HTC Tattoo Review

Of all the manufacturers that are part of the Open Handset Alliance, producing handsets that run on the open source Android Operating System, HTC have been by far the most prolific. Handsets such as the Magic and Hero have cemented HTC’s status as a supplier and manufacturer of high quality, well specified smartphone devices.

Following on from this, the latest Android device from HTC is the HTC Tattoo. The Tattoo is a standard tablet design smartphone, a design commonly associated with PDA style devices. Just 14mm thick, the HTC Tattoo has a large QVGA touchscreen, measuring 2.8 inches across and supporting up to 65,000 colours. Auto rotate facility is included, allowing the display to automatically switch between portrait and landscape mode, depending on the application being used at the time.

The Tattoo also runs with the same UI as found on the HTC Hero, HTC Sense, this offers a multiple array of homescreen options, and allows for a vast selection of customisation options. In total there are 7 different homescreen options, which can be easily accessed by a simple swipe of the finger across the screen. Each separate display can offer a configuration of its own, so you can store icons relating to the calendar on one page, photos and media on another, web browsing on another and so on. The whole set up of the Android OS allows for complete user control on how items are presented on screen, or not at all if you prefer. Personally I find 7 screens too many, and am more than happy with the three offered on the Magic, or G1. Each to their own, I guess.

Underneath the main display on the Tattoo there are a few keys. Immediately under the screen are two rocker style keys, keys that are joined, but offer a different function when either end of the key is pressed. From left to right there is the Home key and Menu key on one rocker key, with the Back key and Search key on the other. Just under these, and dividing the send/end call keys we find that HTC have replaced the roller ball found on previous HTC Android devices, in favour of a more traditional navigation key, found more commonly on general mobile devices. The Navi key is circular in shape, and comes into its own when browsing a website that has not been optimised for access via a touch enabled device. It makes selecting small links on screen much easier, just select with the outside of the circular key, and once highlighted press the middle part of the Navi key to open the link.

Running on the latest current version of android, called Cupcake, the HTC Tattoo brings a few extra features, that so far have not been commonly found on Android devices, including a 3.5mm Audio jack, which allows you to use your own headphones of choice when listening to music playback, and also we find a stereo FM radio included, with RDS support. The media player will support multiple codecs, including MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA9 for music, and MP3, H.263, H.264 and WMV9 for video. All we really need to complete the media setup is an Android device that will natively support DivX and XviD codecs, which hopefully won’t be too long in coming.

The Tattoo comes complete with a 3.2 Megapixel camera, with autofocus and video recording capability. The camera still remains one of the weakest features on Android phones, as still there are no further image enhancement options on board, and even more disappointingly, no flash of any kind.

Where Android remains strong is the integration options possible with online services, particularly the Google range of applications such as maps, and mail. All the high speed data options are available on the Tattoo, with WiFi, and HSPA, both HSDPA at up to 7.2Mbps for downloads and HSUPA at up to 384kbps for uploads. This is supported by EDGE, GPRS and HSCSD, with quad band GSM connectivity available, allowing for total roaming in all GSM countries. The Tattoo includes Bluetooth, with A2DP support, for connecting a wireless stereo headset. There is plenty of storage space available with the Tattoo, as the memory can be expanded with the addition of MicroSD memory cards, with the device supporting cards up to 16GB in size, allowing for ample storage for photos, videos and music.

Overall the Tattoo can be described as a solid device, with a good feature set, that should sell well, as it is expected to be available at a reasonable price. We fully expect the Tattoo to be available on market by October 2009, and it will serve to further enhance the status of Android as a fun, reliable, easy to use operating system. Once features like the media player and camera have been upgraded in performance, Android devices can start to take on the heavyweight hitters in the smartphone market, such as the Nokia Nseries range.

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