Review: HTC Tattoo

HTC has embraced the Google Android OS with open arms over the past year, releasing a trio of devices ? the G1, Hero and Magic ? which show off just why Android has taken the mobile world by storm.While the Android interface brings a brilliant Google sheen to the mobile market-place, it has come at a price, with most of the handsets packing lengthy contracts or expensive one-off payments.Enter the HTC Tattoo. Alongside the T-Mobile Pulse, the Tattoo is all about catering for the more budget-conscious phone user who wants to utilise Android, but not pay over the odds for the privilege.We're not talking about masses of money saved ? a tenner a month off a contract here, a £100 off a handset there ? but the arrival of the OS on the HTC Tattoo does point to a bright future for mid-range devices sporting Android.When it comes to comparing the phone with its other Android bedfellows the HTC Tattoo has more in keeping with the HTC Hero than it does with the HTC Magic and G1. This is all because the HTC Tattoo uses Sense UI, which is HTC's own 'skinned' version of Android.So, instead of the now-iconic large Android clock, the main interface is dominated by a digital clock and location-specific information explaining what the weather and temperature is like in your vicinity.The HTC Tattoo does bring with it something different, however, and that is Android 1.6 ? this update brings some rather nice tweaks to the Android interface, which we shall talk a bit more about further on in the review.While the Android OS is flashy, oozing glitz, the HTC Tattoo's fascia is rather unassuming.The phone has a matt-silver finish and feels rather chunky in the hand. It's compact, though, and it looks sleek ? with HTC disposing of the trackball as seen on the Magic and Hero, and replacing it with a flat, circular four-way navigational button.In all, there are seven buttons on the chassis, broken into five sections, with the aforementioned navi button being the most prominent.You would expect, then, that this would be the main button to 'wake' the phone from sleep. Anyone familiar with the Magic will know that's not how it works, however, when it comes to operating the HTC Tattoo.Instead, you click the much smaller menu button twice to get into the main interface. To close things up, simply press the power button on the bottom right.If you're underwhelmed by the HTC Tattoo's demure body, then don't fret as the phone is all about individuality. HTC is releasing a number of funky cases with tattoo-like designs, so you can customise your handset.This is a good call on HTC's part, giving you the chance to choose what style you want the phone to be, rather than the company opting for a one-style-fits-all device.Flip the phone over ? both the back and the front is customisable ? and the thing that sticks out is the 3.2MP lens for the phone's camera. Unlike the Hero which sported a small lens with a big five megapixel count, the lens on the HTC Tattoo sticks out like a sore thumb, surrounded by a chunky metallic border.The only other things of note on the chassis is a 3.5mm headphone jack (big thumbs up for HTC including this once more, considering the Magic came sans headphone socket), a micro USB connector and volume control on the left-hand side which is pretty much flush to the chassis.When it comes to what you get with the phone, there are precious few things in the box, except for a charger (whip the three-pin plug off and it becomes your phone's PC connection as well) and some headphones. The HTC Tattoo's interface is all about the Sense UI. While some users will be confused with the apparent lack of Google-related options on the initial home screen, it's not that they are not there; it's just that HTC by default has loaded up its own widgets instead.At the top of the screen is the already mentioned digital clock, complete with location-based information.It's a nice touch, but a somewhat inaccurate one. As the HTC Tattoo uses A-GPS (Assisted GPS), which uses a weaker signal than GPS, it puts your location to around a mile of where you are.So, when we were in London Bridge, the HTC Tattoo informed us we were in Camberwell. This can be a tad annoying but the technology is warranted nonetheless. Underneath this are visual icons for: Message, Mail, Browser and Camera.Although the interface looks identical to that of the HTC Hero, the major difference between the phones is the screen: the HTC Hero's is capacitive 3.2-inch HVGA, the HTC Tattoo is resistive 2.8-inch QVGA.Essentially, this means that the HTC Tattoo's touchscreen is nowhere near as responsive as the Hero's, and the quality of media playback on the Tattoo is not as good. This is what makes the HTC Tattoo a (slightly) cheaper alternative to its Android brethren. If you don't like the look of this interface then the HTC Tattoo has a great little option called Scenes. This was first found in the HTC Hero, and can be accessed by clicking on the Menu button below the phone's touchscreen.Select this and you can choose from a number of different skins, labelled as: HTC, Social, Work, Play, Travel and Clean Slate.This is a fantastic way to re-skin your phone's interface. Although it takes a while for the HTC Tattoo to re-skin (as it has to essentially re-boot the OS) it works a treat.The Menu button is also where