android calendar is automatically populated with Facebook events, but HTC has also added further detail such as comments and attendees for each event. The related wall and photos are also attached. Facebook messages are included in the universal inbox, and Facebook Chat is supported with user presence indicated in the Android address book. HTC is quick to point out that this isn’t an exclusive Facebook endorsed device – there will be other Facebook-centric handsets from other manufacturers, for instance – but that the two companies have worked closely to make sure the experience lives up to expectations.

It’s all built on top of Android 2.4 Gingerbread and a new version of HTC Sense, which the company had to modify to suit the relatively small, pixel-dense display of the ChaCha. The usual row of Android buttons are touch-sensitive keys under the screen, and there’s a chin-like kink in the phone that angles the keyboard out a little. Physically, the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa are based on a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, 512MB of both RAM and ROM, and has both 5-megapixel front and VGA rear cameras, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS. While the ChaCha gets its physical keyboard, the HTC Salsa is targeted more clearly at what the company describes as the “playful youth market”; that adds up to a harlequin collection of colors around the camera on the back, and a generally more eye-catching design.

The relatively slow processor means that HTC can keep the price down, and that means the ChaCha and Salsa should actually launch in-between the Wildfire S and Desire S in terms of cost. Exact pricing is yet to be confirmed, though HTC says operator interest worldwide has been strong ahead of the expected launch at the end of Q2 2011. We already know that Vodafone UK has signed up to the ChaCha at least, and we imagine they won’t be alone as Facebook mobile fever catches on.

Press Release:

HTC UNVEILS TWO SOCIAL PHONES WITH ONE-TOUCH FACEBOOK® ACCESS

HTC raises the bar for mobile social phones with HTC ChaChaTM and HTC SalsaTM

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Mobile World Congress – February 15, 2011 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today announced two new phones built entirely to be social, combining the simplicity, ease-of-use and depth of HTC SenseTM with the power and connectivity of Facebook®. As part of an extended portfolio of six new HTC Sense-based devices being unveiled at Mobile World Congress, HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa feature a dedicated Facebook® button for one-touch access to the key functions of the Facebook service that are integrated throughout the HTC Sense experience.

“HTC has always understood that different people want different things and the new HTC ChaCha and Salsa offer special new ways to experience Facebook on a mobile device,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “With more than 500 million active users worldwide, Facebook has become synonymous with the social web and we wanted to create the ultimate socially connected phones with mass market appeal.”

“We have worked closely with HTC for several years on bringing Facebook to their devices and HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa are the next stage,” said Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business for Facebook. “HTC has brought Facebook to these two new devices in an innovative way enabling people to connect and share easily whenever they want, wherever they are.”

The Facebook button on HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa is context-aware, gently pulsing with light whenever there is an opportunity to share content or updates through Facebook. With a single press of the button, you can update your status, upload a photo, share a Website, post what song you are listening to, ‘check in’ to a location and more. For example, you can take a photograph of friends on your phone and upload it instantly to Facebook by simply pressing the button. Or let your friends know what song you’re listening to by pressing the button while listening to music on the phone. The track is automatically identified and shared on Facebook.

The new devices feature Android 2.4, the latest version, and use the latest iteration of HTC Sense to integrate Facebook throughout the HTC Sense experience. When you make a phone call, the dialer screen displays your friend’s latest status and photos, and even tells you if their birthday is approaching. The same updates are also displayed when you receive a call from a Facebook friend. You can also use your phone’s existing contacts to help you connect with them on Facebook or personalize your handset further with a number of new, Facebook-branded widgets.

The HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa smartphones make it simple to stay in touch with your friends using Facebook Chat and Messages on your phone. Your Facebook messages and conversations are integrated within your phone and appear within your text and email inboxes alongside your regular conversations.

Stay connected with the smartphone for the Facebook generation – HTC ChaCha
The HTC ChaCha smartphone is designed to provide a seamless, social experience by enabling you to stay in touch with your friends anytime, anywhere. The unique tilt design shapes the display and physical QWERTY keyboard so it is easy to view and comfortable to type. Capture special moments in crisp, High-Definition detail or video chat with your friends using the dual cameras, including a 5-megapixel color camera with auto focus and LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera. The ChaCha smartphone also brings the Internet to your fingertips with a 2.6-inch, 480 x 320 resolution landscape touch screen.

Your Facebook friends never felt closer – HTC Salsa
Boasting the same deep Facebook integration as the HTC ChaCha smartphone, the HTC Salsa smartphone provides a fast, high-performance smartphone experience. Capture the moment in high-resolution stills or video with the 5-megapixel camera and immediately share it with friends on the generous 3.4-inch, 480 x 320 resolution touch display. Upload your photos to Facebook at the touch of a button. For face-to-face conversations on the move, the VGA forward-facing camera enables high-quality video calling.

Availability
The HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa smartphones will be available to customers globally starting in Q2 2011.