Tatoo & screen resolution

[Pennywis3]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a HTC Tatoo for my wife as it only costs 80 Eur in our Country ( have to renew the contract anyway ) and i have a question about the resolution and the memory.

Is it true, that most of the apps from the market don't work well or dont work at all, because of the lower resolution than normal android phones ( 240x320 vs. 320x480 ) ???
This seems a big issue to me, and im surely not gonna buy the phone if this is true.

As i own a Samsung Galaxy with 192Mb RAM i know that memory is a big problem on Android phones and am wondering how much memory does the tatoo actualy have, considering different info on different sites? Does it have 256 Mb of memory and does it work well?

How is the phone performing overall, what are the main pro's and con's?, a question for the current users

Thanks for the answers

Regards, Mitja

 

[pevans_om]

I haven't had any problem with the screen res. There are apps that don't support the lower res, but none that I've been interested in. I definitely don't feel like I'm missing anything from the market.

It has 256MB memory and I have not experienced a single problem. I keep my setup quite lean though, only a few necessary extra apps installed (Nimbuzz, Waze, Opera mini 5,Facebook, Aldiko, NewsRob + a few more) and I don't keep 1000s of sms' or anything. I guess a heavy user may find the limit, I haven't yet.

Simply put: I love the phone!

 

[Pennywis3]

1st positive reply. Thanks
I hope theres more of those and i can buy it, but i hope some cons will arise too.

 

[brandmarked]

When the Tattoo originally launched, there were lots of problems with apps being available, and consequently there is still a lot of web chatter that talks about it being an issue.

But, its not that much of an issue anymore. I have a Tattoo and the majority of things I want are available. There are a few annoyances every so often, like I want to try "Got to do" but can't access it, even though the dev says he ticked the QVGA box. There are other problems with the market that mean not all apps are available to everyone. The new HTC Desire is struggling on that front at the moment.

I guess about half of the apps of the total market can be accessed by the Tattoo. The gaps tend to be older apps that have not been updated and some graphic intensive games.

A few of the apps I have found via Google rather than the market. Downloaded them to my phone and then copied them to the SD card and usin an App installer.

Its not just the screen that is an issue, the lack of autofocus on the camera limits some applications being available (such as Google Goggles -- though I did find this elsewhere). It does mean the barcode scanners won't work properly.

I think I have most of the popular apps -- Abduction, Age of Conquest, Aldiko, AppManager, Astrid, Astro, beebPlayer, Bonsai Blast, Bubble Defense, Compass, Endomondo, Facebook, Google Sky Map, Handcent SMS, Tricorder and quite a number of others.

I do sometimes wish I had the bigger screen, but then the price and small size offset that. I'm happy with it, but if I were choosing a new phone right now I'd probably pay a bit more and get the HTC Legend.

- Mark

 

[Pennywis3]

Tnx for the info Mark

 

[pevans_om]

I've had no problems using the barcode scanners....maybe I've just been lucky?

 

[reuven]

You can patch the market app currently on the tattoo so that it tricks the market into thinking it is an HTC magic. However, you need to have root to do this. If you're interested, the thread is here:
[PATCH] Tattoo Market v2 - Display all apps (for Android 1.6/2.1) - xda-developers

 

[clanger9]

I've had no problems using the barcode scanners....maybe I've just been lucky?

Really? Wow. I've tried several (such as Google Shopper, ZXing Barcode Scanner) and they never get anything.

According to what I read, autofocus is needed for "normal" barcodes. QR codes (the square ones) should work, but they don't. The barcode just looks too blurry.

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong?