Vodafone UK has launched the world’s first prepay phone with Facebook built directly into it.
The Vodafone 555 Blue Facebook Phone was developed in conjunction with Facebook themselves and joins the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa in becoming a ‘Facebook Phone’.
Costing around £70 on a pay-as-you-go basis, the 555 Blue is a no frills mobile phone featuring a Blackberry-style QWERTY keyboard and a Facebook button for your social networking addiction.
Situated in the bottom right corner of the keyboard is the familiar F logo which will take you directly to a mobile version of Facebook, just like HTC’s ChaCha and Salsa Facebook phones. As with the HTC Facebook phones, the Facebook button can be used while on a web page or after taking a picture to share your content directly on the social network.
Connection to your emails, Facebook and more are all at the touch of a button. The 555 Blue doesn’t feature Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity, though will connect to the web using an EDGE (2.5G) signal for web browsing.
Facebook widgets are found on the home page to ensure you stay up to date with what your friends are up to, and a press of the dedicated Facebook button takes you to the app. Vodafone have integrated Facebook messages with Email and SMS messages too, making sure everything is kept in one easy to manage inbox. Facebook contacts can also be synchronised straight into your phone’s contacts list, just like with Android.
Browsing is made easy with Opera Mini 5 installed and ready to go on the handset alongside the proprietary operating system specifically developed by Vodafone.
Above the QWERTY keyboard is a 2.4-inch screen and around the back is a 2MP camera for snaps, which of course can be uploaded in an instant using the Facebook button.
“Facebook wants to make every phone social and Vodafone has taken the integration of Facebook to the next stage for an affordable mobile device with the Vodafone 555 Blue,” said Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business, Facebook . “We’re really happy that Vodafone will distribute this phone globally and we hope to do much more with them to bring the mobile, social internet to people everywhere.”
The Vodafone 555 Blue will be available very soon worldwide and will retail for around £70.
Is this the budget mobile phone you’ve been looking for to feed your Facebook addiction? Let us know if you like it!
Source: Vodafone Press