HTC Tattoo Review

Available from Clove for £287.50

Main features-

Android operating system
HTC Sense UI
Fast and efficient 528MHz Qualcomm processor
2.8″ touch screen display
HSDPA wireless connectivity
Quad band connectivity for cross continent communication
Bluetooth
WiFi
GPS receiver for street level navigation
Audio jack for connecting headphones
MicroSDHC memory card slot

In the box-

HTC Tattoo
Battery
USB Cable
UK AC Adapter
2GB microSD Card
Headset
Documentation

This will not be a long review of the HTC Tattoo because I recently covered the HTC Hero which is running the same Android OS, but which has some features that are upgraded over the Tattoo. The Hero is £75 more expensive than the Tattoo and so we need to look at the differences to understand if the price differential is justified and how well the Tattoo serves its intended market.

If we were to look at the two devices purely on specification, things like the screen resolution, memory, camera, battery and connection speeds would be the most noticeable, but in my view we are past the days of simply reviewing smartphones based on numbers and should be looking more at the user experience. I intend from now on to review smartphones based on how they feel and what they bring to the user rather than simply going through a long list of features and commenting on each one. Features are of course important, but nothing is as important as how well all of the parts of a smartphone are put together and how good a user experience they ultimately provide.

There is little to talk about regarding the box contents. It is the usual HTC setup which gives you everything you need and which all does the job well. Moving on…

First impressions are much, much better than I expected. The metal feel to the casing adds reassurance to the experience and strangely it feels more expensive than the Hero. It has a solid feel which takes me back to the days when most PDAs were made of metal and this is good to see. Of course the new breed of smartphone user would have been too cool, or too young, to have played with these earlier PDAs and they will just appreciate the build quality for what it is. The Tattoo is without doubt cool and will appeal to the younger market which is obviously the intention of HTC. The word Tattoo is young, rebellious and hip; at least that is what I guess the marketing people used as reasons to name it over brunch.

On the subject of marketing people, here is an irrelevant joke- Why don’t marketing people stare out the window in the morning? Because they would have nothing to do in the afternoon.

Anyway, the marketing of the Tattoo is clever despite my cynicism and the ability to tattoo your Tattoo is a master stroke. HTC has taken the old Nokia philosophy of offering cheap and nasty mobile phone coverings (which was a HUGE success by the way) and given the customer the ability to produce their own unique designs or to choose from a varied selection of colourful and attractive front and back covers. As style becomes more important in the smartphone world, this idea nails the need for individualism perfectly and at a very good price. I suspect that a good percentage of Tattoo users will gladly pay an extra £12 to make the phone unique to them.
So, the Tattoo will appeal to the younger crowd, and I mean people who may be buying their first mobile phone, but I suspect it will appeal to those older folk who are looking for something different. My wife, 37 years old, is looking to replace her close to dead HTC Touch Cruise and for the past three hours has been fondling the Tattoo like I have not seen her fondle anything in ages. She loves it- the way her Facebook friends are automatically imported into contacts, the way her Gmail account looks so similar to how it does on her laptop and seemingly everything else from the interface to the hardware design.

She is not the one writing this review, but she is indeed the type of person HTC would be happy to add to its user base and this bodes very well for the Tattoo. Clove kindly sent me five phones to play with while I recuperate from my operation last week and the Tattoo has won my wife over to a much higher level than any of the others. She spent some time with the Hero and proclaimed it “cheap and flimsy.” I scoffed at her ignorance of course because the Hero is stunning in almost every respect, but I can sort of see her point. The Tattoo feels great in the hand and is a much more pleasant experience textually than the Hero ever will be. In fact it is one of the nicest phones I have held in a long, long time.

The 3.2 Mega Pixel camera is good for outdoor shots and the video capture is passable. The  2.8” screen may sound small, but it seems not to matter on the Tattoo. In fact, the less than stunning specs in certain areas do not seem to matter much at all. The Tattoo is very well specified overall and is capable of being your GPS device, day to day camera, organiser, entertainer and so much more every single day, and the lack of top of the range specifications makes almost no difference. In a straight fight with the Hero, the Hero will of course win because it has a better camera, better and bigger screen, bigger battery and a few other advantages, but ask me which one I prefer and the Tattoo is the winner.

It has a charm which appeals to the young side of me, but which also appeals to my need to get things done throughout a busy day. For the price it is great value and it is just so likeable. As I said at the start the specifications are important, but a good smartphone will make the user want to use it and the Tattoo is one of the few phones that makes me want to pick it up when I don’t need to. I seriously like this phone, almost as much as my wife does!