you will find other customisable functions, like changing the wallpaper, adding widgets to the home page and it's also a quick link to the phone's settings.What you will notice with the HTC Tattoo is that the inclusion of the Sense UI does mean that you don't actually have one home screen, rather seven ? each catering to a specific need.The original landing page is set for all the everyday stuff you may need (the widgets can be changed to suit your preferences). Flick the screen to the left and you get a screen for your mailbox.Again, if you don't want this app to dominate the screen, simply hold your finger down on the mailbox, bin it via the trash icon and choose which app you would rather have there. Flip to the left once more and a big-screen version of your messages appear.One last flick to the left and by default a screen dedicated to the world's weather is present. Flick your thumb up on this widget and you can scroll through the weather of seven (this must be HTC's magic number) different cities.A nice touch here is that each city you flick to, the weather icon dissolves into the weather for that area. It's not as fluid as it should be, but it's impressive to watch.The three screens on the right-side of the home screen are dedicated to your favourite phone numbers, web bookmarks and the final one is left blank. Again, each one is easily customisable, all you do is press the screen for a few seconds and the option to add extra apps appears.The idea of having seven separate home screens may seem like a daunting one, but it really isn't. What it does mean is that there is less clutter for you to wade through to get to the application you use most. It may well be that you end up using just three of the screens, but the option of expansion is there, and with phones being used as multimedia hubs these days, it's most definitely welcomed.And if you do get lost among the myriad home screens, press the Home button (handily emblazoned with a picture of a house) and the phone will transport you back to square one.What we did find to be a problem was the length of time it took for the screens that relied on information from the web to load up.We were waiting a full 20 seconds for the weather app to 'warm' up, and then when it did it told us what the weather was like in New York, London and Tokyo but had trouble finding what was happening weather wise in our home town.The bookmarks home screen was a good deal quicker, however, with around a five second wait for the four visual bookmarks to appear. By default these are: Google, eBay, Facebook, MySpace, BBC (mobile), CNN, Wikipedia and Amazon. Again this can be easily changed. When we chose to look at Google, it took around eight seconds to load the web page up.Drilling deeper into the HTC Tattoo's interface is simple. On the screen, there are three virtual button options: a circle with a triangle in it, one labelled Phone and one that houses a '+' sign. Click the circle icon and you now have full reign of all the programs that the phone has to offer (for more see the 'battery life and organiser' page). The bread and butter of any phone is how easy it is to make calls on it. In the HTC Tattoo's case, it's very easy. On the home screen, just click the Phone tab and you are into your contacts database.The dial pad is the first thing you will notice when on this screen. This isn't just there to type in full numbers, you can use it as a quick link to the number you want. Simply tap the number with the letter that your contact's name starts with and it will jump to that section.This is something that doesn't take too long to get used to. If you do get annoyed with it (and we were getting irked with the default button tone which can thankfully be switched off in settings) then hit the grid button on the bottom left and you will have full scrolling reign of all your contacts.Here you can scroll through and choose a number. If you don't want to use the screen, then the HTC's four-way navigational button can also be used to scroll down ? we knew it had a use!When you click on a contact it will start ringing immediately. This takes a while to get used to, as we just stared at the screen not knowing if it was ringing or not until the person we were ringing started shouting at us. To end the call, just press the angry red End Call button.ContactsHold down your finger on a contact and you will be able to see what messages they have sent to you and other snippets of information.The calls themselves we couldn't fault. The quality was crisp and clear, and we didn't have any comments about our own voice being distant or muffled. Turning up the sound, courtesy of the HTC Tattoo's side button did make a difference, but it also added a slight crackle. This didn't happen all of the time and may well be put down to reception.As long as you remember to press the End Call button, then you shouldn't have a problem ending a phone call. It sounds like an obvious thing, but it's not, as you instinctively want to press the real Power button on the right-side of the phone.This won't end a call, just annoy you and the person on the other end. You can press the Back button to end a call, however.Text messaging on the HTC Tattoo is definitely an experience. You have two options when texting people, you can either do it when the phone is in