HTC Tattoo indelibly marks your flesh with cut-price Android goodness

By Flora Graham on 8 September 2009, 11:55am

Despite its open-source origins, phones with the Google Android operating system don't come cheap. Even the proto-droid T-Mobile G1, with its Neanderthal looks, will still fleece you of £27.50 per month on an 18-month contract. HTC hopes to remedy that with the HTC Tattoo.

The Tattoo is an inexpensive phone that still has the Sense user interface we loved on the incredible HTC Hero. We're already Android fans, but Sense adds heaps of good stuff to the basic little green robot package, such as a better on-screen keyboard and the ability to merge your Facebook and Flickr contacts and photo albums with the contacts on your phone -- although we're waiting for HTC to confirm which of the Hero's features will make it to the cut-price Tattoo.

The Tattoo will also have a switchable cover, which is always a fun tweak, and HTC will be offering an online service where Tattoo-ists can make covers from their own images, or choose from a collection of pre-designed covers. HTC tells us turnaround for custom covers will be two weeks, but we're still waiting to hear how much the covers will cost, and the order site isn't up and running yet.

The Tattoo will have a 3.2-megapixel camera -- the same resolution as the HTC Magic. There's also a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can use your own headphones, which the Magic doesn't offer. Unfortunately, it looks like the Tattoo will lack the usual Android trackball -- a nubbin we just love to rub -- and have a four-way navigation pad instead.

There's 7.2Mbps HSDPA on board for fast downloads over 3G, as well as Wi-Fi, and expandable memory thanks to a microSD card slot. GPS and a compass will get you into all those augmented-reality apps, which you can download along with heaps of others from the Android Market. And in a thrilling Android first, it'll have the most underrated feature in showbusiness: an FM radio. Tattoo, we're falling a little bit in love with your reasonably priced body.

The Tattoo will be on our shelves at the beginning of October and we'll let you know prices as soon as we have them.

Update: HTC tells us the Tattoo will cost from free on a £25-per-month, 18-month contract, which we think is pretty freaking great. No word on which networks it'll be available on.

Comments 9

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weetanhops 8 September, 2009 14:02

£25/mo for an Android device is pretty good - but they should try offering it on PAYG to compete with the T-Mobile Pulse, which will be £180.

anonymous 8 September, 2009 15:01

Those features sound like the kind of phone I can get behind. Would like to know a price to outright buy though as I have recently started a new contract and will be stuck with it for some time now.

anonymous 8 September, 2009 17:08

If I stick with my rusty old Samsung G600 on PAYG and keep topping up £10 a month, I'll save £270 over the 18 months of this phone. As much as I'd like an Android phone, I don't know if I could justify that £270.

n47h4n 8 September, 2009 21:22

Good to see Android starting to get rollin' should be seeing some even better apps appearing soon. Today's official Facebook app is a sexy beast.
Being able to create a folder with all your facebook contacts' numbers is just cool.

anonymous 8 September, 2009 21:30

What's the point when you can get a HTC hero for £25 with unlimited text and 200 calls from orange?
Doesn't seem as cheap now.
PAYG or ulocked please.

n47h4n 8 September, 2009 23:03

Might not be so bad, that deal may be for 24month, fewer mins (almost everyone has unltd texts now) and no idea of data allowance for either deal.
Since the hero was originally announced as being on £40/month contracts, being announced as a £25/month shows some promise.

addpaws 15 September, 2009 15:08

Spotted on Vodafone website - see under coming soon part of shop.
No other new details though

Dingledoodie 15 September, 2009 19:19

"What's the point when you can get a HTC hero for £25 with unlimited text and 200 calls from orange?"

I've been with Orange for ten years, and am on a £25 per month contract. I've begged, pleaded and threatened to leave (my contract's up for renewal on the 20th of this month) and they won't let me have a Hero unless I pay them £166. So where you've heard it's free on a £25 contract is beyond me! Looks like the Tattoo might be in my range though. I can hold out to upgreade til mid-October. :oD

anonymous 18 June, 2010 12:47

The first impression of this mobile was "great". The design is pretty good. The camera clarity is good. The feature like GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. Runs on. The this that i dont love is that screen is small and has a low resolution, no support for US 3G bands. for more detail refer: gsmcellulars.com/htc-tattoo-review.html