The HTC First is a new smartphone that's deeply integrated with Facebook Home. The AT&T phone runs on a modified version of Jelly Bean and it's the only phone to come pre-loaded with Facebook Home.
Facebook Home is the rumored Facebook phone we've been hearing about for what seems like forever now. It basically replaces the important parts of your phone with all Facebook stuff. Zuck said in the launch event that it's not built around apps, but built around people. It's all about making it easier to communicate with people using Facebook, but using Facebook automatically. So instead of using your regular camera, you're using Facebook Camera, and so forth.
Design-wise, the HTC First looks rather similar to an iPhone. It's thin, has soft edges, and comes in black, white, red, and blue. The phone has a 4.3-inch glass screen, Snapdragon processor with a dual-core CPU, and world 3G/4G and multimode LTE. We got a brief look at the HTC First after today's press conference, demonstrated by Facebook staffers. Home screen navigation appears fast and nimble, with full-screen images flipping past as fast as their finger swipes. Selecting, reordering, grouping, and dismissing the Chat Heads icons was equally responsive with very little lag. Even when running standalone apps like Instagram, the UI appeared quite zippy. Otherwise, details on hardware are still pretty sparse.
You can order the HTC First today for $100 with a two-year contract, and it ships on April 12.
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