One of the different tablets on market today is the HTC Flyer, a 7 inch tablet that manages to be different than the competition, and not in a bad way. Even though I’m still in talks with HTC for receiving the Flyer for review I’ve read a lot of reviews online (Engadget, Slashgear etc) past days so I thought of giving you a detailed view on HTC’s 7 inch tablet, their first slate in this growing niche.

    Unlike almost all tablets in 2011, that try and imitate the iPad and iPad 2 looks and functionality, HTC Flyer is a completely different ‘beast’, starting with the design and ending with the user interface and the use of a stylus for certain tasks impossible to mimic on Apple’s tablet. I have to say that HTC Flyer is the most different tablet from what you’re used to seeing, but not everything is honey and milk, as you’ll be able to read below.

    So let’s start with a short list of the most important specs and then move on to each chapter of the review.

    HTC Flyer specs

    • 1.5 GHz single core Qualcomm CPU
    • 1GB RAM
    • 32 GB internal storage, micro SD card slot
    • all-aluminum body for durability and style
    • 7 inch display, 1024 x 600 pixels resolution with Gorilla Glass
    • Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.52 inches (195.4 x 122 x 13.2 mm)
    • Weight: 14.82oz (415 grams) including battery
    • HSPA, quad band GSM
    • GPS, Light sensor, G-sensor, Digital compass
    • 4000 mAh battery
    • WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0
    • microUSB port, 3.5 mm audio jack
    • 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, 5 megapixel back camera with autofocus
    • Android 2.3 OS with HTC Sense 3.0 custom UI

    Construction

    HTC Flyer is a slate, but unlike most slates features a case made from brushed aluminum with two white plastic inserts on the back (top and bottom in portrait mode) and a black screen bezel. It’s not the most stylish color palette, but it helps differentiate the Flyer, which is also a thick tablet by today’s standards, being as thick as the first gen iPad, but with a lower screen size. This makes it look bulky, but during use you’ll appreciate the added thickness as it helps with grip.

    The 7 inch form factor proves to be extremely portable, making it easier to hold in hand in public places and can be easily tucked away in your jacket’s interior pocket. The idea is that once accommodated with the HTC Flyer you will appreciate the smaller form factor and won’t be missing larger 10 inch tablets, despite their advantages, especially if you plan on using your tablet on the go and less for couch surfing. You’ll especially appreciate the thumb typing speed in landscape mode.

    Buttons are few: power with integrated status LED, volume rocker, 3.5 mm jack, microSD card slot and microUSB for charging and transfers. There’s no HDMI, but reportedly the USB port supports the MHL standard that will allow you to get adapter cables with HDMI on the other end. The Android buttons are capacitive in nature and feature the classic Home, Menu and Back functionality together with a new button that can be accessed only with the stylus. All those four buttons are duplicated on the left side of the screen bezel and are activated once you switch screen orientation. Unfortunately this also means you can use the HTC Flyer only in two orientations, so there’s also a wrong way for portrait and landscape.

    Official photos of HTC Flyer

    The screen

    This one deserves special attention, as HTC managed to use a high quality screen on the Flyer, with great color accuracy, viewing angle and excellent brightness for outdoor visibility. Like all the good tablets it’s capacitive and multi touch capable, plus it’s covered with a Gorilla Glass protective layer. The 1024 x 600 pixels resolution is good enough for keeping things sharp on the screen, while also preserving a good size for on-screen elements.

    Performance

    As you can see from the specs, HTC has opted for a single core Qualcomm CPU running at 1.5GHz, a different approach from the sea of Tegra 2 tablets out there. During normal use you won’t feel any difference, but at some points, especially with multiple apps running in the background, the Flyer will slow down from time to time. Generally you won’t find any issues at all, but it won’t be always smooth.

    All games tested and video playback of clips up to 720p were running without any issues, so nothing to be afraid of at the performance chapter. HTC will even update the software from Android 2.3 to Honeycomb once the Sense UI software port is ready, so it’s clear performance is not a problem with Flyer, despite the use of a single core CPU.

    The stylus

    HTC Magic Stylus is by far the most important new addition to the Flyer. It’s what helps you take notes, draw and annotate documents. It’s doesn’t work exactly as expected, but it’s much better than what we’ve seen until now. Magic Stylus is made from aluminum, features a plastic tip and two buttons that switch from highlight mode to text selection. The stylus is AAA battery powered (one should last a few months) and uses the N-trig digitizer layer to detect its presence and accurately estimate the pressure you’re applying.

    Magic stylus has also its own drawbacks, including the fact you can’t use it for navigation in menus: once you tap the screen with it a Scribble (screen capture) is made and imported in HTC Notes, where you can annotate, share it or store for later use. So make sure you get thit right: navigate with your fingers and draw/write with the Magic Stylus. Handwriting recognition is not supported, and that’s another thing I don’t like about the Flyer, so you won’t be able to write email with the stylus.

    But things can change at any time, especially since we’re talking about a software limitation. HTC even made available a SDK (software development kit) for those who want to develop apps for the Flyer that take better use of the stylus. And there can’t be enough apps, as currently only HTC Notes takes advantage of Magic Stylus, proving there’s a lot of potential here: you can draw, annotate Scribbles and sync them to the cloud using Evernote, a popular notes management app for multiple platforms, that HTC has partnered with. Some handwritten notes can use Evernote’s OCR (optical character recognition) function to transform into searchable items. There’s even an option to take audio notes that are pinned to specific drawings. You can navigate those by seeking a specific time in the audio timeline or by clicking on a specific note, which brings the audio recorded at the time you’ve taken it. That’s cool and works pretty smooth, being useful especially for meetings.

    By using the dedicated stylus menu button (that lights up in the apps that can use the Magic Stylus) you gain access to a drawing palette where you can chose brushes, sizes and colors. Imagination is your only limit in this case. Unfortunately there’s work to do from HTC to develop more apps that fully take advantage of the Magic Stylus. By the way, it doesn’t fit inside a special compartment so you’ll have to use the white leather pouch case (delivered in the retail box) that features a special external stylus holder.

    Update: apparently the top of the stylus acts as a capacitive stylus, so you can just turn it 180 degrees around and use it instead of your finger. That’s clever HTC, buy you should have let us know that from start.

    The software

    Here’s is clear that HTC took the Android 2.3 OS, slapped HTC Sense 3.0 on it (almost identical version with the ones in HTC’s smartphones) and optimized a few apps, not really taking advantage of the additional screen real estate available. The browser, email client, calendar and gallery apps are optimized for dual column use, but that’s pretty much it. All should change once the Honeycomb updates comes from HTC. Sense makes sure everything look more refined, from the already familiar widgets to added animations that only please the eye (no added functionality). Considering the fact Honeycomb is not really mature at this point it’s hard to blame HTC for choosing Gingerbread, especially since it didn’t had time to implement its enhancements to the new OS. I expect problems to be solved in upcoming months, but for now make sure you know what you’re getting before deciding to buy the Flyer.

    HTC Watch and OnLive

    Those are two services that should have made HTC Flyer stand out, but things have changed since the official announcement, as the movie rental service, HTC Watch, has now a competitor in Android Movies and the OnLive remote gaming service integration is not functional at this time. Those who tested HTC Watch in UK reported a very good streaming quality, with the option of buying or renting movies and TV shows with prices ranging from £7.99 to £9.99 to buy 720p movies (£2.49 to £3.49 to rent them) while TV episodes come in at £1.49. All bought movies can be seen on any Android device from HTC, but no option for PC download, while rented shows can only be seen on the current device. Renting can be done over 3G and WiFi, while downloading of owned titles must be done over WiFi.

    Battery life

    This is one thing where HTC Flyer excels, with over 12 hours of continuous usage reported to keep the battery at 20%. That was with continuous use of 3G data (compatible with T-Mobile in US), drawing, taking notes, writing emails, watching clips on youtube, browsing the web and taking pictures. That’s good enough for even the most demanding users, so it’s clear that occasional user could pull of at least two days away from the power plug before needing to recharge. HTC’s own optimizations help with achieving this kind of autonomy, including the automatic screen brightness adjustment to the option to set up a daily time interval during which all radios are turned off when you put the Flyer to sleep (you can match the time you sleep and don’t want to be disturbed).

    Cameras are a weak point

    I say that because the 5 megapixel back camera is not as good as what we’re seeing from smartphones in 2011, even in perfect lighting conditions. The 720p recording shows this problem best, with the lack of details, despite very good motion management. The 1.3 front facing camera is almost useless unless you install a video chat app from the Android Marketplace, but this problem could change once Honeycomb gets on the HTC Flyer with its native Gtalk chat function.

    Availability and price

    One of the major drawbacks of the HTC Flyer is the price, which currently hovers at around $867 on Amazon.com (Update: BestBuy lists it for only $499, a much competitive price). Sure you can argue that some tablets cost more, but a lot of the 10 inch models are selling for less, way less, so if you really want the Flyer you can torch 900 bucks, but most of you will find this price too prohibitive. The alternative is to wait a little bit for HTC to realize the mistake it made, or hope for them to release a cheaper WiFi only version (which seems probable).

    Oh, and one more thing: you have to pay $80 for the Magic Stylus in US. In Europe it comes bundled, but given the 1:1 conversion ratio from USD to EUR they’ll be actually paying more. Economics sucks sometimes!

    HTC Flyer current buying options – see our details page

    Conclusion

    HTC Flyer is a tablet to consider if you want mobility, good built quality, solid performance and battery life together with advanced options to take handwritten notes or drawings. It’s good at that, and once more apps for the Magic Stylus appear it will be even better. Until that happens it’s pretty hard to live with the high price. (Update: BestBuy lists it for only $499, a much competitive price)