The HTC Amaze 4G’s ClearShot HDR see crystal clear detail even, while shooting in direct or mixed light and PerfectPics scores and analyzes your images then combines the best ones for easy sharing. The Amaze 4G was revealed in United States by T-Mobile in 2011 in the month of October by HTC Corporation. It was just four months ago that HTC and T-Mobile revealed the MyTouch 4G Slide, touting the Android smartphone as featuring the most sophisticated camera. Now, the company introduces the all new Amaze 4G boasts Gingerbread operating system, dual core processor, impressive data speeds and gorgeous Super LCD touchscreen. It is one of the best Android smartphones of T-Mobile, but comes at a cost. The Amaze 4G is available for the price of $259.99 with $50 mail in rebate and two-year agreement.

The HTC Amaze 4G is a solid chunk of hardware weighing 6.1 ounces and measuring 0.46 inch thick, 5.12 inches high and 2.58 inches wide. It is one of the better smartphones with soft touch finishes and metal construction, making it a sturdy handset. Its 4.3 inch qHD Super LCD touchscreen display boasts 960 x 540 pixel resolution with sharp and crisp images and text. The large size of the screen makes it great for video and Web pages. However, there are quite a lot of other handsets in the market that offers Super AMOLED Plus screen displaying slightly better contrast and more saturated colors – Samsung Galaxy S II. The touchscreen is quite responsive and gets built in accelerometer, proximity sensor and pinch to zoom support. The virtual keyboard also provides Swype like functionality, which means you can drag your finger from key to key for faster input.

Underneath the HTC Amaze 4G’s display, you will find four typical Android buttons for search, home, back and menu functions. The micro USB port is situated on the left hand side of the device, while the power/lock button on the top. The dedicated video, volume rocker and camera button is located on the right hand side of smartphone, and you can also launch the camera right from the lock screen by either doing long press on camera button or dragging camera shortcut to center ring. The eight-megapixel camera with dual LED flash is at the back with 2-megapixel front facing camera above display on the upper right. The Amaze 4G comes packed with AC adapter, reference material and USB cable.

The HTC Amaze 4G features an Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread operating system wit HTC Sense 3.0 user interface. This user interface was originally found on Sensation 4G model of the company and provides plenty of enhancements. Apart from time, date and other important statistics, the Amaze offers shortcuts to four different applications such as messages, phone, camera and mail. For opening a specific application, you just have to drag the icon to ring at the bottom of display, rather than having to unlock the device first. It allows you to customize the display with weather, image gallery, favourite stocks and friend stream. The pull down notification tray features second tab known as Quick Settings, where you can control the wireless connections and access plenty of settings. The mail widget and applications now provides a preview of each message, while the image widget gallery gets flip board effect.

The HTC Amaze 4G offers an eight-megapixel camera with plenty of settings, including new shooting mode known as SmartShot that capture series of images and fuses elements for creating a perfect image. Apart from these capabilities, it continues to provide backside illuminated sensor for superior low light performance, Burst Shooting, ClearShot HDR and SweepShot Panorama modes; all of which were originally found on MyTouch 4G Slide. The images come out looking good with bright colors and impressive details. The SweepShot and ClearShot HDR modes work well. The video quality is on the par with high end smartphones providing great quality in outdoor.

With HTC Amaze 4G, you can share your images and videos through plenty of channels such as email, Flickr, Facebook, Picasa and YouTube. You can mirror the content through DLNA or HDMI MHL adapter. It is basically a quadband world smartphone that comes with multimedia and text messages, speakerphone, video calling via Qik, conference calling and voice dialing. Like Samsung Galaxy S II, it is compatible with faster HSDPA + 42 network of T-Mobile providing download speeds of 42Mbps. At present, this particular network is offered in over 150 markets including San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The HTC Amaze 4G comes with built in Wi-Fi along with plethora of tools and applications such as Polaris Office Suite, TeleNav Navigator, flashlight, T-Mobile TV HD, FM radio and HTC Watch. Standard features on Amaze 4G include 2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900; 3G Network: HSDPA 1700 / 2100; 4.3 inches Super LCD capacitive touchscreen with 16 million colors and 540 x 960 pixel resolution; Multi touch input method; Proximity sensor for auto turn-off; Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate; Touch-sensitive controls; HTC Sense v3.0 UI; SRS sound enhancement; Practically unlimited entries and fields.

