Vodafone Announces the 555 Blue Facebook Phone

Mobile phone carrier Vodafone has just taken the wraps of the latest Facebook phone.

Not too long ago, HTC announced its Android-based Salsa and ChaCha Facebook phones. Since then, we've seen several networks announce intentions to carry the phones. However, it seems Vodafone is more interested in its own Facebook phone at the moment.

You might remember back in in June, when we got a little peek at a mystery Facebook phone courtesy of the folks at Unwired Review. Well, Vodafone has decided it's time to give this thing an official launch. The company today unveiled the 555 Blue, a Facebook phone that has nothing to do with either HTC or Google.

Despite the fact that it's centred around Facebook access, the 555 Blue is more of a feature phone than a smartphone. Made by Alcatel, the device does not have 3G or even WiFi. Instead, Unwired reports that it runs on EDGE. Specswise, you're looking at a full QWERTY keyboard, a 2.4-inch QVGA (320×240) display, a 200MHz MediaTek processo, a 2-megapixel camera with flash, 40MB of integrated storage (expandable to 16GB via microSD), Bluetooth 2.1, and an FM radio. Vodafone didn't say much about the software on this thing, but we do know there'll be an IM client, an email client (with POP3 and IMAP support), a music player, and Opera Mini for browsing the web.

The 555 Blue is expected to hit in August and will retail for about £60-£70.