AT&T announced today that it is now taking pre-orders for the HTC Status, what it’s calling “the first phone with a dedicated Facebook share button”. The phone is exclusive to AT&T customers for $49.99 with a two-year contract and will be in stores on July 17th for $49.99.
AT&T is touting the HTC Status as the first phone to feature a dedicated Facebook share button as opposed to a phone that links to the mobile Facebook application. The HTC Status also encourages status updates by lighting up when there is an activity to share, such as a song you are listening to, a website you are viewing or a photo you’ve just snapped. To the average human being with a day job, this sounds pretty annoying. But the phone is specifically aimed at Facebook loving students and is available just in time for the back-to-school season.
“We can’t wait to put the HTC Status in the hands of our young customers who will waste no time tapping into Facebook to update their friends,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets in the press release. “We’re also really pleased to offer the hottest new smartphone at an affordable price to this important, socially savvy youth market.”
The Facebook share button will allow you to:
- Post instantly on your own wall or a friend’s wall.
- Take a picture or shoot a video and share it instantly. You can even post multiple pictures at one time and label and tag them before posting. Or even post photos automatically as you’re taking them.
- Check in to Facebook Places.
- Share the music you’re listening to including the song title.
According to AT&T, the HTC Status runs on the Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread platform, which is its first smartphone to do so. It might be the most Facebooky phone ever as Facebook content and information is integrated in the phone’s clock, dialer, calendar, address book and photo gallery. The HTC Status also features an one-touch Facebook chat application that lets you maintain your chat conversations, even when you navigate away to take a call, browse the Web or play a game, which provides more power to Facebook chat, giving users even less reason to continue with traditional SMS.
The HTC Status includes 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash, a physical keyboard, a 2.6-inch touch screen with 480 x 320 resolution and capacitive navigation buttons.
The Status joins the ranks of HTC’s other Facebook savvy phones- the HTC Salsa and HTC ChaCha. Read more about those two devices here. We’ll have a full review of the Status for you soon. Presales begin today here.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.