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HTC Tattoo Android Mobile
Remember the good old days when Nokia had mobile handsets which we could customize by changing the outer panels? Well that fashion has been revived with handsets like the Corby but more so with this, the HTC Tattoo whose outer shell is completely bland as is but allows for personalization via a website i.e. http://www.garskin.com/htc/. This is the cheapest Android handset on Indian shelves right now. Here’s what my experience with the Tattoo was like.
Form Factor
The Tattoo is a small and very neatly designed handset that’s light weight and easy to use. Its 2.8-inch touchscreen display supports a 240 x 320 pixel resolution and features an accelerometer for screen rotation. HTC’s button systems are convenient and comfortable to use and the round five-way nav-pad gives the overall design a slightly elegant look. It has an HTC styled mini USB port at the bottom and a standard 3.5mm handsfree port located on the top with volume/zoom keys on one side. The 3 megapixel camera is at the back.
The handset has been designed with easy to remove panels so you can design, select from pre-designed options and order as many as you like for $25 from Garskin. They’ll deliver it straight to your door in about 7-10 working days. The overall design is quite appealing.
Features and Performance
Interface
Loaded with Android v1.6 and HTC’s Sense UI, the Tattoo uses its 528 MHz processor to the fullest. It’s not the speediest handset, I have to admit, but it’s far from sluggish. Sense UI allows for quite a lot of customization thanks to the very useful widgets and shortcuts that can be placed across the six desktops. The Android Market enables you to download a whole lot of free content from games to social networking applications etc. It’ll take you no more than a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the UI and the handset's functionality. While the portrait QWERTY keypad is a little too cramped and I found it a little difficult to use, in landscape mode it’s much easier to use.
Media
I’ve always been a fan of the Android music player. It has plenty of basic features like creating a playlist or sorting fields according to Genre or Artist and Album. What HTC has yet to incorporate in an otherwise very customizable OS are EQ presets. It doesn’t necessarily need it as the tones are well balanced, but for those who prefer a little more bass or a little more vocals for Audiobooks, there’s no way to make any adjustments. Thanks to the 3.5mm handsfree port, you can opt to use your own earphones but the bundled set is all you’ll need.
The device reads your basic MPEG4 and 3GP file formats including iPhone and iPod friendly MPEG4 videos. Even with the slightly low end (considering the price) display videos are very comfortable to watch.
HTC has also included an FM radio with the Tattoo which works out quite well. It took just a few seconds to scan and save all nine channels and reception was pretty good in most areas. There’s also a voice recorder available and the range on the microphone isn’t bad at all.
Connectivity
From 3G connectivity with HSDPA speeds up to 7.2Mbps to basic EDGE and GPRS connectivity, the Tattoo is well equipped. Setting up IMAP and POP email accounts is extremely easy as the host of Google Apps like Google Talk, Gmail for mobile and of course Google Maps and Search makes sure you get that it’s a Google oriented handset. It also offers a Twitter widget and a Facebook application that tightly integrates with your contacts list making it very easy to get all information associated with a contact on the site as well as their numbers stored in your email. The same also holds true for the contacts stored in your Gtalk list. The browser is still one of the best out there at the moment and makes it very easy to open multiple pages or zoom into specific areas. It restructures the pages very well for optimized viewing and reading.
The GPS functionality of the handset also turned out to be really good. It took a couple of minutes locating available satellite data for the GPS and it seemed to be a lot speedier for geotagging. The Footprints app is very handy as well and also has its very own widget. A YouTube application is also preloaded for those who love watching streaming videos. AccuWeather has also included their handy widget and app for the Tattoo.
Misc. Features
Other standard mobile features include an Alarm Clock, Calculator, Calendar app for schedules and appointments etc. It’s a very simplistic handset in this aspect and comes with only the essentials.
Camera
The 3 megapixel camera is one of the minor issues I had with the handset since it’s not an auto-focus lens. It has quite a few relevant but basic features and the quality is not too bad either. Images appear crisp but a little bit dull. However as fixed focus 3MP cameras go, the Tattoo does manage quite well. Low light images on the other hand didn't really come out too great.
Battery
The Tattoo is capable of providing you with a pretty decent battery life all things considered. I very easily got a full two days of usage with messages, emails and a little music thrown in between calls. You can’t expect more than a day and a half if you’re always connected for downloading emails or auto updating Facebook and Twitter as prolonged usage tends to drain the battery obviously. However talk-time on its own came in at over 4 hours and 10 minutes easily.
The Bottom Line
The HTC Tattoo comes with a price tag of Rs. 18,400 (MOP) for residents of Maharashtra and MP and 16,990 (MOP) for the rest of the country. That’s not a bad price as the handset has quite a lot to offer from multimedia to social networking and other connectivity. The only problem is, if you wish to customize the panels you’ll have to order them from Garskin and it’ll set you back about Rs. 1,150 which isn’t too steep but considering this is the gimmick the handset is marketed with, I hoped HTC would include at least a free coupon for one free skin. Nevertheless, the Tattoo is definitely one of the better Android handsets from price to functionality.