The HTC Amaze 4G also features 16GB storage, 1 GB RAM; microSD, up to 32GB; HSDPA speeds up to 42 Mbps; Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot; Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and EDR; 8-megapixel camera with autofocus, 3264 x 2448 pixels, dual LED flash, touch-focus, Geotagging, SmartShot, face detection, SweepShot, BurstShot and ClearShot modes; Android OS, v2.3.4 (Gingerbread) operating system; 1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 chipset; SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM; Stereo FM radio with RDS; GPS with A-GPS support; NFC support; Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic and TV-out.

Also standard on HTC Amaze 4G are Digital compass; Google services: Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration; SNS integration; MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player; MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA player; Document viewer; Organizer; Predictive text input; Voice memo/dial/commands; Multiple numbers per contact, Caller groups, Picture ID, Search by both first and last name and Ring ID; Calendar; Alarms; calculator; Friend Stream; SRS virtual surround sound wired for headphones; Digital compass and Dual microphones. The estimated battery life of Amaze is 16 days in standby mode and 6 hours in talktime mode. Overall, it is one of the fast, powerful and best Android handsets that shows great potential in terms of what smartphones cameras can do.

Phone with 3D credentials is not something that we haven’t seen in the recent market, but the HTC Evo 3D is no ordinary phone with 3D capabilities, it takes its 3D credentials to its dept and offers spec free 3D experience on a smartphone.

HTC Evo 3D offers some really interesting and impressive 3D camera credentials, and in addition it offers a lot of modern features such as dual 5 megapixel sensor, which allows the user to create their own glass free 3D content, a feature which further is strengthened by 720p HD video recording capabilities @ 30frames per second.

Operating System:

The HTC Evo 3D will run on the all new Android Gingerbread 2.3.4 update, which was launched in May and comes loaded with video chat potential and certain safety patches. Some other specs for the handset include powerful 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor and memory of 1GB. This makes it a tad powerful than the HTC Sensation on papers.

Controls:

Unlike the LG Optimus 3D, the HTC Evo 3D doesn’t have a 3D menu for the users to scroll through, the only 3D goodness that the handset has is in the camera only. The phone allows you to shoot your pics in 3D using two camera lenses given on the rear end of the phone and these lenses are also capable of shooting normal 2D 5MP images. The Smartphone makes use of both the lenses for capturing 3D video and it plays 2D  movies in 720p. If you want to switch from 2D to 3D, you will only have to use the switch given on top of the camera.

The phone has a totally dissimilar feel, a tad different from the aluminum unibody, the HTC Evo 3D has a rubberized rear end that gives a rugged feel and the design of the camera and hard buttons gives it a somewhat retro look.

Features:

The HTC Evo 3D comes with a 1.3 Megapixel camera on the front and also has a hot-swappable SD card given for all your content. The phone comes with a video trimmer onboard, which initially unveiled on the HTC Sensation to give the users instant video editing on the move.
As for now, it all sounds pretty decent, but the real appeal of the HTC Evo 3D lies in viewing 3D without glasses, and that’s what makes us anticipate the forthcoming handset of HTC.  The Evo 3D arranges your pics in order they were shot in gallery, which makes it easy for you to see your 2D from your 3D. You easily could save a copy of a 3D pic of movie in 2D for sharing.

Screen:

As far as screen is concerned, the HTC Evo 3D has the exact same screen that we saw in HTC Sensation smartphone. There also is a 4.3 in touchscreen having a 540 x 960 qHD resolution. We liked the resolution of the phone and hence we expect nice things from the Evo 3D.

