Friday, April 5, 2013

Facebook Phone vs. Google Nexus 5


Actually, there should be no "vs." between these devices: any comparison of a Facephone to a real phone is a joke:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xcUUuXj28L8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Blank hardware in question is called "HTC First" (must be a mistake, should read: "HTC Face") has this list of specs which puts it into a mid-to-high end phone category -- depending on your location.
The pricing could be good with estimates between $0 and $99, the only problem is this sort of pricing is not applicable to a "blank" phone: Facephone will have Sense UI on top of Android 4.2.1, plus Face Home UI on top of that.

UI qualities and usabilities aside, it promises to be much more intrusive than any standalone Facebook app  before it. It also promises to reroute and monopolize on ad streams. For a customer, it may mean nothing, but Google won't be happy, you can be sure.

On the other hand, Google+ phone (aka Google Nexus 5) looks like much cleaner offering. Some projections of its specs can be found in fineoils.blogspot.com blog. With the advent of Android 5 (Key Lime Pie) you can easily call the Facephone a throwaway toy.

There is one chance for Facephone to survive though: set the starting price for an unlocked device at about $150 and distribute it as giveaways, etc. There will be always tinkerers who would do CM10.1 surgery on it.

In other words, "de-Face" it. Really, why waste a decent hardware?




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