Go To Latest Video ReviewsHTC Announces Mainstream Android Smartphone
| Author | Gordon Kelly |
| Published | 8th Sep 2009 |
14 comments
Email
TrustedReviews NewslettersIs your wallet feeling a little thin? Do you hanker over an Android smartphone? Then HTC has the answer for you... maybe.
The Taiwanese monolith has today announced the 'Tattoo', a midrange Android handset which incorporates the company's much lauded HTC Sense custom UI first seen on the Hero.
Specs are reasonably decent too with a 2.8in QVGA (320 x 240) capacitive touchscreen, 3.2MP autofocus camera, HSDPA, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, a 3.5mm headphone jack (learning, learning), 512MB ROM, 256MB RAM and a microSDHC expansion slot. A digital compass and accelerometer also make it inside while it's pocket friendly at 106 x 55.2 x 14mm and 113g. Where the Tattoo may suffer is in its 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 CPU. This is the same processor as used inside the Hero and if we have a criticism of the Hero it is that it can rather chug along.
Still it all sounds pretty good, so what is the 'maybe'? In fairness it is more of a pet peeve than deal breaker, since HTC promotes the Tattoo as "Android to all", but doesn't give any indication of price. Yes, we've seen this before with 'World's Lightest/Thinnest/Cheapest/Fastest' products which give no hint of their weight/measurements/cost/speed it's just annoying.
That said, with an October launch on the cards we won't have to wait long and given the roll HTC has been on recently I suspect both subsidised and unsubsidised Tattoo pricing will bring a smile to our faces...
Update: HTC has confirmed the 2.8in screen in the Tattoo will be resistive because, according to a company tweet, "Capacitive screens at small sizes are hard to be accurate with. Resistive ends up registering fewer miss-clicks."
What complete nonsense. It's a cost saving exercise, plain and simple and HTC you just fell at the last hurdle. Daft move.
Link:
Press Release
Related Articles
Newsletters
Register to receive the latest Reviews and News Headlines directly to your Inbox every day, and enter our regular competitions. More Info.
Latest 4 of 14 Comments
Have your say: Leave a comment below about this article.
ravmania said on 8th September 2009
sockatume said on 8th September 2009
The update I was referring to just went live today, although it was leaked previously and could be installed on rooted Heros. I've only read reports on the general UI choppiness be... more
Bluepork said on 9th September 2009
Rob, Nuxxy,
Completely agree! I would have already bought a Hero, were it not for the rate at which new Android phones are coming to the market at the moment. I have... more
Chris said on 9th September 2009
Apparently HTC have confirmed that this thing's touchscreen is now going resistive, apparently to 'improve accuracy' on the smaller screen. Shame, it was looking so good to me...
See all 14 comments on this article.
Add your comment
You must be logged in to comment. Login or register here.
Have a look on Modaco. The new ROM apparently works wonders. My Hero is running just fine so I'm waiting for the official release.
@Gordon
A 3G like experien... more