Battery:

HTC promises a potent battery with the HTC Evo 3D, but at the same time advises to use the 3D of the phone only when it’s incredible necessary. In simple terms, using 3D of the phone will suck up the battery even quickly.

Verdict:

The HTC Evo 3D seems a pretty decent 3D handset for modern users, and if you are looking for one, then this surely is a considerable option.

The overall build and design of the HTC Pro 7 is pretty much like its precursor the HTC Arrive, and smartphone flaunts the typical HTC’s swept-metal factors and accents. The Pro 7 comes with a nice and comfy keyboard and a tilting screen, both the features are among the assets of the phone, and in addition to this some other assets for the phone includes the likes of potential of capturing HD video playback, along with the copy-paste feature of Microsoft, which is something that was the missing from the Windows Phones.

The HTC Pro 7 overall is a pretty nice system, but still there are certain things that prevents this handset from being an impressive overall phone. Among some of the minor flaws that we found in the Pro 7 includes the screen, which we thought easily could’ve been a tad bigger and the camera, which according to us could have been a tad more sharp. Also using the speakerphone for extended hours surely is also something that can be problematic for some. All that said, we think that the inclusion of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango in coming fall, we think that the OS here will get a nice upgrade.

The design of HTC 7 Pro is pretty much similar with the design of HTC Arrive, with the only thing separating the two handset being logo of the carrier. The 7 Pro is a strongly built handset and looks nice as well. The HTC 7 Pro has a nice shiny finish with dark-gray paint and has a glittery appearance and feel. The phone comes with curved corners just like the iPhone 4, and the two cutouts for the front-facing speakers of the phone.

Positioned on the back of the HTC 7 Pro is a set of crossed stainless steel, which comes with a nice-looking screw. The 7 Pro measures 2.3 inches x 4.6 inches x 0.6 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 6.4 oz, which clearly is not what you expect from a cell phone but the good thing here is that the strong construction of the phone makes it capable of withstanding some drops comfortably. The 30 degree tilting display screen of the phone and the QWERTY keyboard of the HTC 7 Pro are some features that we think are really impressive here in this phone and you will like it as well.

The HTC 7 Pro performs nice and delivered clear volume and sounds without any serious background noise. The voices were distortion free as well. The callers at the other end reported the same, saying that the sound at times felt as if it was coming from a landline.

Finally, we will say that the HTC 7 Pro, just like its precursor HTC Arrive is an impressive Windows Phone 7. The QWERTY keyboard of the handset makes it one of the best designed QWERTY Windows phone. So, if you want to separate yourself from the Android crowd, then the HTC 7 Pro surely is a superb Windows 7 Phone; find out more about the handset here.

This is phone is made for people on stiff budgets and the small price does come with a reduced set of features. For instance, the screen is smaller and has a lower resolution. Browsing the Web is not that easy on HTC Wildfire. This Android 2.1 smartphone runs on a slower processor and people who lack patience will be frustrated by the occasional sluggishness. It is still a solid phone for entry level users and it has a decent feature set. I would recommend this phone to people having shallow pockets.

HTC has cut off a lot of features here to keep the price low. This phone has Android 2.1 OS and latest version of HTC Sense including Leap screen and Friend Screen widget. Apart from the standard Android goodies, this device has some extra apps like Twitter client. You can also visit Android Market which now boasts of more than 100,000 apps. HTC Wildfire also has sharing app through which you can send the links of your favorites apps using text message, Twitter or Friend Stream.

Just like other Android phones, HTC Wildfire has plenty of social networking and e-mail accounts which includes Twitter, Facebook, Exchange, Yahoo and Gmail. Except for Exchange (which requires some more information), setting up is really easy. You just have to enter your password and e-mail ID. I didn’t have any problems adding my Twitter, Facebook, Exchange and Gmail accounts to the review model. This device offers unified calendar and in-box but you can keep the accounts separately, if you want to.

