The HTC First is now available on AT&T in the United States, giving consumers the first glimpse at a fully integrated Facebook Home experience.
The device is available to order both in-store and online for $99, on a two-year contract, in either black, white, red or baby blue. There’s also the option to pay for the handset outright, although it’ll set you back $449.99.
Facebook Home is expected to launch in the Google Play store later today. The suite of apps, which combines a new home screen experience with a messaging service that’s prevalent across the entire Android operating system, will only be available on the HTC One (future), HTC One X/X+, Samsung Galaxy SIII, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy Note II at launch.
The HTC First, unveiled earlier this month, is the only smartphone at present that comes with Facebook Home pre-loaded. As a result, the integration runs much deeper than on other Android devices, for instance supporting a larger number of app notifications on the home screen.
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The HTC First has a 4.3 inch 720p display and runs on a dual-core 1.4 GHz Qualcomm 8930AA processor. There’s 1GB of RAM under the hood and 16GB of internal storage, expandable via a mircoSD slot.
It runs Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), albeit with the Facebook Home software slapped on top, and is equipped with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, in addition to a 1.6-megapixel companion on the front.
Reviews have also suggested that it’s possible to remove the home screen experience from the HTC First, but still retain the new ‘Chat Heads’ messaging service, for those that prefer a system-wide experience closer to stock Android.
The HTC First is also expected to launch exclusively on EE in the UK sometime this summer.
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