The HTC First is a new smartphone that’s deeply integrated with Facebook Home. The 4.3-inch phone runs on a version of Jelly Bean optimised for Facebook Home and comes in four different colours. Update: Eyes on!
Facebook Home is the rumoured 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 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 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.
The HTC First is an AT&T exclusive that customers in the US can order from today $US100 on a 24-month contract. It ships on April 12. There’s no word just yet on whether we can expect to see an international version of the phone.