If you happen to be hanging out in flushing, stop by the AT&T store for a first hand look at some of the summers’ hottest devices. While searching for this weeks’ device, their happy and (more than) helpful staff helped us find the HTC Status. The amazing new social networking phone, the first of its kind with a dedicated Facebook button.
The status is a little larger than the BlackBerry Curve, but it doesn’t reach the point of inconvenience. It’s white and gray plastic body was surprisingly sturdy and the phone felt very light. It has a 2.6 inch touch screen and the body of the phone has a slight curve in it which tilts the screen slightly toward you. This curve also makes it easier to text and allows the phone to sit against your face comfortably when you’re talking on it. The screens resolution is 480 x 320 and was clear while reading all but the smallest text. I was also impressed by the functionality of it. Despite being smaller than what I was used to, it was still easy to operate and navigate websites.
What really stands out on the Status is the keyboard. The buttons aren’t placed directly next to each other like on a BlackBerry, but circular and spaced out in order to help you avoid pressing the wrong keys. It was extremely easy to text with it and there were very few mistaken button pushes. The phone also includes a 5 megapixel main camera with flash and a front facing camera for video chatting.
The software on the phone is slightly modified in order to accommodate the smaller screen. While most changes are minor and make the phone more usable, one change made using some apps purely frustrating. Since the screen is wider than it is tall, HTC made the screen set to landscape mode when you’re holding it regularly. This works in concept, but not all app makers designed their programs to support landscape mode so they only open in portrait, causing you to have to hold the phone sideways in order to view them correctly. This was a very tedious especially if you frequently use apps like this or if you need to type something in while using the app.
Facebook integration with the phone, the phones main selling point, is convenient for avid users and makes doing basic tasks simple. The Facebook button below the keyboard is extremely easy to use. It will give you several different types of options depending on what is running on the phone when you push it. For instance, you can push it when you’re on the home screen to update your status and check into places or if you take a photo and press the button it will give you options to share the picture. This made using Facebook very easy and after a while, because it was always staring me in the face, I found myself finding excuses to use it. The phone also includes Facebook Chat widget which worked better than the regular Facebook App’s version of Chat.
Using the Status was fun. The keyboard was very natural and Facebook was paired well with the phone. Call quality and battery life were average. You could get about a day out of the phone before you had to charge it. The phones downfall is its issue with portrait apps and not to mention you can forget about watching movies on the tiny screen. What it comes down to is if you can’t live without Facebook and you don’t use apps enough to care about the occasional inconvenience they will pose, the Status may be your new best friend.
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