HTC Flyer Your tablet now with notes

Just like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the HTC Flyer provides a very manageable 7" of screen size in a jacket pocket friendly 420 g body. The 7" tablet models are generally a bit more manageable, with a screen size big enough for a good browsing and book reading experience.

And the specs?
• Android 2.3.3
• 7" screen, 600 x 1024
• 1.5 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM
• 420 g, 195 x 122 x 13 mm
• 32 GB + MicroUSB

Some might say that the Flyer could have been slightly thinner, but at 13.2 mm it’s a bit like complaining that Charlize Theron should look more like Kate Moss. Design quality is overall pretty impressive thanks to an aluminium unibody design, but unfortunately the white lid underneath, housing the SIM card and microUSB slots, slightly spoils this. It’s a hassle to open and the plastic feel takes away from the overall build quality of the device.

HTC opted to go with a hardcore 1.5 GHz Snapdragon processor and 1 GB of RAM that manages to slice through images, videos, orientation switches and multitasking. What you won’t find though is Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) which was specifically designed to work on tablets. Instead it runs Android 2.3.3, heavily customized by HTC’s Sense 2.1 for Tablets interface. We liked it, with the 3D transitions for all the different screens looking good while you also have quick access to not only your notifications but also your different settings.

Taking notes with Scribe
Included in the package is a stylus and Scribe software with which you can take notes or annotate websites you come across. It’s an easy process to get used to with a little icon at the bottom of the Flyer, to be touched with the tip of the pen to activate your different options such as different pen types (marker, brush, highlighter, etc.), pen sizes and a variety of colours to choose from.

Conclusion HTC’s first entry into the tablet market provides a very decent Android tablet experience due to a zippy processor, 32 GB of onboard storage and both 3G and Wi-Fi present, with of course the Scribe note-taking technology being the clincher. The HTC Flyer retails for R6360.

Posted by Radians at Thursday, June 02, 2011