HTC has introduced at the MWC 2011 in Spain a new HTC Smartphone built entirely to be social, combining the simplicity, ease-of-use and depth of HTC Sense user interface with the power and connectivity of Facebook. The HTC Salsa Smartphone features a dedicated Facebook button for access to the key functions of the Facebook website that are integrated throughout the HTC Sense user experience. The HTC Salsa Smartphone is designed to provide a seamless, social experience by enabling you to stay in touch with your friends anywhere and anytime of the day.
If you are a Facebook™ fanatic and just can’t live without staying in touch with your friends and family, then the Salsa is your ideal phone to opt for. The HTC Salsa incorporates devoted keys for Facebook™ access that allow users to access their accounts on a single button press. Besides, HTC have also taken time to customize the built in Android™ 2.3 Gingerbread OS and have also fitted in the latest HTC Sense UI.
HTC Salsa – Complete Facebook™ Support:
Although Facebook™ doesn’t demand much resources for access, yet there aren’t many handsets currently available in the market that provide the complete Facebook™ experience. The HTC Salsa on the other hand will provide users the complete access to all their Facebook™ features right on the Salsa. Users can easily upload their pictures, share Facebook™ locations, chat with online friends and even post comments on their wall. HTC perfectly understands the need of multitasking that’s why the Salsa comes powered by a nifty 800 MHz processor which is rather handy especially if you happen to be listening to music and surfing Facebook™ at the same time. Users can even add comments, tag their friends, add new photo galleries and define their privacy settings. The best bit about the Salsa is that, users can access their Facebook™ account via the dedicated ‘Facebook™ key’ within the handset. One click, and your in!
HTC Salsa – Look:
The look and feel of HTC Salsa is simply exemplary. HTC have always been synonymous for their understated elegant looks and sophisticated styling, the Salsa is no different. HTC will ship the unit in just two colors, Black and Silver, with both supposedly carrying a sort of brushed metallic look. The dedicated Facebook™ logo right at the bottom looks rather cool and definitely gives the handset a unique feel, although Im wondering how much FaceBook paid for that to be there!
HTC Salsa – Display:
HTC have packed in a rather mediocre display but nothing to complain about. The 3.4 inch capacitive touch screen delivers images and videos in 256K colors. Interestingly, HTC have also stuffed in an excellent Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off and the latest version of the HTC Sense UI. Although users might experience the lack of quality when it comes to videos or moving images, however viewing texts or in this case, you FaceBook page is fine the Salsa.
The HTC Salsa, which has a respectable 480×320 resolution touchscreen capable of recognising multitouch, but rather washy colours. Viewing angles on the other hand are broad, and daylight visibility isn’t too bad, so we wouldn’t let it put you off this mid-range phone.
HTC Salsa – Memory:
Although memory options might seem poor from the onset as HTC haven’t included much of internal memory, but the Salsa definitely makes up for it by supporting microSD™ card that allows the Salsa’s memory to be bolstered to a mammoth 32GB. Luckily, virtually all flash memory manufacturers have dropped prices significantly therefore buying a 32GB memory card certainly sounds like a worthwhile investment.
HTC Salsa – Camera:
Although the Salsa only has a 5MP fully auto focus camera but the Salsa does rather well with what it has. HTC have also provided the Salsa a powerful LED flash for capturing pictures and videos in the dark. The 5MP camera can capture still images at 2592 x 1944 pixels where as videos are recorded on standard VGA quality. The camera also features support for Geo-tagging along with face detection. Grippingly, HTC have also included a secondary VGA camera for video calling purposes that can be done over the handsets impressive 3G network.
HTC Salsa – Network and Connectivity:
HTC have always made handsets that boast of superior connectivity. The newly unveiled HTC Salsa is no different as it gets its fair share of connectivity features. This complete quadband GSM handset comes with support for both 2G (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and 3G (HSDPA 900 / 2100) networks. On the connectivity front users can expect GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA @7.2 Mbps, HSUPA@384 Kbps, Wi-Fi® 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth® 3.0 with A2DP support and micro USB v2.0.
With HTC marketing the handset as ‘The Facebook™ phone’ connectivity needed to be of top notch in order to have an edge over competition. From the looks of things HTC have unquestionably got things right especially with their high speed 3G connectivity features.
HTC Salsa – Music and Video:
Even though the Salsa supports great many business features such as built in Google Search, Maps, integrated Gmail, YouTube™, Google Talk, Picasa integration, Organizer, Document viewer, Voice memo, Predictive text input, HTML browsing with third party application support MMS, Email, Push Email and IM support, but the Salsa is incredibly cool handset for music playback. HTC have slotted in a 3.5mm jack where in users can plug-in pretty much any standard headphone jack. The quality of music is exemplary. Both bass and treble are just appropriate on provided headphones. However, the same can’t be said of video playback. In fact the Salsa’s 256K color lets it down rather badly. The integrated music player can play MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA (audio) where as the video player can playback MP4 and H.264 video formats.
HTC Salsa – Performance:
Don’t go in expecting miracles, and the HTC Salsa will impress you with its performance. Call quality is clear, and the 800MHz CPU paired with 512MB of RAM mean there’s little sign of slowdown.
Battery life on the other hand, is nothing short of superb. After 37 hours of testing, with Wi-Fi, account syncing and GPS all on, we’re down to 16 percent. That’s right – we’re still going. Of course, HTC stuffing a capacious 1520mAh battery inside the HTC Salsa does make you wonder who was on holiday when the much larger HTC Desire HD was being built. No matter: this is an Android phone you can use for two solid days, a very rare feat.
Verdict:
The HTC Salsa may be a smaller, budget device, with Facebook at its core but it's actually a surprisingly grown up smartphone. It's smartly styled, speedy in operation, packed full of features, and can get you to Facebook nirvana quicker than you can say toasted Tortilla. Whether your desire for Facebook fripperies is strong enough to overcome the slightly high price is more of a personal preference issue but if you do like the idea then it's very well executed.
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