HTC Tattoo

In a world where every new smartphone released seems to have an astronomical price tag attached to it, the HTC Tattoo represents a welcome change. It’s the cheapest Android phone we’ve come across to date, costing a reasonable £225 exc VAT SIM free and, as a result, it’s available on some pretty tasty tariffs.

You do have to give up some luxuries, and the biggest sacrifice is the screen. The Tattoo’s screen is small at 2.8in, and has a lowly resolution of 240 x 320 – in use, it feels much more cramped than theiPhone or HTC Hero. Perhaps a greater imposition, however, is that the touch technology used is resistive rather than capacitive, meaning you have to physically press the screen to activate links and buttons.

Other cutbacks include a poor fixed-focus 3.2-megapixel camera with no flash, and no multitouch support. Performance, meanwhile, is a little on the sluggish side, with list animations and web-page panning stuttering, and the BBC homepage loading in a slow 26 seconds on average.

But despite what you may think, this is no barebones smartphone. Core communications are up to snuff, with Wi-Fi, HSDPA and Bluetooth all present. You get not only GPS for location-based services, but also a digital compass – great for getting your bearings when on foot.

The Tattoo also comes complete with all the same Android tweaks we like in the HTC Hero – and these make it very easy to use. HTC’s People app pulls communications and contacts from Gmail and social networking sites such as Facebook together in one tidy interface. There’s the added attraction of the excellent Android Market too, with thousands of useful free apps to download.

Despite the size of the screen, typing isn’t too bad either, with traditional numeric, compact Qwerty and full Qwerty options to choose from. It can’t match the iPhone or the T-Mobile Pulse’s keyboard, but tapping out short emails and texts in landscape mode isn’t too frustrating.

Add decent battery life – the Tattoo is firmly above average with 60% remaining at the end of our 24-hour torture test – and a neat, pocketable chassis, and you have one of the best value phones on the market right now. If you’re looking for a bargain-basement handset, it’s hard to beat.

Author: Jonathan Bray