If you’ve been eager to replace your start screen with a
scrolling Facebook feed, your day has finally come. The HTC
First is the first smartphone with deep enough Facebook integration to be
dubbed the “Facebook phone.” It uses an
Android OS primed with Facebook’s baby-blue interface, sending you directly to
the familiar news feed, photo service, and messaging system that used to hide
in a dedicated app.
Reviews for the HTC First “Facebook phone” started appearing on the web today, with largely positive
reactions. Its specs are on par with
what smartphone users expect, and some have expressed an appreciation for the
way it puts Facebook front-and-center without making it difficult to use other
Android programs.
Early comparisons to the Samsung Galaxy S4 are pitting the HTC First against stiff competition, and showing
serious promise for the fledgling smartphone.
Although not full 1080 HD like the S4, it does run at 720p on a 4.3-inch
screen. A 5 MP primary camera and 1.6 MP
secondary camera, 16 GB of storage, and Jelly Bean 4.1 OS run on a cutting-edge
Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor, with an Adreno 305 GPU and 1 GB of
RAM.
Since a Facebook app has been available for a long time, the
HTC First doesn’t have an entirely unique selling point, except that Facebook
comes preloaded and dominates the interface.
The appeal may lie mostly with extremely active Facebook fans, but with
Facebook reporting more than 1 billion active users, that may be more than
enough.
AT&T reportedly has plans to make the HTC First their
flagship product, giving it prominent in-store placement and featuring it in ad
campaigns. It is also expected to have a
slightly lower price point than other popular smartphones like the S4, at $99
with a 2-year contract or $449 without.
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