HTC Salsa

HTC Salsa builts entirely to be social, combining the simplicity, ease-of-use and depth of HTC Sense with the power and connectivity of Facebook. HTC Salsa features a dedicated Facebook button for one-touch access to the key functions of the Facebook service that are integrated throughout the HTC Sense experience.

The Facebook button on HTC Salsa is context-aware, gently pulsing with light whenever there is an opportunity to share content or updates through Facebook. With a single press of the button, you can update your status, upload a photo, share a Website, post what song you are listening to, ‘check in’ to a location and more. For example, you can take a photograph of friends on your phone and upload it instantly to Facebook by simply pressing the button. Or let your friends know what song you’re listening to by pressing the button while listening to music on the phone. The track is automatically identified and shared on Facebook.

The HTC Salsa features Android Gingerbread 2.3.3 and use the latest iteration of HTC Sense to integrate Facebook throughout the HTC Sense experience. When you make a phone call, the dialer screen displays your friend’s latest status and photos, and even tells you if their birthday is approaching. The same updates are also displayed when you receive a call from a Facebook friend. You can also use your phone’s existing contacts to help you connect with them on Facebook or personalize your handset further with a number of new, Facebook-branded widgets.

The HTC Salsa smartphone makes it simple to stay in touch with your friends using Facebook Chat and Messages on your phone. Your Facebook messages and conversations are integrated within your phone and appear within your text and email inboxes alongside your regular conversations.

The HTC Salsa smartphone provides a fast, high-performance smartphone experience. Capture the moment in high-resolution stills or video with the 5-megapixel camera and immediately share it with friends on the generous 3.4-inch, 480 x 320 resolution touch display. Upload your photos to Facebook at the touch of a button. For face-to-face conversations on the move, the VGA forward-facing camera enables high-quality video calling.

Hit : Captivating design, long battery life, dedicated Facebook button.

Miss : No Flash support in browser.

Range Price : RM 910 – 940

Specifications
General & Hardware Date Announced February 15, 2011 (1st Quarter)
Network Technology 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

HSDPA 900 / 2100
Hardware/Processor CPU 800 MHz processor, Adreno 205 GPU
Dimensions (mm) 109.1 x 58.9 x 12.3
Weight (g) 120
SAR Rating -
Available colours Black, Silver
Screen Size 3.4 inches, 320 x 480 pixels
Screen Color TFT 256K colors
Line of Text -
Menu Type -
Type Candybar
QWERTY-Keyboard No
Navigation Key Accelerometer sensor & Proximity sensor
Soft Keys -
Other Keys -
Keypad Lighting -
Antenna Fixed Internal
Phonebook Unlimited
Internal(MB) 512 MB
Memory Slot microSD (up to 32GB)
Battery Type Li-Ion 1520 mAh
Stand-by (hrs) Up to 445 hours
TalkTime(min) Up to 540 minutes
Entertainment Polyphonic Yes
Customization -
MP3 Yes
FM Radio Yes
TV Receiver Null
Video Record Yes
Video Support .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3), .xvid (MP4 ASP and MP3)
Audio Support .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9)
Voice Support -
Games Yes
Messaging SMS Yes
Total SMS -
MMS Yes
EMS No
Email Email, Push Email
Instant Messenging Yes
Push-To-Talk -
Connectivity HSDPA HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 384 Kbps
WIFI/WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
3G Yes
GPS Yes
EDGE Up to 560 kbps downloading
GPRS Yes
Bluetooth Yes, v3.0 with A2DP (A2DP)
USB Port Yes
Infrared (IrDA) No
Data Cable -
Data Modem -
Software Platform / OS Android 2.3
Java (J2ME) Yes
WAP Yes Ver 2.0
Browser HTML
Predictive Text Entry -
Speech Codecs -
PIM Application -
Other Applications GPS, Facebook, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration, Document viewer
Personals Themes No Info.
Caller ID Photo Caller ID
Profile ID Yes
Camera Specifications Lens Type CMOS, 5.0 Megapixel
Digital zoom -
Max. Resolution 2592 x 1944 (Secondary VGA camera)
Flash Yes
Night Mode Yes
Multi Shot -
Frame - Types
Extra Features Geo-tagging, face detection, Autofocus
Photo Format -
Video Yes
Video Format -
Review

THE word Salsa brings to mind something that is fun and exciting and in some ways, HTC’s latest mid-range Android phone of the same name, wants to embody those exact qualities.

The HTC Salsa together with its sibling the ChaCha, are a new breed of HTC phones that capitalise on social networking integration with a built-in Facebook function.

On the outside, it is an elegantly designed phone with a sleek metallic casing and a build quality that is on par with higher-end phones like the HTC Desire S. It also feels remarkably light and comfortable in the hand.

HTC Salsa Review
 NICE TO HOLD: The Salsa boasts a sleek design with a metallic exterior.

It actually bears close resemblance to the last year’s HTC Legend. In fact, the two look almost identical save for the fact that the Salsa has a slightly larger 3.4in screen.

The screen quality is one area that the phone is lacking. Though the HVGA resolution (320 x 480-pixels) has good contrast and decent viewing angles, the screen’s low resolution makes text on full webpages appear small and unreadable.