Voice features on HTC Wildfire includes multimedia and text messaging, conference calling, voice commands, smart dialing, speed dial and speakerphone. This is a 3G capable cellphone having Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.  Android’s HTML Webkit browser has good performance and functionality. It has support for Adobe Flash Lite and multiple windows there is also a feature where in you can look up the meanings of phrases and words in Wikipedia or dictionary by a long pressing the part of the text. Also, a paragraph can be selected and sent to Google for translation.

Multimedia capabilities of the HTC Wildfire are pretty standard. The built in video and music player supports 3GP2, 3GP, MP4, WMV, M4A, OGG, AMR, WAV, AAC and MP3. Alltell gives a 2 GB card with the phone but the microSD card slot supports up to 32 GB of cards for loading music. The player has Cover Flow-like interface and there is support for creating playlists on-the-fly, Bluetooth sharing and repeat/shuffle modes. Finally, the phone comes with YouTube player and FM radio.

Underneath the display, there are search, Start, and back which are all touch sensitive. There are some physical buttons too like camera shutter and volume rocker on the right and power key on the top. On the bottom, there is a 3.5 mm headphones jack and microUSB port and on the back, you get a camera with dual-LED flash. The manufacturer has also put in a metal kickstand around the camera lens for watching videos handsfree. This is a really clever move. Speakers of the phone are located below and above the display.

Features of the HTC HD7 include Quad-band world roaming, voice dialing, speakerphone, call forwarding, call waiting, conference calling, and multimedia and text messaging. There is no support for T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network but you do get GPS, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), 3G, and Bluetooth 2.1. There is no support for tethering but this is a limitation of Windows Phone 7.

Customization on Windows Phone 7 is limited but carriers partners and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) can still put some touches on the devices. T-Mobile and HTC have done this; the latter has put in its HTC Hub which is also available as live tile. Here you will get a few old HTC favorites like weather widget, animated clock and also HTC apps.

On the other side, T-Mobile has put in a lot of extras like Slacker, T-Mobile TV, TeleNav GPS Navigator, and Netflix. Through T-Mobile TV, you can stream on-demand and live content from channels like NBC, CBS, Fox, ABC, VH1, and ESPN. There is a 30 day trial period for this service initially but after that, you will have to pay a fee of $9.99 per month as subscription fee. Also, this is the first device to have T-Mobile’s Family Room app. It lets you share photos, notes and calendar events with a group.

For downloading more apps, there is the Windows Phone Marketplace. Microsoft says that there are about 1,000 apps in there right now and they will be adding several hundred apps each week till the end of this year. Windows Phone 7 devices need to have a minimum of five megapixel camera and that is what you get on HTC HD7. This camera gives you various settings including 6 different resolutions, scenes, and effects. There is also flicker adjustment.

Shape of the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G is quite similar to other phones in the MyTouch series but felt some difference in the feel and weight. I was glad to see that the manufacturer gave stainless steel back instead of the cheap plastic cover. The solid steel cover gives a high end look to the phone. Design is purely subjective but I prefer a heavier and solid device rather than a cheap and light plastic phone. The device is still pocketable and thin at 4.8 inches tall by 0.4 inch thick by 2.4 inches wide.

The front surface of the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G is dominated by a huge 3.8 inch WVGA capacitive touch screen. There are options for seven or five home screens. Just like the MyTouch 3G Slide, the 4G is based on a combination of HTC Sense and T-Mobile’s custom UI for the widgets and the Leap screen. The latter shows you thumbnail version of all the home screens. Customized UIs are fine as long as they don’t mess with any software updates. The interface is use-friendly and it will be appreciated by people who are buying an Android phone for the first time.

The display of the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G is sharp and clear but the colors aren’t as rich as Samsung’s AMOLED screens. It is still responsive though. Apps turned up as soon as I tapped on them. Pinch-to-zoom and scrolling actions were smooth and fast. The phone has Swype keyboard pre-installed and there is also the standard onscreen keyboard if you don’t like it. Other than that, there is Nuance Dragon Dictation voice command system for dictating messages.

