Feb 15, 2011 10:13 GMT  ·  By

Today at the Mobile World Congress, HTC Corporation announced two new handsets aimed specifically at those who are socially active, namely the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa, which include fast connectivity to Facebook.

Rumors on the upcoming availability of these handsets emerged a while ago, and now they proved real, with HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa sporting a dedicated Facebook button for fast access to features of the social networking destination.

Both handsets come with HTC's Sense user interface, which was deeply integrated to include such social networking capabilities, the mobile phone maker notes. The phones run under Google's Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread platform.

“HTC has always understood that different people want different things and the new HTC ChaCha and Salsa offer special new ways to experience Facebook on a mobile device,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation.

“With more than 500 million active users worldwide, Facebook has become synonymous with the social web and we wanted to create the ultimate socially connected phones with mass market appeal.”

The Facebook button that HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa feature is context aware, designed to pulse with light when content or updates can be shared on Facebook.

Users can update their status, upload a photo, share a Website, ‘check in’ to a location and more with the simple touch of a button.

“We have worked closely with HTC for several years on bringing Facebook to their devices and HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa are the next stage,” said Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business for Facebook. “HTC has brought Facebook to these two new devices in an innovative way enabling people to connect and share easily whenever they want, wherever they are.”

The ChaCha smartphone comes with a 2.6-inch, 480 x 320 resolution landscape touch screen and with a QWERTY keyboard on the front, a 5-megapixel camera on the back, and a VGA front-facing camera.

HTC Salsa boasts a 3.4-inch, 480 x 320 resolution touch display, a 5-megapixel photo snapper, VGA forward-facing camera, and other smartphone features more.

The HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa smartphones are set to land on the market on Europe and Asia during the second quarter of the ongoing year. They will also be released in the US on AT&T's airwaves later this year.

Note: Fellow editors Cosmin Vasile and Alex Vochin are on the floor at the 2011 Mobile World Congress and are keeping us posted with pictures and live reports on the latest product previews and launches.

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HTC ChaCha and Salsa
HTC ChaCha and Salsa
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