The HTC First is truly a Facebook Phone in every sense but it comes with its own disadvantages. The phone boasts of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS at a time when world over the smart phones are shifting to 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.
So if you expect a Facebook Phone to be entirely different than you will have to change your expectations. Though HTC has made some UI changes like a new lock screen which also displays notifications. This phone also allows you tocheck out each notification or gather them all and save them for later. A new change is accessing your App drawer which can be opened by dragging your profile image upwards. If you drag the picture towards the right, the last opened App can be accessed while dragging to the left opens up the Messenger. The Messenger in the Phone unifies your SMSes and Facebook messages, which many of you would like.
The first App drawer screen will have your pinned Apps while you can access your complete collection of Apps with a right swipe. But the most important thing for HTC First is the brand new debut of Facebook Home which is sure to make Facebook users feel at home.
The home screen for Facebook Home is called the cover feed. Your Photos and posts that show up in the message feed on Facebook webpage will show up here. The HTC First than allows you to swipe back and forth through them to view them at your leisure. If you double tap any photo, comment or status that means you have ‘Liked’ it and comment on it. Chat is also available from the home screen itself. Further the chat notification will also appear on the top of any App you have opened so you can tap it and reply it from there.
HTC First is also sure to sport the new VoIP messenger though the initial reports don't give indications that the First will sport the VoIP messenger. It has all the hardware required for VoiP and 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash with secondary 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera for your video calling needs.
HTC First is also good under the hood. It sports a 4.3-inch 1280 x 720 display which will give a nice 720p experience. It sports a dual-core 1.4GHz CPU with a Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM. It will also have 3G and wi-fi for connectivity, there is no mention of LTE networks. It will also support the new sharing standard NFC and there will be GPS for positioning. The phone will have a internal memory of 16GB with no support of expandable memory which means that you have to do what you do with the 16GB. This is sure to piss of many future buyers. Another thing which works against it the non replaceble battery. Though the battery is 2000 mAH it wont be enough if your are full time Facebooker.
HTC has everything is place for a typical Facebook fan but will it get the pricing right that is the more important question. Everybody who likes being a Facebook will like this phone if its price is competitive. It should cost Rs.15000.00 + in India and $99 on two year contract in the US.
Hope the Facebook and the HTC have hit the bulls eye with the new Facebook Phone. Will review the final phone when it lands in India. Till that time please check out the latest launches here. Please post in your comments.
Vijay Prabhu
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