HTC were kind enough to loan me their newest model, the Tattoo, the other day – and very nice it was too!
Like has been the case recently a few times, I am talking a look at the final “release candidate” – for those of your unfamiliar with the handset development process, there are typically a small series of ‘release candidate’ handsets, which are taken out for field testing, used as demo handsets etc – in other words, they are very close to the retail-quality device. My unit felt so polished, I’m pretty sure it was good to go in to shops!
Read on to see what I made of the device….
Form factor
Nothing to do with the American series ‘Fear Factor’, or the UK series ‘X Factor’ – by this I am referring to the shape and design of the hardware! One thing that is noticeably different from the Hero (the Tattoo’s bigger brother) is the lack of ‘chin’ (the Hero had a pronounced bend in it, not unlike a chin). Also new is the use of the ‘joypad’ rather than the ‘trackball’ that the Hero offered. Whilst the joypad can only offer digital (0 or 1), it doesn’t impinge on the use of it at all – and the nice big action button in the centre definitely went down well!
Display
Two things to say here: first of all, the display is very nice and clear – the Sense-designed UI needs a decent screen to show it off properly, and the Tattoo doesn’t disappoint. We are talking about a QVGA display here, coming in at 2.8 inches – so relatively compact – but then so is the rest of the handset. The other thing to say is it’s a resistive screen – now, I don’t like resistive screens, but, I know a lot of people that do – so I think it’s one of things where you need to be aware of it, but it doesn’t necessarily add or detract from the handset itself.
Other hardware features
So what else is there to say about the Tattoo hardware? Well, plenty. First of all, there’s the headphone jack – and praise be, it’s 3.5mm, located squarely on top of the device:
At the other end, things aren’t so standard – the proprietary HTC connector (their version of USB) still is appearing on devices – the sooner this does fold in to standardised Mini- or Micro-USB, the better:
On the back of the device, there’s a cover (surprisingly enough), which hides both the SIM slot, and a really rather long battery! There’s also a MicroSD slot for those of you that are expandable memory fans! A further note about the cover itself – whilst the default cover has the Android robot poking out, you can actually get new covers via a customisation service that HTC are running – check that out here.
Overall, this does feel a very well put-together device – showing HTCs maturity now in bringing devices to market that challenge the quality that the likes of Apple brings to the table. The Tattoo fits neatly in the mid-range of Smartphone devices, and I think will do good trade quietly. It’s not a showstopper, but then it was never designed to be – however, it’s got enough in the way of design kudos, and a good O/S inside, to ensure it’s longevity.