The question remains on the HTC Flyer does the pen input mode allow you to rest a palm on the screen and then use the pen without the writing / snipping / scribbling ending up like a heart monitor display? It’s known in the natural input world as ‘vectoring’ and if it’s present, it makes the process very difficult indeed.
Sascha Pallenberg (Netbooknews) and I had some time with Vodafone Germany and it looks like we were given a slightly fresher build of the HTC Flyer than the one we had tried on the show floor. You’ll see the ‘palm rejection’ working well. We also take a look at some of the apps and the UI in general.
As mentioned in the previous article about the HTC Flyer, the design and software isn’t final yet so you’ll have to wait a few months before the final versions are available.
I’d love to know if you feel the extra CPU power, pen capability and Evernote processing is worth the premium over the Galaxy Tab? Personally. knowing that the Tab is getting 2.3 and that the price is excellent and quality proven, I would still recommend the Galaxy Tab unless someone really needed handwriting input (assuming it really works!)
The HTC Flyer is in no fit state to be assessed right now and I wonder why HTC actually bother showing such a critical device in their portfolio at such big events. The pen system doesn’t work, the software is not complete and even the design of the device is changing. I expect to see this sort of activity from, lets say, 2nd-tier ODMs but not someone like HTC.
So what is there to say about the product? It’s got a 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor (single-core, apologies for the error in the video) and Android 2.4. Google applications are available and it’s a similar size to the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
IF the pen feature works for both handwriting and ‘snipping’ it’s an interesting idea but the pen has no silo and even requires batteries. I can’t see anyone remembering to take the pen with them or even bother to get it out of their bag when needed. There’s no voice, SMS and MMS capability either.
Yes, the processing speed is good. Yes the HTC Sense adds value to many. Yes, the price will drop soon after launch.
Is it enough to tempt people away from the Galaxy Tab which is likely to be half the price in Europe when the HTC Flyer launches in May or June.
Mobile World Congress is well underway with announcements and product launches coming from a bevy of manufacturers, HTC included.
At their press conference this morning they announced no less than 6 new Android devices, one of which is the Flyer, a 7 inch 1.5GHz packing tablet weighing in at 415 grams.
The Flyer has up to 32GB of internal storage expandable via microSD card, 1GB RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, 3G, GPS and both front and rear facing cameras at 5 and 1.3 megapixel respectively.
HTC plan to differentiate from other tablet manufacturers by including a capacitive stylus for handwriting, note taking and general annotation. Notes can be captured in ink or voice and have built in Evernote synchronisation. Also included with the Flyer are access to several new key services from recent partnerships or acquisitions that the company has made. Their recent investment with OnLive, a gaming service that renders 3D games and streams games to your device see’s integration with the Flyer whilst HTC’s acquisition of Saffron Digital will provide access to downloadable movie titles via the new HTC Watch application.
At first it looked pretty chunky to me in the press photos but JKKmobile has managed to get his hands on and compare it to the Galaxy Tab and the difference was fairly minimal.
Whilst its certainly got a lot of character I have to wonder about the new tablet version of HTC Sense running on a Android 2.4 core, sure there will be a lot of additional functionality added in typical HTC fashion but with Honeycomb around the corner, its a risk.
Whilst we wait for Chippy to do his thing and get some hands on time check out JKK’s video;
It would be silly of HTC not to consider bringing an Android Tablet to the market. They’ve done a few tablet-like devices in the past but with the 7-10 inch consumer tablet sector booming, this is one that could set some seriously big sales numbers, especially given the maturity of Sense, HTCs well-respected user interface, utilities and applications suite. Looking at the rumored specs I see strong competition for the Galaxy Tab but there’s lots more to find out before it can be recommended.
Of course, price is unknown along with size, weight, battery life and all the other important things you need to know to make a decision. We’re hoping they will be revealed/leaked during MWC or CeBIT at the latest. With lots of people talking about dual-core, don’t get led into thinking it’s yesterdays CPU. Dual-core means less battery life under load, more cost and that GPU could outperform the one on the Galaxy Tab. A 3.0 upgrade should also be taken into consideration.
