Here it is, the HTC Tattoo, the latest phone from the Taiwanese company to run the Google Android operating system, and will be its second phone to use the HTC Sense user interface. HTC Sense, which was first seen in the soon-to-be-released Hero, allows you to easily pull up for each person in your address book all email messages, Tweets, Facebook, calls, voice messages and more.
What’s very new in the Tattoo, and the feature for which it is named, is that you can design your own personal skin for the phone – you can see a couple of examples in the photos accompanying this article. It could be a design or logo, or just a particular colour you like. Being a skin, you don’t have to stick with the one, you can change them as the mood suits. You can also in a way skin the screens of the phone, with a feature called Scenes allowing you to create and save different screen arrangements.
Specifications
Here are the specs as published on the HTC website – note that they may vary according to country or carrier.
- Processor: Qualcomm MSM7225, 528 MHz
- Platform: Android
- Memory ROM: 512 MB. RAM: 256 MB
- Dimensions: 106 x 55.2 x 14 mm (L x W x T)
- Weight: 113 grams with battery
- Display: 2.8-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 240×320 QVGA resolution
- Network: HSPA/WCDMA: Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds. Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- Device control: 4-Way navigation control with Enter button
- GPS: Internal GPS antenna
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets; Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g; HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB 2.0); 3.5 mm audio jack
- Camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera
- Audio supported formats: MP3, AAC(AAC, AAC+, AAC-LC), AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and Windows Media Audio 9
- Video supported formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and Windows Media Video 9
- Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
- Capacity: 1100 mAh
- Talk time: Up to 342 minutes for WCDMA; Up to 390 minutes for GSM
- Standby time: Up to 520 hours for WCDMA; Up to 340 hours for GSM
- Expansion slot: microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
- Special features G-sensor, digital compass, FM radio
Price and availability
All these details are very fresh, the wraps only came off the Tattoo this evening, so of course there is as yet no price or carrier details. On the topic of availability, HTC say this:
“The HTC Tattoo will be available in Europe first at the beginning of October, and will roll out in markets around the world in the following months.”
We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, check out the Tattoo photo gallery on the next page…