portrait or landscape. We would highly recommend texting in landscape.Our digits aren't the podgiest, but when we used the phone in portrait it took a long time to text someone, as we had to constantly correct what we had written. Touchscreen phones are renowned for being a learning experience for even the most seasoned of texters. The HTC Tattoo is also lagging behind the Magic and Touch in that its screen is 0.4-inches smaller, at 2.8-inches.This makes a massive difference when it comes to texting, as even though there is an option to have full QWERTY in portrait mode, the letters are far too squashed together for you to be able to use it properly ? unless you have a sniper's aim.Landscape mode means that letters have a bit more space to breath and fewer mistakes are made.More problemsAnother problem with the HTC Tattoo is that it seems to have adopted the same predictive text model as the HTC Magic. For some reason there is no way to turn this off (if there is then HTC has put this in a well hidden place).On the whole the system is fine but unless you are constantly looking at it, it will give you predictive words that you don't want. Keeping an eye on this and making sure that you are hitting the right letters is a bit of a pain.A number of times we text a message to a friend and mentioned their girlfriend Jen. The HTC Tattoo changed this to Ken without us realising, which could have got both parties into a spot of bother when the text was sent!It also has to be said that as the phone uses a resistive screen, you have to be even more precise in the hitting of letter and apply a bit more pressure than you would with a capacitive screen. We know that this type of screen has been used as a cost-cutting measure, but it does feel like a backward step for HTC, who used capacitive screens on both the Magic and the Hero.Images to add: Internet; Internet Landscape; YouTube; copy and pasteAs with Android phones, the HTC Tattoo is fully equipped to be an internet browsing device. Getting on the web is fairly straight-forward, just choose the Browser app and type the web address you want into the bar. It's much easier, however, to sort out the bookmarks on the phone and browse from there. There is an Add Bookmarks facility which is easy to use. Web access is speedy and we weren't waiting too long for web pages to load up ? around seven seconds for a non-image heavy screen like a Wikipedia page. Once you are on the web, the problems with resistive screens soon appear. There is no pinch and zoom on the HTC Tattoo and navigating your way around takes that little bit added pressure when using the touchscreen. A zoom option is at the bottom of the screen at all times however, and though there is more jitter than expected in this feature, it is definitely welcomed.And there is also the tried and tested double tap feature to make the text on the screen fit the screen, nice and big to read.When it comes to the hollowed Flash video, while the HTC Tattoo is 'capable' of playing Flash it didn't seem to want to for us. It's fine when it comes to YouTube videos.Even the videos which are embedded in web pages will play ? although you will be ported to the dedicated YouTube client which is on the phone. This is no bad thing, and should be something that HTC looks to do for all Flash videos. At the moment, it feels like Flash and mobile phones just don't mix.When browsing a video, press menu and there are a number of options to help your web browsing along. Included is copy and paste, the ability to share a page, and information regarding your viewing history.By default, the phone takes you to mobile versions of the websites you wish to view. If this is something you don't want, then you can also turn this option off by digging deeper and checking out the web settings on the phone.As for the amount of windows you can have open at one time, it's limited to four. This is no bad thing and does cut down on confusing when trying to navigate through the mobile web. The idea of a 3.2MP camera on a phone hardly going to excite anybody nowadays, especially not now the likes of the Sony Ericsson Satio have well and truly raised the bar for camera functionality.Saying that, we didn't have a problem with the HTC Tattoo's camera it just didn't blow us away. Comparing it to a Fujifilm Finepix 52000HD (with settings changed to 3MP) the difference in picture quality when shooting in the midday light was nominal.There were a number of functions to play with but we couldn't see much of a difference in any of them. Although there are no scene modes, you can tweak ISO from automatic to 800 and also change the white balance settings. These settings were where we say the most difference, but it has to be said that the camera couldn't pick out fine detail. It bleached out the whites and purples of the flower we took shots of and no tweak to the WB settings would change this. Couple this with a lack of flash and what you have is a point and shoot camera and no more.SAMPLE: The HTC Tattoo did a commendable job in bright situations, though some detail is lost in the backgroundWhen you are in camera mode, it is easy to flick to camcorder mode ? this one of the myriad updates that Android 1.6 brings to the phone.Again, the camcorder won't blow you away but sound on the video is good. Resolution on the