An absolute master blaster

The new HTC Tattoo is pure pleasure to play with. Its

2.8-inch resistive touchscreen responds to the slightest touch and the

proprietary HTC 'Sense' interface is as slick as ever. The seven homescreens are

completely customizable.

Below the screen are a bunch of keys; the Home, Menu and

Call buttons on the left with the Back, Quick Search and Power/Call disconnect

button on the right. There is a volume rocker on the left side, mini-USB port on

the lower edge and a 3.5mm audio out on the top. Opening the backpanel requires

a lot of hardwork as it refuses to budge easily. However, once you manage to do

that you see the 1100mAh Lithium-ion battery powering the device. The SIM is

inserted below the battery and the micro-SD slot is hot-swappable.

The User Interface is good in terms of the multiple

features that it has on offer. Possibly one of the best features of HTC Tattoo

is its customization options where every screen can have many different widgets.

An interesting app, the Quick Search Box, helps you to quickly search through

data and applications on the device.

The device is for those who believes in staying connected.

Tattoo provides the best of options to integrate as many social media apps as

possible. So, it has the Twitters, Facebooks and Flickrs of the world in place.

Integrating e-mail accounts is a breeze and the internet browser is quite fast

and accessing the internet is quite smooth too.

The 3.2MP camera clicks good pictures at a maximum

resolution of 2048x1536 pixels. However, the lack of flash or autofocus does

make taking shots in the dark a bit difficult. Videos can be taken at a maximum

resolution of 352x288 pixels. Calling and receiving calls is pretty easy and the

voice quality is good as well.

The only downside is that the battery life falls short of

the capabilities that this device offers. The 1100mAh battery just manages to

scrape through an entire day with some calls, music and some internet surfing.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is another option at around the

same price and has similar features. However, the draw of a fully-featured

Android mobile phone with GPS and Wi-Fi at this price has to be mentioned. You

can also consider the new Samsung Galaxy Spica; an Android phone which retails

for about the same price as the Tattoo.