Daily News Courier

Rumored HTC Facebook phone gets codename, reportedly still on the cards

You could be forgiven for not remembering the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa. HTC's first-gen Facebook phones failed to make much of an impact when they were released in mid-2011. But apparently that hasn't deterred the manufacturer or the social giant, as fresh rumors are emerging today of another Facebook phone in the works, slated for a 2013 launch.

UK tech blog Pocket-Lint reports via sources in HTC's native Taiwan that the phone in question currently goes by the codename "HTC Opera UL." The device is reportedly an OEM phone, meaning one manufactured by HTC specifically for Facebook (in the same way the Nexus One was HTC-manufactured but Google-branded). Recently-posted Nenamark benchmarks for the device suggest it'll run a 1.4GHz dual-core processor of some description, with an Adreno 305 GPU, Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and a 720p display. It's worth noting that earlier leaks have suggested this may be a forked version of Android, rather than a Google-approved build.

Today's reports echo a story from Bloomberg which appeared a few months back. That report suggested that a "modified" version of Android would be used in a HTC-built Facebook phone that'd be released in 2013, after delays prevented a late 2012 launch.

Pocket-Lint's report says that the "Opera UL" has indeed been delayed, though it's not clear whether this refers to the original delay to 2013, or whether additional setbacks have pushed it back even further.

Is a fully-integrated Facebook experience still a major selling point for a mobile device? Let us know what you think down in the comments.

Source: Pocket-Lint

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