Underneath the screen, there is optical trackpad along with the regular Android shortcuts of menu, back and home. There is no search button though, it’s place has been taken by T-Mobile’s Genius button. It will activate the Nuance-powered voice command feature which lets you make calls, search the Web, compose messages, and launch applications using your voice.

I won’t say that the T-Mobile G2 is sexy; but it has more of a professional look. The manufacturer has improved the design of the phone over its predecessor. This handset is 0.55 inch thick, 2.37 inches wide, 4.68 inches tall and weights 6.5 ounces. It is a bit heavy as compared to other smartphones but without the chin, you can easily put it in the pocket. Also noteworthy is the great build quality of the phone, this handset is made up of stainless steel body with a soft touch finish makes it look like a very expensive phone. The exterior also makes the phone feel great in the hand.

T-Mobile G2 has a 3.7 inches touch screen which is not as good as the Samsung Super AMOLED screens but I still found it pretty bright and gorgeous. The videos and images look great and the text too was easy to read. The screen comes with a proximity sensor, pinch-to-zoom support, and accelerometer. All these were pretty responsive in my lab tests.

T-Mobile G2 gives you two keyboards – Swype and the standard Android one. There is also a full four row QWERTY keyboard which is quite good. The buttons are raised and are decently sized. There is plenty of spacing between the buttons which minimizes any mispresses. I like using Swype but in this case, I found that the keyboard was easier to used for mostly all tasks, even sending tiny text messages. There are discrete www and .com buttons and also three quick keys which can be used to open specific apps.

The design of the T-Mobile G2 is a bother; I was concerned about the slider hinge. The mechanism is smooth, no doubt about that and the display too locks securely in the place. But some users say that it doesn’t stay in that place. I am not sure if this problem is faced by all the users but when I held the G2 upside down, the screen did drop down. I won’t call this a deal breaker because you don’t hold the phone that way but I would have liked it if the phone remained shut. The hinge too might get weary after long periods of use.

Looks of this phone remind me of the Nexus One and it is a good thing because the N1 is really gorgeous. The handset is 4.7 inches tall, 0.5 inch thick, 2.4 inches wide and weighs around 4.76 ounces. It is not too big and not that small either. The screen of the phone is 3.7 inches and you get a resolution of 800×480 pixels. The display is really sharp and beautiful so videos, text, Web pages, photos, etc. will all look really good on the phone. The display is quite responsive and it supports pinch to zoom feature. This is a capacitive display and hence you will get an iPhone like experience.

HTC Desire has a physical buttons for search, back, menu, and home. On the left, there is a volume rocker along with a power button. On the top, there is a 3.5 mm headphones jack which lets you plug in any standard headphones on to the device. On the bottom, there is a microUSB port while on the back, you have the camera along with the flash.

The phone comes bundled along with wired stereo headset, USB cable, reference material, eight GB microSD card and AC adapter. The biggest difference between HTC Desire and the aforementioned HTC Nexus is that the former runs on HTC Sense instead of Android OS. I am a fan of Android OS especially because it is easy to get the updates. However, Sense is my favorite amongst all the custom skins because of the features it has which enhance the capabilities of the phone.

HTC Desire is runs on Android 2.1 and there will be Android 2.2 updates available later. U.S. Cellular hasn’t reveled when it will be done but I guess they should give it somewhere later this year. But till then, you will have to wait for the Flash Player 10 and other Froyo goodies. The Android experience on this phone is still very good and I liked the extras given by U.S. Cellular and HTC like My Contacts Backup, Navigator Deluxe, Peep, HTC’s Twitter client, etc.

Thumbs Up:

Compact design, feature rich device, run on Android 2.1 OS and has HTC’s Sense UI. 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS, with support for 3G and Wi-Fi networks.

Thumbs Down:

Smaller display gives a smaller keyboard, no flash for the camera, non-market apps cannot be installed.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM

Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband)

Phone design: Candy bar

Caller ID: Yes

Other features: GPRS support, USB, AGPS, EDGE, Proximity sensor

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

HTC Aria is 2.3 inches wide, 0.47 inches deep, 4.6 inches high and weighs 4.6 oz. Wireless Interface options include IEEE 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1. Additional features include GPRS support, USB, AGPS, EDGE, Proximity sensor, microSD card slot, Touch screen. The phone is based on Android 2.1 OS, Messaging/data features include Instant messages, Text messages, Multimedia messages (MMS), HTML Browser, E-Mail.

