HTC Tattoo review

The HTC Tattoo is a cute little Android phone that’s available free on contract for £20 a month. Despite its budget price, it has all the features you’d expect on a smartphone, including GPS, FM Radio, Bluetooth and WiFi.

It may not be as sleek as HTC’s other Android phones, but the Tattoo’s curved chin and large, round central button give it character. All the controls are located on the phone’s chin, with only a volume rocker on the side. A 3.5mm headphone socket is located on the top edge, while a mini-USB port, for charging and data transfer, is on the bottom.

The Tattoo’s 2.8in screen is a bit cramped, and the resolution of 240×320 isn’t very high, so the graphics look a bit pixelated. That said, the screen is clear and text is readable. The screen uses a resistive touch interface, but it’s sensitive enough and overall we found the Tattoo very responsive. Battery life is better than average, but you’ll still need to charge regularly if you use WiFi and 3G data a lot.

HTC has opted for the older 1.6 version of Android, so the Tattoo doesn’t have support for multiple Google or Exchange accounts. It does, however, have HTC’s Sense software, that adds some decent interface tweaks and apps. The People app is the highlight, with its ability to merge contact details from multiple accounts, and display all details for each contact in one window.

The Albums app can import photos from Facebook and Flickr, but strangely not from Google’s Picasa. Photos taken on the Tattoo’s 3.2-megapixel camera are surprisingly colourful, although they show lots of noise in dark areas and aren’t up to the standard of shots taken on a compact digital camera.

With a fast enough processor and a responsive touch screen, the Tattoo is easy to use, and HTC’s Sense software does much to make up for the older version of Android. You may find some newer apps won’t work on the Tattoo, but for £20 a month it’s great value. However, Samsung’s Galaxy Portal is available on contract for the same price, has Android 2.1 and a much larger AMOLED screen.