video is passable but we have seen far better. It is the same as the HTC Hero, recording video to 352 x 288. Interestingly, you actually have to go in and set this option yourself. By default, the setting is at Medium (320 x 240).SAMPLE: The white balance option, for us, was poor. Here the auto function made the scene dark and the main flower is almost blurred, lacking detailSAMPLE: Although the image is brighter, there are still serious problems with the whiteness of the flower, with no real detail being picked out at allThere is also an option of Small, but we personally wouldn't touch that unless you were really pushed for memory on the phone. There is an option to directly send your images/videos to Facebook and Flickr, which is warranted. Although we would have also liked a direct to YouTube link-up.The default music player is simple to use. To add music to the HTC Tattoo, we simply plugged the handset into our PC and dragged a number of MP3s (The Tattoo is compatible with MP3, AAC, AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and WMA 9) on to the phone's memory.Once we opened the Music app, we found it to be a clean interface and one that includes Cover Flow. While this is nowhere near as responsive as what the, dare we say it, iPhone offers, it's good enough if you can forgive the slight lag.On the bottom-left you can scroll through your music in list form and you can also make playlists, view genres and all of your songs on here.Sound quality was more than passable. Bass on the music we listened to was deep and sound clarity good. It's disappointing though that you can't tweak the audio ? what you have is what you get.A nice little feature is that when you lock your phone, you can still muck around with your music as much as you want, without the hassle of going into the HTC Tattoo's OS.When it comes to video, we weren't bowled over. Although the HTC Tattoo plays MPEG4, H.263, H.264 and WMV 9 the QVGA screen isn't that bright and there's a fair amount of grain. And, to be honest, the screen just isn't big enough to watch video on for more than a short burst. And the lack of AVI support is unforgiveable.That's why the inclusion of the pre-installed YouTube client is a boon. The phone is fine for watching short-form video found on the site. Just don't expect the video to sparkle as it would on the iPhone or other video-friendly handsets like the Samsung Jet. FM RadioWhile we don't normally rate the inclusion of an FM radio on a phone, we were pleasantly surprised about the HTC Tattoo's effort.The reason behind this is all to do with the 3.5mm headphone jack. It's not proprietary, which means you can take the phone with you and leave the included headphones behind if you wish. Then when you want to listen to the radio, whip off the headphones from your iPod/PMP and you are away. Turning on the radio takes around 10 seconds and the scanning of radio channels will take about 30. Don't wear the headphones while doing this, though, as all you will get is very loud snippets of random radio channels.Once done you can flit between channels fairly quickly. A slight niggle is that when you put it into list mode, the list of frequencies are there but the name of the stations are not. Once you click on each station for a few seconds the name of that station will then be added. It is one niggle from a very reliable service.Images to add: Battery Life; Tweet_Peep; Google Calendar; Widgets; Android MarketAfter some rigorous playing with the HTC Tattoo, which included the downloading of many an app, the playing of myriad videos and songs, and muchos web surfing, we were utterly impressed with how well the battery held up. HTC is quoting around 350 minutes' talk time and while we couldn't find anything to natter about for this long it is a phone that seems to use its energy conservatively. This is a big relief, as most media heavy phones need recharging on an almost daily basis, the HTC Tattoo did not. One of the things we did find is that when charging the phone via our PC (we would recommend mains charging) the handset did get very warm near the micro USB connection. This happened on more than one occasion, but it soon cooled down once we stopped charging it.When downloading apps and constantly checking our Twitter, this didn't seem to warm up the phone ? something that we found with extensive use of the HTC Magic.Another excellent little add-on comes courtesy of Android 1.6, and that is a battery indicator which breaks down what your battery is being used on. This is a great way to keep track of whether or not you have closed down those unwanted apps.And there are plenty of organising apps to sap your battery power if you so wish. There is a mixed bag of goodies on offer, including Google apps, like Mail, Maps and Talk, and options including a calculator, calendar, and FM radio. If you want any of these to appear on your home screen, then choose the icon you want, hold it down and like magic it will be transported. If you want it to go on one of the other screens on offer, then you have to be that little bit more dextrous.You have to keep the icon held down, but also move it to the left or the right (depending on which screen you want it on) at the same time.Do this and you will notice the screens move frustratingly slow. And you won't be able to drop the