This means you will need to zoom in and out a lot when browsing pages on the Web. We liked how there’s a proper camera button on the Salsa as it is something that we rarely see on smartphones these days. You can even do a half press to pre-focus and snap a picture by fully pressing down.

There isn’t much to see around the back except for the Salsa’s 5-megapixel camera and speakers. Everything else is where you would expect them to be – the 3.5mm headphone jack at the top while the volume rocker and microUSB port can be found on the left side of smartphone.

HTC Salsa Review 
REAR VIEW: On the back of the Salsa, you’ll find the 5-megapixel autofocus camera and speaker grill.

In use

The Salsa’s performance is generally fluid for most regular tasks thanks to its 800MHz Qualcomm processor. However, it is not well suited for running processor-intensive games – less demanding games such as Angry Birdsrun fine on the device.

Another downside is that the browser does not support Flash, so you will miss out on watching certain Flash videos and playing Flash games from Kongregate on your mobile.

Running on Android 2.3.3, the Salsa comes with the usual HTC Sense interface that is overlaid on top of the default operating system. For the most part the Sense interface feels similar to other HTC phones but there’s a new interactive lock screen that you can use to access commonly used apps like the Phone, Messages, Camera and Mail.

All you have to do is drag one of the icons into the circle to instantly open the app so you can read your messages, make a call or snap a picture right away. It is a simple yet effective feature that greatly improves the phone’s usabilty.

The default browser handles tabbed browsing in a unique way. Just pinch the screen and a scrolling icon list of opened webpages comes up, similar to how it appears on your desktop browser.

It’s not perfect though, as the zoomed out view responds slower when pages are being loaded.

The Salsa’s battery performance did not impress us. Considering that this a social networking phone that needs to be constantly updated it was rather disappointing.

After using the phone to check on our Facebook updates, browse the Web, post pictures and make the occasional call, we found that the phone could just barely get through the day on a single charge.

 
PRESS FOR FACEBOOK: The Salsa’s dedicated Facebook button allows users to post pictures, videos and links directly to their account.

All about Facebook

What makes the Salsa different from your run-of-the-mill Android phone is its Facebook integration. It has a dedicated Facebook button that streamlines the processing of posting content directly to your Facebook wall.

The feature works across multiple applications so when you take a photo for instance, the button will glow to indicate that you can upload it to Facebook.

Similarly you can use the button to share links viewed on your web browser, share videos and tell everyone what music you’re currently listening to.

By “long pressing” on the button, you can check in at your current location via Facebook Places. You can also instant message your Facebook contacts using the included FB Chat app on the phone.

Additionally there’s a ticker at the bottom of the clock application on the home screen showing you the latest Facebook updates.

Though it only shows a single update, you can click on it to take you to HTC’s new Sense Facebook interface. Here you can get a full view of all Facebook updates from your friends and even sort them by links, check-ins, videos or photos shared.

While it is a nice app to have to sort through your friend’s updates, it does seem redundant against the existing Facebook app that you can get off the Android Marketplace.

You’re not limited to just Facebook though, as you can also get updates from other social networks Twitter and Flickr on the Salsa.

Not great for pictures

The Salsa’s 5-megapixel camera is good for taking casual pictures, or the occasional video, to upload on Facebook.

However the camera isn’t the best that we’ve seen – the picture quality is passable at the very least and only performs well when shooting outdoors. Shutter lag is quite significant on the camera so it is next to impossible to capture moving subjects on it.

The LED flash does help when snapping pictures in the dark though the results often come off as being too artificial or washed out by the flash.

The video quality of the camera isn’t anything to shout about. In an age where HD video capture is increasingly common, the Salsa’s VGA quality recordings look sadly outdated. You can also shoot in widescreen (720 x 480-pixels) but there’s not much difference in terms of quality.

Still, the camera is good for taking close-up shots and the quality is acceptable for uploading to Facebook.

Speaking of which, since this is a Facebook-centric phone after all, the Salsa has a useful auto upload feature that can be set to upload pictures directly to your Facebook account after they are taken.

It’s cool feature to have if you want to immediately share your pictures with your friends. However, it indiscriminately uploads anything you record or snap, so be sure to switch it off to avoid uploading embarrassing pictures by accident or using up all your mobile data for the month.

Conclusion

As a social network orientated phone, the HTC Salsa has got some things right, like having a dedicated Facebook button to make it easier to share your thoughts, links, pictures and videos with your friends.

Furthermore, the new interactive lock-screen is very useful for accessing frequently-used apps, and web browsing feels good thanks to the improved handling of tabbed browsing.

The phone does, however, have a couple of low points – the camera is poor and its weak processor makes it underpowered for playing games or run processor-intensive apps.

All in all, if you are just looking for a smartphone that specialises in social networking and has integrated Facebook functions, then the HTC Salsa might be right up your alley.

Pros: Sleek design; Facebook integration; tabbed browsing; interactive lock-screen.
Cons: Low resolution screen; poor camera; weak processor; no Flash support; unimpressive battery life.

Gallery

Source : Mobile88

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