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HTC First image leaked, is latest ‘Facebook Phone’
Here it is, the smartphone vessel for Facebook Home (Android with deep Facebook integration).
HTC first, 2013 twitter.com/evleaks/status…
— @evleaks (@evleaks) April 2, 2013
So we have the name, HTC First. We even have specs of the new “deeply integrated” Facebook phone. The specifications are extremely generic, this phone is nothing to tweet about. But it’s the functionality Facebook Home will deliver which is most important. We’ll explain after the specifications.
There’s a gig of RAM, a 5-megapixel camera, a Qualcomm (they sure do get around) S4 cpu, and a 4.3-inch 720p display. As we said, generic. This is a phone from a year ago, so hopefully it will be priced as such. But, and this is a large but, the launch on Thursday is going to be an abomination for hardware fans. We expect Facebook to rattle off about the app itself, sidelining the specifications until the very end, or squeezing it in quickly with the hope that no one notices.
More on the HTC First. It’s disappointing that HTC has chosen to keep buttons on this device, as moving away from physical input is the future, in our opinion. Swipes and gestures are meant to replace buttons, but less-expensive phone makers, even on the most costly phones (HTC One, iPhone 5, Xperia Z) have yet to realize this. Yet, there is a point to Facebook Home.
The point of Facebook Home
There’s a reason for embedding Facebook into an OS. Facebook wants their app to run on any phone, regardless of CPU, screen size, if it’s a decent phone or not, etc. This is Facebook opening itself up to a global audience who haven’t been able to access the Facebook app on their feature phones. Techcrunch calls this “entrenching its mobile platform” and we can’t think of a better way to describe it.
We don’t expect people to be blown away on Thursday when Facebook launches Home. Hopefully there’ll be a surprise or two. And less ugly Facebook phones.
Image via Techcrunch.com
