14 DAY TRIAL // Vodafone has just announced a cheaper alternative to the HTC ChaCha and Salsa Facebook-centric phones, the Vodafone 555 Blue.
The carrier also stated that Vodafone 555 Blue is world's first prepay phone that is aimed at Facebook fans.
Although the phone does not offer the same level of functionality in comparison with its HTC predecessors, it makes as an interesting alternative for those who do not wish to spend loads of cash on a Facebook-oriented phone.
Furthermore, it appears that Vodafone 555 Blue can be included in the same category as the INQ's Cloud Touch phone, which is already available on the market.
Vodafone 555 Blue comes with a rather small 2.4-inch resistive touchscreen with 262K colors support and 320 x 240 pixels resolution.
Among the strong points of the phone, one can notice the generous portrait QWERTY keyboard, along with the dedicated “Facebook” button.
The feature-phone only packs 150 MB of internal memory, but users can expand it up to 16GB thanks to the embedded microSD card slot.
There's also a mediocre 2.0-megapixel camera with LED flash and video capabilities on the back of the phone, a microUSB port, a 3.5mm audio jack, as well as FM radio and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP support.
According to Vodafone, the phone comes pre-loaded with Opera Mini 5 browser for a smoother Internet experience.
Unfortunately, there is no 3G or Wi-Fi support, so users of the phone will be stuck on EDGE network, which considerably lowers the phone's data transfer capabilities.
It seems that Vodafone UK will be the first to launch the Facebook phone on the market, but the carrier plans to release the phone globally, so other region will soon follow.
While the price has yet to be confirmed by Vodafone, rumors suggest that the handset will be available for under €100 (about $145) on prepaid.
