First Opinions


I have had this phone since June 2010, I got it on a Vodafone contract and it was my first smartphone. It was rather a good deal, I pay £15 per month and this is for a package that includes 100 anytime, any phone minutes, 500 texts and 500mb data. That is fine for my use. Vodafone were also offering £130 cash back through topcashback if I took it for 2 years. I was very pleased with this and the cashback was paid with no problems. 18 months later, it is still working well and has not let me down. For my first smartphone I found this phone easy to get to grips with. It has the google android operating system which I have found to be very user friendly. The multi page desktop can be fully customised to your own requirements with many widgets pre loaded and many more available for free on the android market. The touch screen is one of the earlier types and is not as responsive as more modern models but it is still far better than some of the Nokia's I've used.

The Camera

The camera is not its best asset, It produces good quality pictures but it is slow to boot up and there is an infuriating delay from pressing the shutter to the picture being taken. I'd say almost a second, which for photographing the family dog or any moving object is just a waste of time, by the time the image is captured, the moment has gone and all you get is a blur on the screen. Also this camera is very poor in low light situations and just produces dark orangey images as there is no flash.

Connectivity

The phone does have good connectivity. It has WiFi, Bluetooth as well as standard GPRS and 3G. It has a mini USB port in the base which is used for charging and connecting to your PC. The charger has a detachable USB lead so you can use this for connecting. In the top, there is a standard headphone jack so you can connect any headphones or speakers for listening to music.


Music and Video


For music and video, the music player is just the same as any standard MP3 player. Video capability is very limited, I have not had any success watching youtube videos or BBC iplayer videos as the phone is not apparently supported when you try to view them. I think this is a symptom of the phone being an early model.


Normal phone use


As for general phone calls and messaging, I have found the Tattoo to be perfectly usable. Text messages are easy to type with qwerty keyboard an option and you can easily link to your email account to receive emails as you would texts. The phone book is not very user friendly as you have to scroll down the alphabetical list of contacts to find who you want to call. Also the loud speakerphone works well in itself but is not very quick and easy to find, also, it can only be enabled once the call is in progress. The battery lasts a day, that's it. If you leave the phone on standby, you might get a day and a half, but if you use it a lot, it'll be dead by bedtime.

In Conclusion

Overall, if you are looking for a cheap, reliable basic smartphone, this is fine. If you want something flashy, don't bother. (I downloaded google skymap to look at the stars and it is really jumpy and slow.)
Review summary
for the review "Basic Smartphone, good for the money but its no iphone.."
Overall, if you are looking for a cheap, reliable basic smartphone, this is fine. If you want something flashy, don't bother.