Review: HTC Flyer

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HTC is a success story when it comes to innovative, beautifully designed and intuitive smart phones. Some of its notable offerings are the HTC HD2 with a 4.3 inch form factor. The next one is the EVO 4G that put the 720p video recording into the map and the HTC Legend that has an innovative Aluminum Unibody casing. Now, we see the new HTC Flyer, a 7 inch Android tablet that boasts of a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, an aluminum body and a magic pen since it still uses Android’s Gingerbread and not yet Honeycomb.

Design

When the HTC Flyer went on the radar back in February, it did not really show that much of a good impression in the hardware department. It looked thick and heavy (almost 15 ounces). The unibody aluminum construction at the back is abruptly cut by two white plastic panels on the top and bottom. You can get used with the setting but the Flyer’s design could have been more sophisticated like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The disappointing thing about the white plastic pieces is that they protrude, making the tablet quite chunky. The good news though is that even if it does not look like the best of the HTC offerings, when it comes to functionality, it works pretty well. The aluminum casing really works well in protecting the whole tablet from serious damage. Ergonomics are despite the weight quite good. HTC Flyer feels and handles well. 7 inch size makes it just right for portability as well.

Hardware

When it comes to the digitizer, it was a dream typing on the HTC Flyer. There is also a prediction algorithm which makes it a lot easier to do simple typing tasks. You could almost say it replaces a smartphone in a sense that it allows for multiple venue communications, like twitter, Google Talk, email, and SMS. So, maybe replacing a 4 inch smartphone would be a stretch but with 7 inch HTC Flyer you can get many tasks done without once pulling out your iPhone 4.

Display

We are not sure if this is true but it seems like HTC Flyer tablet is using the Super LCD on this one. The color and contrast are just too good. When it comes to going to outdoor and natural lighting, the HTC Flyer’s screen performed well. The screen worked well when playing games on natural light and it just feels very robust and good. For the size, the HTC Flyer has a resolution of 1024×600 but we wish that it could have been better since it seems like it did not move forward from the Samsung Galaxy Tablet. Not to be too harsh though, 1024×600 resolution on a 7 inch screen provide beautiful and crisp contrast.

Battery and Camera

The battery life of the HTC Flyer was exceptional. With regular browsing, email, social networking and reading news, you can have a fantastic 12 hours of battery life with 20% to spare. Since this is a 3G device, its power seems to be very good and ideal for regular use. The battery seems to be the main culprit for the energy of the HTC Flyer. HTC has its famous brightness lowering feature to save power and as option you can add sleep mode, which after locking it closes the wireless radios.

Sadly, the camera was really more a waste of time than something of worth. The rear camera has 5 megapixel, but the sensor just isn’t big enough for so many pixels. Camera of HTC Flyer may siffice for taking pictures and sending 500k pics via email. Anything over and beyond that may just be too much to ask for from this otherwise superb device. 1.3 megapixel front facing camera isn’t there to provide printout quality pictures, hence we can concur that it is decent. HTC Flyer added few filters and effects to allow you to get creative. Video is not much to brag about. It is said to produce 720p video, but the quality and sound just aren’t there. There is however a wind noise neutralizer.

Software

HTC Flyer runs on Google’s Android 2.3 operating system. Gingerbread is last known stable Android and it suits HTC Flyer tablet well. HTC apparently didn’t have enough time to implement Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS into this 7 inch tablet, but we do believe that Android 2.3 handles very well. HTC Flyer is quick and responsive. Update to Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS has been promised by the end of this summer. At the start up you are offered sixteen discrete slots per home screen, which can be occupied by apps, folders, shortcuts, or widgets. HTC’s latest UI offers 3D graphics. 3D interface may be nice to look at, but doesn’t really add much in terms of function. Some sluggishness may be contributed to overly prettified animations. Gallery and calendar work well next to one another but to much disappointment they both work only in landscape mode only. Outside Notes Stylus becomes less effective. You can take notes all you want, but nothing really gets saved until you take a screen shot and save it. In HTC lingo this is called a Scribble.

Stylus

Also referred to as Magic Pen, this stylus is a really nice addition to already jammed tablet. HTC spent a lot of time on this feature. It is beautifully integrated into the hardware of HTC Flyer and it is likely to set it apart from its competition. Notes app of HTC Flyer has specifically been designed to take advantage of stylus or note taking ability using stylus. Kid Mode app also utilizes the power of stylus in painting canvas and Kobo-powered ebook reader lets you edit books as you read them. Stylus becomes a bit less effective outside Notes. You can scribble and draw all you want, but the only saving facility here is a screen shot. In HTC lingo this is called Scribble.

Overall

With all the doodling, browsing, gaming and other functionality that you can do with this tablet, it is really a worthy device to have. However, for the price, it is unsure how they will be able to appeal to the needs of customers. Nonetheless, HTC Flyer is pretty nifty and responsive. The bulk of body offers solid enough protection and size and weight allow for great portability.

Enjoy this review of HTC Flyer tablet courtesy of engadget:

Enjoy these HTC Flyer pictures:

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