back to article HTC Salsa Android smartphone

HTC has released two 'Facebook phones' of late – the Qwerty-packing ChaCha and the Salsa, the latter being a compact bundle of fun, which wears its dedicated Facebook button just beneath its screen. HTC Salsa HTC's Salsa: spiced with Facebook favours While the designers of the ChaCha had obviously looked over the shoulder …

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  1. Joel Mansford
    Thumb Up

    Salsa Sense is good

    I ran a Salsa-based ROM on my HTC Hero for a few weeks. The Hero was just a little bit too underpowered to stop it being frustrating however the UI was IMO very good indeed. I especially liked the new lock screen

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A. Facebook. Button. Sigh.

    Distinguishing feature: A facebook button.

    Really?

    Is this what passes for innovation nowadays?

    Come-on Apple/HTC/Nokia/Microsoft... please try a little harder.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      'Smartphone Innovation'

      Given that pretty much every consumer smartphone now is a capacitive touchscreen slab, unfortunately something like a hardware Facebook button is quite innovative. Just look at the rest of HTC's smartphones: they all look the same. Try and get the average person on the street to tell the difference between a Sensation, Incredible S and Desire S. Even the Windows Phones look almost the same (HTC Desire HD to HD7, Desire S to Trophy).

      The only really different type of smartphone is the QWERTY messenger, and they'll fade with RIM and Symbian's decline.

      I miss the days of bonkers phone design. The Nokia N90 and E70 come to mind.

  3. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    Almost OK

    Just get rid of the Fartbook button and it's a winner for real people

    1. Thomas 4

      Wow! A Facebook button!

      I reverse engineered this and managed to make a version that works on my Nexus One.

      I call it......an icon!

      1. MrT
        Black Helicopters

        I hope...

        ... you didn't round the corners...

  4. Code Monkey
    FAIL

    I'd prefer an all-rounder

    Imagine if smartphones had gone mass-market a few years earlier. Done that? Good.

    Now imagine whipping out your MySpace phone down the pub.

  5. Bassey

    battery

    So which is it? 1250mAh or 1520mAh? The box-out says 1250 but the text says 1520. Don't suppose it matters much but enquiring minds and all that.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @A. Facebook. Button. Sigh.

    > Is this what passes for innovation nowadays?

    But the question is .... did they patent it!

  7. Chz
    WTF?

    Par for the course?

    How is 480x320 par for the course so long as you can buy the Orange San Francisco with a full 800x480 screen for under £100?

    1. annodomini2
      FAIL

      Or...

      Given the £300 price tag, an original desire with 800x480 AMOLED, a 1Ghz processor and more RAM.

  8. dotdavid
    WTF?

    Two phones I'd like to see

    1) A smallish smartphone, like the Wildfire, but with a 1GHz or higher processor. Why should small handsets all be budget phones?!

    2) A smartphone with a touchscreen and a slide-out portrait numpad, a bit like the old HTC Touch Dual. I reckon the kids would love it for txting, and it would probably appeal to those that find full tiny hardware qwerty keyboards a bit cumbersome.

    Either of these would be more innovative than a Facebook button. Come on HTC!

    1. Code Monkey
      Thumb Up

      Re: Two phones I'd like to see

      +1 They'd have my pounds if they did a smaller premium smartphone.

      1. dogged

        here you go...

        http://www.dell.com/us/p/mobile-venue-pro/pd

        1. dotdavid
          Unhappy

          @Dogged

          Alas the Venue Pro doesn't quite meet the requirements, as the keyboard is still a tiny cramp-inducing portrait qwerty not a number pad like dumbphones of yore.

          Plus it runs an operating system I've never heard of. Windows what-now?

          I kid, I kid...

  9. Wize

    So they removed the scroll button from the phone...

    ...and put a similarly sized facebook button. Bit of a step backwards.

  10. NogginTheNog

    Licensing

    I wonder who pays whom (FB or HTC), and how much, for putting the button there?

  11. tmTM

    No Flash?

    From what spec I've found the Salsa runs a ARMv6 processor, so no native flash then :(

  12. Alan Twelve

    The odd shaped chin...

    I find the chin (on my old Hero, at least) makes the phone more comfortable to hold and manipulate with one hand - it kind of hooks onto your thumb. Also, if you place the phone face-down on a flat surface, neither the screen, nor any hardware buttons, touch the surface. It's a nice piece of design, even if it does look a little odd.

  13. MaXimaN
    FAIL

    Uh-oh

    "One push lets you make a quick post, but it offers different options depending on what function you’re in – from the camera it will instantly take a picture and offer to post it straight away"

    ...like that isn't a disaster waiting to happen.

  14. bex

    trackpad

    I wish htc would start putting optical trackpads back on their phones

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