The rated talk time of this phone is 360 minutes. The handset has 384 MB RAM / 512 MB ROM, it is powered by Qualcomm MSM 7227, 600 MHz processor. The camera has a five megapixel resolution with autofocus. The screen is 3.2 inches big and has a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels.

Razzle Dazzle:

Smartphone makers are going big these days, they are largely concentrating on making bigger smartphones. However, HTC Aria is a welcome change from all this. This handset is just 4.6 inches tall, 2.3 inches wide, 0.5 inch thick and weighs about 4.6 ounces. The downside is that you don’t get the big display screen but this phone will now easily slip in to your pocket with the small shape.

Inside Dope:

AT&T said that they would be introducing an AT&T phone at CES 2010 and they have now come up with HTC Aria. The design is quite similar to HTC HD Mini and it based on Android 2.1. The feature set is all there and you also get to use HTC Sense’s user interface. This is not the most powerful Android mobile phone in the market right now and if you yearn for power, you might want to skip this phone for Samsung Captivate – which will be arriving soon. AT&T has also blocked third party app downloads which is another bummer. However, the Aria is a good mid range smartphone and it is better than AT&T’s other Android phone, the Motorola Backflip. This phone will cost you $129.99 after a $100 mail in rebate and you have to sign a two year service agreement. We think that the price is a bit high for the feature set it offers but it is not outrageous.

HTC Aria has a 3.2 inches screen with resolution of 320×480 pixels. This is a bit small considering what other smartphones are offering HTC has made this for mid range smartphone users. So small screen is not that disappointing. The display may not be the sharpest but you still get a bright and clear view of the screen. The real estate too is adequate for most of your tasks. The touch screen is capacitive and it has a pinch to zoom feature that lets you zoom in and out by pinching the screen, just like iPhone. You can use this to magnify the screen. The keyboard is a bit cramped and hence we will recommend you to use the accelerometer and put the keyboard in landscape mode for better typing.

HTC Aria has seven panels for the hone screen and you can fill them up with all the shortcuts and widgets that you want. You can also assign different ‘Scenes’ to different screens. There are options like social, travel, play and work. There is no support for live wallpapers though.

HTC Aria has four touch sensitive buttons below the screen – optical joystick, back, home and menu. On the right there are no buttons but you do get a volume rocker on other side. On the top, there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack and power button and on the bottom, there is the microUSB port. The SIM and microSD card is located beneath the battery compartment. The are screws on the back cover but still it can be easily pulled off. If you take off the entire plastic shell, you will see that the phone is all yellow inside. HTC Aria comes with USB cable, AC adapter, 2 GB microSD card, reference material and wired stereo headset.

HTC Aria is rich in features. The cell phone runs on Android 2.1 and you also get the benefits of HTC Sense user experience. HTC, however, has not announced an upgrade to Android 2.2 Froyo yet. Rumors say that the company is closely working with Google along with its partners for this. We are expecting the updates to arrive somewhere later this year.

Being an Android phone, HTC Aria gives you all the standard goodies like Google Maps Navigation, Google Talk, Gmail, QuickOffice and YouTube app. There are a few extras like Footprints, Peep, and Twitter app. AT&T products like MobiTV, AT&T Family Map, AT&T Radio, Yellow Pages Mobile, and AT&T Navigator are also there. All these services come at a price though. For instance, you will have to pay $9.99 a month for the AT&T Family Map.

You can visit the Android Market for more apps but the service provider doesn’t let you download any of the non-Market applications. AT&T did this with Motorola Backflip too and it is quite frustrating since there are a lot of good third party apps out there.

