(gigaom.com) -- At a press event on Thursday, Facebook introduced a custom launcher for Android called Facebook Home. The software will be pre-installed on certain handsets with the initial one being the HTC First, a device for AT&T’s LTE network that arrives in stores on April 12. As expected, it’s a mid-range handset with a price to match: $99.99 on contract.
What does that $100 and two-year commitment get you? AT&T isn’t providing many details on the handset, but says it has a 4.3-inch display, runs Android 4.1 and uses a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, which is the third most powerful of the four newest Qualcomm chips. I did a little sleuthing on HTC’s site and also found the following hardware information, which sounds about right for $99.
I still see little-to-no reason why anyone should buy this device though. For the same price, you can get a better Android phone — say Samsung’s Galaxy S III — and simply install Facebook Home if you want it. It will be interesting to see how other Facebook Home handset partners handle that scenario.
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