We’ve heard the rumors, seen the leaked pictures, and now HTC has finally announced its two Facebook phones; the HTC Salsa and HTC ChaCha. The phones each feature a dedicated Facebook button, allowing users one-touch access to Facebook features that are “integrated into the HTC Sense experience.”

From the press release announcing the two devices:

“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.”

Both phones come running Android 2.3.3, and have a “Facebook light” which pulses whenever you have the opportunity to share information such as a picture or status message, share what song you’re listening to, website you’re viewing, or check into a venue. While you’re listening to a song on your phone, for instance, pressing the Facebook button will share that track information with your friends on Facebook.

When you make a call to a friend who is also a Facebook friend, that person’s latest status message and photos will appear on your screen, the same appears in reverse when you receive a phone call from a Facebook friend. Facebook chat and messages are integrated into the phone, and Facebook functionality can be customized within the phones with several Facebook-branded widgets.

So what about the phones? Here’s a spec rundown of the two models

HTC ChaCha

• 2.6″ touchscreen with a 480 x 320 resolution
• 600 MHz processor
• Physical QWERTY keyboard
• microSD expansion
• 5-megapixel rear-facing camera
• VGA forward-facing camera
• Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi

HTC Salsa

• 3.4″ touchscreen with 480 x 320 resolution
• 600 MHz processor
• 512MB built-in storage
• microSD expansion
• 5-megapixel rear-facing camera
• VGA forward-facing
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth

Both phones are expected to hit European and Asian markets in Q2 2011. The phones are also expected to head the U.S. later this year under an exclusive arrangement with AT&T.

What do you think about the ChaCha and Salsa? Now that you’ve seen the Facebook phones in the flesh, has your opinion of them changed?

Leave A Comment

Tags Android, Facebook phones, HTC, HTC ChaCha, HTC Salsa, Mobile World Congress, MWC