HTC ChaCha And Salsa Available For Pre-order

HTC’s Facebook-friendly smartphones, the ChaCha and the Salsa, have become available for pre-order on Amazon UK, with the release date expected to be 26 June.

Its arrival is slightly later than predicted by online retailer Expansys, who said the phones would enter the country on 17 June.

According to Amazon, the price tag is £249.99 for HTC’s ChaCha and £319.99 for the Salsa model, including free delivery. Both come SIM-free, with release details “subject to change”.

‘ChaCha’ and ‘Salsa’ with Facebook integration

Unveiled at Mobile World Congress along with HTC’s first tablet, the Flyer, both the ChaCha and Salsa are designed with the idea of “one touch to Facebook” in mind.

According to Taiwanese phone maker HTC, a Facebook button on the front of these handsets offers users instant access to the social network, allowing them to “show whatever, whenever, at the touch of a button”.

With Facebook integration as a primary feature, the ChaCha and Salsa come with “a load of Facebook widgets,” including Facebook Chat that offers users a live instant conversation with their friends whenever and wherever they are online.

“This deeper level of integration could make the mobile experience of Facebook more compelling than other mobile versions of the application and, potentially, even more so than the full web version,” said Ovum analyst Nick Dillon.

Real-time Facebook status updates

The ChaCha will greet Brits with its full qwerty keyboard, designed for speedy texting and instant messaging, along with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and 600 MHz processor.

Its 2.6-inch touchscreen – with a 480 x 320 resolution – also displays real-time Facebook status messages from friends, plus video as well as photo alerts.

The Salsa, on the other hand, sports a 3.4-inch touchscreen with the same resolution. Both the smartphones will run Google’s Android operating system, although details on which version are yet to be announced.