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Ever since man discovered fire, there has been talk about a Facebook phone. In 2011, HTC finally scratched that itch and released a pair of phones called the HTC ChaCha and the HTC Salsa. Let’s start with the HTC ChaCha. In the U.S., it was an exclusive for AT&T known as the HTC Status. The ChaCha featured a 2.6-inch landscape display with a resolution of 480 x 320. A physical QWERTY keyboard was found under the screen. A blue Facebook Share button at the bottom right of the unit made it quicker to upload photos, post a status update, and more. It also glowed whenever you had new content worth posting. The unit sported a slight bend from the bottom of the screen downward.
The ChaCha came with the Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 MSM7227 SoC under the hood, carrying a single-core 800MHz CPU with the Adreno 200 GPU. 512MB of RAM was inside, and a 5MP camera was on back with a VGA front-facing snapper. The 1250mAh battery kept the lights on, and Android 2.3 was pre-installed. This model did not sell well at all for AT&T, even though it was priced at just $49.99 with a signed two-year contract. After just 36 days after its launch, the U.S. version of the ChaCha (again, known as the HTC Status), was rumored to be off the carrier’s shelf.
For Facebook fans who preferred an all-touch model, HTC offered the Salsa. This phone featured a 3.4-inch screen with a 320 x 480 resolution. All of the remaining specs were the same as those found on the ChaCha, including the Facebook Share button. The latter scored a 7.5 (out of 10) on our review, and the Salsa tallied a 6.5. Check out these reviews by clicking on the appropriate link (ChaCha|Salsa).
At the top of this story, you’ll find a commercial for the AT&T version of the HTC ChaCha (again, known as the HTC Status in the states). If you think that you see Blink182 in the commercial, you are absolutely right. That tells you how long it has been since the handset’s release.
HTC ChaCha
HTC ChaCha
HTC Salsa
