File photo of a screen displaying logos of Facebook taken in Buenos Aires. AFP/Juan Mabromata
Currently codenamed the HTC Opera UL, the rumored phone is believed to have a 1.4GHz
processor and a high definition 1280x720 display and to run Android Jelly Bean (version 4.1.1) and was recently benchmarked by Nena Innovation.
Since April, rumors have been circulating that HTC and Facebook have been working together to develop a phone, but every time the social media site's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has been pressed on the issue he has claimed that a phone doesn't "make any sense" to Facebook as its aim should be to be on all phones.
However, according to reports in Pocket Lint, HTC's latest handset has been developed with Facebook and was even due to launch in Q3 2012 but, according to sources, the unveiling has been delayed.
Also giving strength to these rumors is the fact that HTC has already built ‘Facebook phones': the ChaCha and the Salsa, which both featured dedicated Facebook buttons that took the user straight to their notifications and updates page like a native app, integrated into the phone's software. However, neither model proved very successful, partly due to the choice of weaker operating system and hardware specifications, although the Facebook shortcuts and integrations were well-designed and intuitive.