icon on any of the screens with full-page programs on as it will inform you that there is not enough room available.An easier way to get programs on to your screens is to click the '+' menu. This will give you an array of widgets to add to your home screens. These are neatly separated into HTC widgets and Android widgets.This can get a bit confusing for users, but it's all about choice. If, say you already have a Google Mail account set up you will probably want to use the Google Mail app available, but there is also an HTC version as well.With most of the Google apps, you will have to sign into your Google account for them to work properly on the phone. If you use HTC's versions, then there are a lot more basic. Take for instance, the HTC calendar.This is simply a calendar on which you can add your own notes. The Google Calendar takes your information from the Google Calendar's you may have already set up already on the web and notifies you of upcoming events. Although there are many apps available, including a Twitter client called Peep and access to YouTube, the beauty of Android is Market. Found in the Programs section, this is your online portal to the cornucopia of apps available for all Android phones.And with the Android 1.6 update, the Android store looks better than ever, featuring a new layout and the ability to find apps, games and downloads easier. There are also new categorises, called: Top Paid, Top Free, and Just In Unlike the iPhone App Store, most of these are still free. But the Android Market is a mere 10 per cent of what Apple's store is at the moment so don't expect to be totally blown away with the choice available.The HTC Tattoo has plenty of ways to get you on to the internet, utilising both HSDPA and Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity.We couldn't fault the speed of the web access swapping from 3G to Wi-Fi is as simple as flicking a switch. Although the phone doesn't automatically sync when Wi-Fi is in range just go into Wireless Controls and tick the relevant boxes to make this so.The same goes for Bluetooth as well. If you don't want to go through the menus, there is a free download from Market to put this option straight on to one of you home screens.And to make things that little bit easier, you can also wade through the options and connect to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.We wish it could be this easy to connect the phone to your PC. Unlike the HTC Magic, there is no software inside the box. Instead the phone asks you to download the software from HTC's website. This kept us waiting and waiting, to no avail. We eventually got the software up and running but it was all a bit of a 'mare.An easier way we found to set the phone up was to go to Data Synchronisation and choose from Google, Exchange ActiveSync or PC ? depending on which data you want to synch with the phone. This seemed to be an easier way to connect your phone up to your computer.An easy way to add music and movies to the phone was, once connected to the PC, choose the Disk Drive option. This gives you free reign to drag and drop files into the phone.The HTC tattoo may not quite hold its own against the likes of the HTC Hero (its screen is to blame for that) and it will never take on the big boys when it comes to media playback, but for sheer functionality and ease of use, the HTC Tattoo is a winner.We liked:Ultimately, if the Android OS is ever going to win mass-market appeal, it is phones like the HTC Tattoo which will make this happen. Packing everything that is good about Android into a lower-cost handset just proves how good Google's operating system is. And HTC has really made its mark re-skinning the OS to make it its own, and once again the HTC Tattoo proves that Sense UI is one of the best things to happen to the mobile market for a long time. We disliked:The screen was lacklustre, with nowhere near the amount of zing that you get when using a capacitive rival. And when it came to the camera capabilities it was just, well, average.It also disappointed when it came to text messaging. It's just not feasible to text quickly when the phone is in Portrait mode. You will need to flip it into landscape and even then the predictive text will try and be evil ? it feels like it works against you, not with you.Verdict:The HTC Tattoo brilliantly showcases just what is great about the Android OS. It is one of the first mid-range phones on the market that you will be able to get free on a contract and not have to pay through the nose for the monthly tariff.Couple this with the fact you can customise the handset (something that is bound to appeal to kids everywhere) and what you have is a nice and stylish device.Also, the phone's great ability to sync with Google apps and Exchange means that it is a great option for business users. The bottom line is: if you are interested in just what Android has to offer at a more than reasonable price bracket, then this is one Tattoo that you will not regret having.Check out the latest HTC Tattoo deals at OmioRelated LinksTechRadar's reviews guaranteeMore mobile phone reviewsCheck out the latest HTC Tattoo deals at OmioRelated StoriesReview: HTC Touch2Review: Palm PreReview: Sony Ericsson SatioReview: Sony Ericsson AinoReview: Sony Ericsson W395

Read more...

Tags: bluetooth dab gps ipod