The sudden craze of Android devices manufactured by almost every well-known brand has been peaking up lately. At the moment, HTC looks like holding an edge of supremacy over this market, as it already launched a few successful smart phones and also has its own UI in place, for the Android devices.
HTC Tattoo is the latest product of 3G phones in the android series that comes with a 2.8-inch touch screen, a 3.2 megapixel camera, digital compass, FM radio, audio input 3.5 mm and a slot for MicroSD cards to expand storage to 512MB integrated. For connectivity, the handset integrates WiFi and Bluetooth. The 108-gram handheld measures 106×55, 2×14mm and is using an 1100mAh Li-ion battery to draw its power. This battery is good according to HTC for a total time of 5.7 hours and a standby time of two weeks. The quality of the pictures depends very much on the light you have and the position of the light. However, even in excellent conditions, pictures are worse than expected, but still decent. And as the device doesn’t have a dedicated camera button, you will have to use the big, rounded four-way navigation key. The interface of the camera doesn’t change to portrait, so you will only be able to take pictures in landscape mode. You will be able to record clips also using a maximum resolution of 352×288 pixels.
All in all, even if it is a mid-ranged smartphone, HTC Tattoo includes the latest communication technologies: GPRS and EDGE class 10, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA 384 Kbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and mini USB 2.0.
The integrated browser WebKit cannot be closed, but it seems upgraded, compared with the previous two Android devices: Magic and G1. HTC Tattoo is compatible with all email clients and protocols (POP3, IMAP) and can be synchronized with Microsoft Exchange. The rest of the email accounts can be set to be checked at various intervals (five, ten, 30 minutes). The device is also compatible with SMS, EMS, and MMS text features. The interface is pretty straightforward and user-friendly. The Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g connectivity is another option that will surely reduce costs for those that are heavily using Internet browsing or data transfers. The built-in GPS receiver and digital compass work together with the Google Maps, so that you won’t get lost. Unfortunately, there’s still no software behind the integrated GPS receiver, so vocal guiding is out of the question.
HTC Tattoo is powered by a single Qualcomm MSM 7225 processor, running at speeds of up to 528 Mhz. Overall, I am yet to see reports of any lock-downs, crashes, or lags. Moreover, the phone acts very fast to any command, even when multiple applications are running in the background. The Smartphone embeds a 256 MB RAM and a 512 MB ROM memory. The storage space can be expanded up to 16GB through the hot-swappable micro SD card slot that has been placed under the back cover, on the left lower corner of the phone.
The music player supports audio files in MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, MPEG4, WAV, MIDI, Real Audio and Ogg formats. That is a cool range of options you have got, don’t you? However, the music sound is somewhat average in quality, and average in intensity. The video player will open itself every time you click on a video file. There’s also an FM Radio that can be run in the background or listened to in the loudspeaker. The reception is good, as well as the sound.
So the bottom line is that HTC Tattoo has all the ingredients to become a well-sold smart phone, if the Taiwanese manufacturer will set the right price for it. I find the device as one of the best mid-budget phones (feature and performance-wise), as it has a very nice design and excellent apps bundled into it. All that remains is a cheap price, so that a high percentage of smart phone users get to at least try it.
