HTC and AT&T officially announce the HTC Status via Facebook

Attention Facebook addicts! The phone of your dreams is finally here. Meet the HTC Status, AT&T’s version of the HTC ChaCha. AT&T and HTC just announced the “Facebook phone” via (you guessed it) Facebook–with official fan page and all. We first caught a glimpse of the HTC ChaCha and its dedicated Facebook button back in February at the Mobile World Congress. The ChaCha, along with the Salsa (yep, somebody at HTC has an unhealthy obsession with Latin music), are HTC’s versions of what a Facebook phone would look like.The feature a dedicated Facebook button that allows users to do the following:

One touch to share – Press the Facebook share button from your home screen to instantly post on your wall.Snap, shoot, share – Take a picture or shoot a video and share it instantly with a press of the Facebook share button. You can even post pictures automatically as you’re taking them.Quick-on-the-draw check-in – Just long press the Facebook share button to check in your location with Facebook Places.Be first with the news – See something cool on the web? Share your latest find with a quick press of the Facebook share button.Post to your wall or a friend’s wall – From the home screen, a quick tap of the Facebook HTC share button makes sharing anything on your mind quick and easy.Share what you’re listening to – The Facebook share button glows when you’re listening to music to let you know you can share. Let your friends in on the music you love with the push of a button

That’s certainly a lot of Facebook-related features. But believe it or not, the HTC Status is also an Android phone. And not a horrible one either. It has all the following specs:

Android 2.3 Gingerbread2.3-inch screen with a 480 x 320 pixel resolution800 MHz single-core Qualcomm MSM7227 processor512 MB of RAM and 512 MB of internal storage5 MP rear-facing camera with LED flashVGA front-facing camera1250 mAh battery

Decent spec sheet, but what about price? Well, AT&T has yet to announce pricing and availability for the HTC Status. But word around the campfire is that pricing will be somewhere between $49-$99 with a 2-year contract. I know the HTC Status is not meant to appeal to us Android enthusiasts, but that non-free price isn’t helping. Especially since you can now get an HTC EVO 4G for $0 dollars. But to each their own, I guess.