HTC Salsa Android smartphone HTC has released two 'Facebook phones' of late – the Qwerty-packing ChaCha and the Salsa, the latter being a compact bundle of fun, which wears its dedicated Facebook button just beneath its screen. HTC Salsa HTC's Salsa: spiced with Facebook favours While the designers of the ChaCha had obviously looked over the shoulder …
Given that pretty much every consumer smartphone now is a capacitive touchscreen slab, unfortunately something like a hardware Facebook button is quite innovative. Just look at the rest of HTC's smartphones: they all look the same. Try and get the average person on the street to tell the difference between a Sensation, Incredible S and Desire S. Even the Windows Phones look almost the same (HTC Desire HD to HD7, Desire S to Trophy).
The only really different type of smartphone is the QWERTY messenger, and they'll fade with RIM and Symbian's decline.
I miss the days of bonkers phone design. The Nokia N90 and E70 come to mind.
1) A smallish smartphone, like the Wildfire, but with a 1GHz or higher processor. Why should small handsets all be budget phones?!
2) A smartphone with a touchscreen and a slide-out portrait numpad, a bit like the old HTC Touch Dual. I reckon the kids would love it for txting, and it would probably appeal to those that find full tiny hardware qwerty keyboards a bit cumbersome.
Either of these would be more innovative than a Facebook button. Come on HTC!
I find the chin (on my old Hero, at least) makes the phone more comfortable to hold and manipulate with one hand - it kind of hooks onto your thumb. Also, if you place the phone face-down on a flat surface, neither the screen, nor any hardware buttons, touch the surface. It's a nice piece of design, even if it does look a little odd.
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