The HTC Tattoo is a budget smartphone packed with features and personality. This is a simple, compact and lightweight phone for customers seeking functionality and a bit of style at a good price.

The Tattoo is not as fancy as the HTC Hero mobile phone, but still shares some of its great features such as the HTC Sense Interface, which displays multiple customised homepages. The HTC Tattoo interface allows you to switch between Facebook, Twitter and Google applications by swiping your fingers across the touch screen, as well as integrating all of your contact information.

The 2.8-inch QVGA resistive LCD screen displays good colour and clear images, but it’s smaller than the HVGA (480x320) screen on the HTC Magic or Apple iPhone. Nevertheless, you can still surf the net and view websites on a slightly smaller scale by pinching the screen to zoom in and out.

You can surf the internet or update your Facebook profile on the HTC Tattoo through 3G or Wi-Fi, and navigate your way around town with its free GPS navigation software and Google Maps application. The HTC Tattoo’s design is smooth and curvaceous with a replaceable Garskin plastic shell, so you can choose between different designs for the Tattoo casing on the Garskin website to add your own personal style.

The HTC Tattoo’s 3.2-megapixel camera takes good quality photos, but lacks autofocus or a LED Flash. This is compensated by the 3.5mm audio port and FM radio that allows you to boogie to your favourite tunes. Lastly, the HTC Tattoo’s microSD card slot allows memory expansion, while its battery gives six hours of talk time and 320 hours of standby time.

Overall, the HTC Tattoo is a very personal and functional phone that certainly packs a punch. Bargain Hunter’s beware. This is the phone for you!