HTC Salsa: Review of the Facebook Android Phone
Salsa is one of the two HTC Android smartphones dedicated to Facebook, presented last MWC. In fact, both devices include a dedicated Facebook button that will allow us to share our lives with one click.
HTC Salsa was presented in February with his smartphone “brother” HTC ChaCha, the difference is that the sauce has a full touch screen 3.4 “while the HTC ChaCha has opted for the QWERTY keyboard and a touch smaller than 2 , 6 “.
Phone hardware Facebook
In addition to the Facebook button placed below the classical pulsed “back”, the HTC Salsa is enclosed in a unibody aluminum body, its dimensions are 109.1 x 58.9 x 12.3 mm and weighs 120 grams, also the quality of construction can certainly be compared to that of HTC superphone Sensation (after all, both smartphones must meet the quality standards of HTC).
The display is a 3.4-inch capacitive touch screen, resolution is 480 x 320, on the lower right side are the dedicated button for camera, volume rocker is located in the upper left and on the same side, a little more the bottom is the micro USB connector, and finally, on display at the front of the device, as we mentioned earlier, there is a button dedicated to Facebook.
Inside we find a HTC Salsa 800 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM, the HSPA / WCDMA 900/2100 and quad GSM / EDGE, WiFi b / g / n and Bluetooth 3.0. We also support A2DP Bluetooth audio connections, and there are plenty of “optional” now standard on all phones such as the G-Sensor, digital compass and proximity sensors and light. The display has a WVGA which is actually lower than that of high-end smartphones, but it is perfectly in line with the rest of the mid-range mobile phones currently on the market.
The rear camera is 5 megapixels, the photos are good and the video resolution 720 × 480 are definitely decent for sharing on facebook, the front camera is a simple VGA. The battery is huge, from 1520 mAh well as that of Sensation, in practice with a medium-high cell phone use can last two days … truly amazing!
HTC Sauce Software Overview
This device is equipped with the Android OS 2.3.3 Gingerbread with a modified version of HTC Sense for better integration with Facebook. This version of the Sense is not the new 3.0 as nell’HTC Flyer and Sensation, but with several new items created specifically for Facebook. The Active lockscreen with the four shortcut keys, as in Sense 3.0, is present, but not many animations, as time and updates FriendStream. These limits are coming, almost certainly, from the lower processor speed.
Integration with Facebook
The Facebook button is there, is very prominent and there you will find it always in front unless you cover it with a large piece of adhesive tape. In fact the button is so prominent and visible that it will be difficult not pressed. The fundamental differences with the HTC Sense software includes a basic change in the clock widget on the home that here presents the status updates of Facebook friends instead of the weather, FriendStream still exists along with a small widget, but have added a chat widget Facebook, so you can chat on Facebook in a much simpler way.
Conclusions
Salsa is a good phone HTC Android midrange, integration with Facebook makes it appealing to a niche of users who can not help but stay in touch with friends. Furthermore, its features, including the single microphone and high battery, making it more suitable for use “Internet” and as a phone. The price of HTC Salsa is approximately between 350 € and 360 €.