Android phones are everywhere these days but HTC has been a frontrunner in the market. But the Tattoo is nothing like HTC's high-spec Hero phone: it's a small, light device perfect for messaging, internet and social networking. But the camera is the usual average Android fare – when will they get better?

 

Touch-screen on the HTC Tattoo

The HTC Tattoo isn't a cheap phone, with a SIM-free price of £333, but its plastic appearance hides its price tag. The Android logo is on the back of the cover, but there is a choice of funkier alternatives.

The screen is just 2.8 inches and feels small. On top of that it's a low-resolution 240x320 pixels, and icons and images end up pixelated. The pressure-sensitive touch-screen is responsive and accurate, but it's nothing compared to the capacative touch-screens seen on other HTC Android phones. The difference is obvious: you need to press harder to get a reaction, making typing slower, and you need to drag your fingers across the screen to scroll, rather than the gentle swipe you get on a capacitive screen.

 

User interface on the HTC Tattoo

We're pleased to see the return of HTC's Sense user interface, which is as powerful as we've come to expect. There are seven home screens, which you can cutomise with a variety of widgets and shortcuts. You can also save specific sets of shortcuts as 'Scenes' on your phone. This is handy for those who want to separate business and personal programmes.

When you start up, you get asked to sync up your Facebook and Flick contacts with your phone contacts. Linking up your Microsoft Outlook contact and calendar is a breeze using HTC Sync. After that, you get over-the-air syncing with Google Mail and calendar. We had nothing left to sync after that lot – all our contacts and social lives were on the Tattoo.

 

Internet on the HTC Tattoo

The HTC Tattoo has a full HTML flash-enabled internet browser which loads both mobile-optimised and regular pages in between five and eight seconds – a mid-range speed for a mid-range handset. Happily, even the sites that haven't been optimised for mobile look good, the same as they would on a desktop computer, even interactive content. Pictures load as quickly as the pages, even if the display quality is hampered by the low-res screen.

Double clicking on the screen takes you between full screen view and extreme close-up. For smaller zoom increments, there's an on-screen button. The resistive touch-screen is remarkable accurate when browsing, even the smallest links were easily clickable. You don't get tabbed browsing, but you can open lots of windows and view them all in a scrollable carousel.

Email and GPS on the HTC Tattoo

The Tattoo offers a great email experience. Push support is available for Microsoft Exchange, Hotmail and Gmail accounts – and you can set up other webmail accounts -  meaning you get your emails straight away.

The onscreen keyboard is surprisingly good for typing on largely thanks to it's excellent auto-suggest system, that corrects even the work typing accidents. Keep the Tattoo in portrait position and you get quite a small keyboard. Swivel the screen round to landscape view, though, and the on-screen keyboard feels as comfortable, if not more so, as larger phones.

The surprising letdown on this device is GPS. It took us 10 seconds to get a precise fix – albeit in Central London, where it's notoriously difficult to get a quick fix. Google Maps (with Street View) is preloaded on the phone, and routing keeps up well, but it can get a bit jerky.

 

Camera on the HTC Tattoo

The HTC Tattoo has a three-megapixel camera with autofocus, which is a good spec for a mid-range phone. Taken in good light conditions, your photos come out with warm, intense colours, but make sure you keep your hand steady when taking your shot. This is even more apparent with action shots – we took a picture of someone waving and their arm was so blurry on the photo we could barely make it out.

About a dozen Android phones have been released now, and not of them has more than a mediocre camera, largely because none of them have flash. You can adjust white balance and brightness on the Tattoo, but low-light shots are a waste of time regardless.

You can upload your photos directly to Facebook and Flickr, which makes life easy, although we would have liked there to be Twitter function too.

The verdict on the HTC Tattoo

HTC's Sense user interface and Google Android makes a combination that's going to be good whatever the rest of a phone's features. Facebook and Flicker integration on top means that you can put your whole life on the Tattoo. The build quality could be better, but in terms of features, the Tattoo can compete with the big boys.