Nitty Gritty:

HTC Aria is a good Anroid smartphone aimed at midrange users. Our only gripe was that third party app installation is blocked.

Thumbs Up:

Good budget smartphone offering 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. Runs on

Thumbs Down:

Screen is small and has a low resolution, no support for US 3G bands

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM

Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Phone design: Candy bar

Caller ID: Yes

Other features: Camera, Google Android OS, GPS, etc.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

HTC Tattoo has a 2.8 inch display which gives a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The handset is 2.2 inches wide, 0.6 inches deep, 4.2 inches high, and weighs 4 oz. It runs on Android OS. Messaging and Data Services include GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA and internet browser.

Supported audio formats are AAC+, MIDI, WMA, WAV, MP3, AMR, and AAC. Supported video formats are WMV, H.263 video and AMR audio, MPEG-4, H.264. The phone has a 3.2 megapixel camera. The 1,110 mAh lithium ion battery has rated talk time of 390 minutes and standby time is 520 hours.

Razzle Dazzle:

HTC Tattoo is 4.17 inches tall, 2.17 inches wide and 0.55 inches thick which makes it a petite phone. The looks are quite similar to HTC Touch but this phone is a bit heavier and thicker. This is not exactly the sexiest phone ever but when it comes to design, you will love the fact that the manufacturer lets you customize the appearance of the phone. (and hence the name ‘Tattoo’) But it doesn’t come for free; you have to pay $11.99 Euros or around $16 for each custom cover.

Inside Dope:

There are a lot of smartphones coming up in the Asian and European markets and some of these have made way to the American shores as well. Reviewing such unlocked phones is a tough ask since we don’t get much of it in our labs. However, this time we got lucky with HTC Tattoo. This is an entry level smartphone with HTC Sense and Android 1.6 and it has a cool personalization option where in you can design the cover and make it one of a kind. This phone is aimed at budget users who yearn for a smartphones at the cheapest possible price. For some carriers, you get this device for free but it also comes with a few sacrifices like lack of high resolution screen. The discount too is provided only in Europe or Asia. Here in the US, this handset costs $300 and it is not heavily recommended due to the big price tag.

The display of the HTC Tattoo is 2.8 inches big (diagonally) and has a tiny resolution of 240×320 pixels. This is very low as compared to what other smartphones are offering at the moment. Text looks minute and images look dull with a lot of pixelations. The onscreen virtual keyboard too is difficult to use due to the low resolution. But all this is forgivable considering this is a budget smartphone.

Beneath the display, there are the standard buttons like search, back, menu, home, D-pad and Talk/End keys. On the left, there is volume rocker. On the top, there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack and on the bottom you have the mini-USB port. HTC Tattoo comes with reference material, 2 GB microSD card, wired headset, USB cord and wall adapter. The device is available only in Asia and Europe right now so you will have to buy an international plug if you intend to use it in America.

HTC Tattoo runs on Android 1.6 just like HTC Hero. We have already written about that OS before so we won’t go into the details here. We tested the HTC Tattoo for call quality and it was quite good. Our friends sounded clear on our end and though there was a slight background hiss, we could still talk on the phone comfortably. Our friends too reported positive results, but one guys said that the voice sounded robotic. Speaker phone calls had a bit of hollow sound but this is not unexpected in a cell phone. For Bluetooth calls we paired up this device with Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones and Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and phone calls were smooth with no hiccups.

At the back, there is a 3.2 megapixel camera which gives good photos quality. Objects in our stills were clear but there was a bit of softness on the edges. Video quality is not that good but still OK if you just want to share it with your friends.

HTC Tattoo is powered by a 528 MHz processor which was surprisingly fast in handling what ever we threw at it. Occasionally, there was a bit of lag but overall, the phone was quite fast. The 1,100 mAh lithium ion battery of the phone has a rated talk time of 6.5 hours and standby time is 14 days. We haven’t tested the battery life yet but we will do it soon and update this section.

Nitty Gritty:

This entry level smartphone might be good in the Asian and European markets but we won’t recommend this to an American customer because of the high price tag.