Form Factor
The Tattoo is a small and very neatly designed handset that’s light weight and easy to use. Its 2.8-inch touchscreen display supports a 240 x 320 pixel resolution and features an accelerometer for screen rotation. HTC’s button systems are convenient and comfortable to use and the round five-way nav-pad gives the overall design a slightly elegant look. It has an HTC styled mini USB port at the bottom and a standard 3.5mm handsfree port located on the top with volume/zoom keys on one side. The 3 megapixel camera is at the back.
The handset has been designed with easy to remove panels so you can design, select from pre-designed options and order as many as you like for $25 from Garskin. They’ll deliver it straight to your door in about 7-10 working days. The overall design is quite appealing.
Features and Performance
Interface
Loaded with Android v1.6 and HTC’s Sense UI, the Tattoo uses its 528 MHz processor to the fullest. It’s not the speediest handset, I have to admit, but it’s far from sluggish. Sense UI allows for quite a lot of customization thanks to the very useful widgets and shortcuts that can be placed across the six desktops. The Android Market enables you to download a whole lot of free content from games to social networking applications etc. It’ll take you no more than a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the UI and the handset's functionality. While the portrait QWERTY keypad is a little too cramped and I found it a little difficult to use, in landscape mode it’s much easier to use.
Media
I’ve always been a fan of the Android music player. It has plenty of basic features like creating a playlist or sorting fields according to Genre or Artist and Album. What HTC has yet to incorporate in an otherwise very customizable OS are EQ presets. It doesn’t necessarily need it as the tones are well balanced, but for those who prefer a little more bass or a little more vocals for Audiobooks, there’s no way to make any adjustments. Thanks to the 3.5mm handsfree port, you can opt to use your own earphones but the bundled set is all you’ll need.
The device reads your basic MPEG4 and 3GP file formats including iPhone and iPod friendly MPEG4 videos. Even with the slightly low end (considering the price) display videos are very comfortable to watch.
HTC has also included an FM radio with the Tattoo which works out quite well. It took just a few seconds to scan and save all nine channels and reception was pretty good in most areas. There’s also a voice recorder available and the range on the microphone isn’t bad at all.
Connectivity
From 3G connectivity with HSDPA speeds up to 7.2Mbps to basic EDGE and GPRS connectivity, the Tattoo is well equipped. Setting up IMAP and POP email accounts is extremely easy as the host of Google Apps like Google Talk, Gmail for mobile and of course Google Maps and Search makes sure you get that it’s a Google oriented handset. It also offers a Twitter widget and a Facebook application that tightly integrates with your contacts list making it very easy to get all information associated with a contact on the site as well as their numbers stored in your email. The same also holds true for the contacts stored in your Gtalk list. The browser is still one of the best out there at the moment and makes it very easy to open multiple pages or zoom into specific areas. It restructures the pages very well for optimized viewing and reading.
The GPS functionality of the handset also turned out to be really good. It took a couple of minutes locating available satellite data for the GPS and it seemed to be a lot speedier for geotagging. The Footprints app is very handy as well and also has its very own widget. A YouTube application is also preloaded for those who love watching streaming videos. AccuWeather has also included their handy widget and app for the Tattoo.
Misc. Features
Other standard mobile features include an Alarm Clock, Calculator, Calendar app for schedules and appointments etc. It’s a very simplistic handset in this aspect and comes with only the essentials.
Camera
The 3 megapixel camera is one of the minor issues I had with the handset since it’s not an auto-focus lens. It has quite a few relevant but basic features and the quality is not too bad either. Images appear crisp but a little bit dull. However as fixed focus 3MP cameras go, the Tattoo does manage quite well. Low light images on the other hand didn't really come out too great.
Battery
The Tattoo is capable of providing you with a pretty decent battery life all things considered. I very easily got a full two days of usage with messages, emails and a little music thrown in between calls. You can’t expect more than a day and a half if you’re always connected for downloading emails or auto updating Facebook and Twitter as prolonged usage tends to drain the battery obviously. However talk-time on its own came in at over 4 hours and 10 minutes easily.
The Bottom Line
The HTC Tattoo comes with a price tag of Rs. 18,400 (MOP) for residents of Maharashtra and MP and 16,990 (MOP) for the rest of the country. That’s not a bad price as the handset has quite a lot to offer from multimedia to social networking and other connectivity. The only problem is, if you wish to customize the panels you’ll have to order them from Garskin and it’ll set you back about Rs. 1,150 which isn’t too steep but considering this is the gimmick the handset is marketed with, I hoped HTC would include at least a free coupon for one free skin. Nevertheless, the Tattoo is definitely one of the better Android handsets from price to functionality.