HTC Status

Facebook is now everywhere, there’s even a dedicated button for Facebook on the HTC Status just so you can tell the world what you are doing by the minute. The HTC Status does have a lot of similarities to the HTC ChaCha, so let’s find out how it’s a different Facebook phone from its sibling.

Design
Measuring just 4.5 x 2.54 x 0.42, it is a really thin phone and is a delight to be held in your hand. Wait, there’s more good news, tipping the scales at just around 123 grams, you also don’t feel like it’s there in your pocket.  The white, silver and blue color scheme was also rather refreshing with all the black phones we already have out there.  The 2.6 inch screen might be a reason for some to complain, but its HVGA resolution might help steady the ship. Similar to Google’s Nexus S, the screen is slightly curved towards the user. Right below the display are the four capacitive buttons found on every other smartphone these days. Although a full QWERTY keyboard was a great thing to have, the keys are rather small, so users with slightly larger fingers might have a tough time. On the bottom right we find the dedicated Facebook key while on the left edge of the phone is the volume rocker together with an exposed micro-USB port. On the top of the phone is the power button which is to the right of the 3.5mm standard audio jack. Flip the phone and you will find a 5MP autofocus camera which comes with LED flash.  One notable design flaw that may be noticed however is the battery cover. Although HTC says you can pop it open using your two thumbs, that didn’t happen. You need to have thumbs as strong as a superhero to be able to pop it free if you are going to do it the HTC way.

Features
Just like the HTC ChaCha, the HTC Status comes with a single core CPU that runs at 800MHz. For the graphics, the Adreno 200 is there to do the job. In terms of memory, there is a 2GB microSD card pre-installed on this phone. However, you have to remove the battery to access the expansion slot, which brings us back to the topic of removing the battery cover.

The HTC Status to everyone’s delight comes with the Android v2.3.3 Gingerbread together with the HTC Sense 2.1 for Messenger which is meant for smartphones with smaller screens. The cool feature of being able to access an app directly from the lock screen is taken from the HTC Sense 3.0. Althought the main screen is rather crowded, it is packed with information. Being a Facebook phone, it comes with a bubble below the clock that shows real time status updates from Facebook and Twitter. One feature missing out is the ever so useful Quick Settings menu which means now you have to go through Android settings for everything.  So, what about the dedicated Facebook button? Let’s find out.  A single press lets you update your status. A long press on the other hand, lets you check-in to places. Meanwhile, if you feel like sharing an article that you are reading, say this one for instance, just click the Facebook button while reading it and you got it. The same technique applies for sharing photos from the photo gallery. The chat app is great too and the fact that you have a QWERTY keyboard in front of you makes chatting a whole lot easier. The app can be found on your homescreen listing out all contacts that are available.

The 2.6 inch coming with HVGA resolution is definitely a bit small. However, the TFT LCD screen on the HTC Status is quite bright which impressively made it viewable even under sunlight. Although the colors did fade away when it’s viewed from an angle above 20 degrees, it certainly was better than the EVO Shift 4G.

The HTC Status actually comes with a pretty decent 5MP auto focus camera. In well lit conditions, the pictures captured had a lot of detail and the HTC’s tap-to-focus feature helped make them better too. However, it wasn’t all a bed of roses as when pictures were taken in direct sunlight, colors were muted a little. The sensors didn’t do well in low light situations too creating pictures that were overexposed at the lit areas and vice versa at low lit areas. Nevertheless, the LED flash was good at capturing subjects that were some distance away. Moving on to videos, the HTC Status was able to record videos at a resolution of 720 x 480 however the video wasn’t exactly able to produce fluid motion.

Using a Facebook phone like the HTC Status can means you have an obligation to be on Facebook all the time. So, it’s good to know that HTC Status supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 3G UMTS, HSDPA and definitely Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n. All this means good news as you can stay connected with all your friends wherever you are. When it comes to web browsing, obviously the small display is going to be in the way but then again the HVGA resolution is there to make things look better. It’s also great that all the pages load quickly and are formatted to fit the page.

The phone’s performance when it came to call quality was not great but good enough.  There was this hiss in the background every time we were on the phone. The HTC Status’ speakerphone was not quite loud enough although when it came to signal reception it didn’t let us down. The 1250mAh battery seemed to be a good bet for this phone. It lasted more than a whole day without needing a recharge for average social networking and phone calls.  

Pros and Cons
Being small and ultra light, the HTC Status was very much to our taste. The Facebook integration was almost flawless and the QWERTY keyboard that goes along with it was worth it.

Screen size was a tat bit small causing text on web pages to sometimes appear too small. The camera was a turn off especially when it came to video recording.

Conclusion
This is another one of HTC’s Facebook phones, and the HTC Status seems to be doing a great job too. If you are hooked to social networking, then this phone is definitely a must have.