The Internet-tablet from HTC was one of the most awaited novelties that finally came to the market. The solution from HTC is rather unusual, it caused lots of discussions. HTC is a company that always chooses its own way, not going in the same line with competitors. This is obviously its advantage for customers who always get something unique instead of some iPad clone. HTC offers something that no one has on the market. This is HTC flyer.
Exterior
HTC Flyer has light-grey body with white sides. Touchscreen frame is traditionally black. On the top and the bottom there are white mountings that cover SIM and microSD slots. The back panel is grey, on the bottom of it there are two little loudspeakers that create stereo effect of sounding.
Technical Characteristics
HTC Flyer features single-core processor with 1.5 GHz frequency. 1 GB RAM and 32 GB of in-built ROM memory can be supplemented with up to 32 GB microSD memory card. The tablet dimensions are 195x122x13 mm, the weight is 420 g. The weight is not felt when in use due to laconic ergonomic construction. There is a white case made of leather-substitute in the package. Unfortunately it is easily soiled and loses its attractiveness very soon when in use.
Both SIM-card and microSD card need to be put into the tablet under the white side cover with lens. It is hardly opened, so it is not a comfortable solution for frequent use. It would be much better to place these slots somewhere on the sides that are not occupied by any controls.
As for wireless interfaces support, HTC Flyer feels no lack in it. It features Wi-Fi 802.11n, DLNA, Bluetooth 3.0 + HS with A2DP, 2G and 3G (HSDPA/HSUPA) support. Practical tests didn’t reveal any problems with using these protocols, everything worked properly. The only shortcoming is low data transfer speed when copying music to player memory – it was only 2.5 MB per minute.
Touchscreen
Super LSD touchscreen is impressive. In terms of screen size HTC Flyer is familiar to Creative Ziio, the same 7 inches. The resolution of HTC Flyer screen is 1024600 px, it features capacitive touchscreen matrix and supports multi-touch control. It provides flawless response on touches – all items are enabled after the first touch, not problems with reaction. The only shortcoming of this screen is comparatively low brightness even at maximal settings. The tablet features optic sensor that adjusts screen brightness according the lighting around.
A new interesting feature is changeable orientation of touch buttons under the screen. These buttons will be always located under the screen, no matter how you rotated the tablet.
Android Customization
HTC Flyer features Android 2.3 OS, the company decided to refuse from new Android 3.0 Honeycomb and decided to build the tablet on a proven version. The OS was added with brand multifunctional shell HTC Sense that became more comfortable in use. The changes were made in the home screen, bottom screen menu, block screen, etc. In order to unblock the screen, you need to pull the ring from the bottom somewhere to the top or put one of four most frequently used apps icons on the ring.
There are two exclusive services – HTC Watch and OnLive. The first one provides video on demand, you can buy or get movies for rent from the catalogue. OnLive is a gaming server-client application. HTC Likes is an Android Market shell, it makes Market’s look and feel more HTC-like. One more add-on is HTC Hub that is used for tablet personalization. It allows setting wallpapers, sounds, widgets and other interface settings.
Camera
HTC Flyer features front 1.3 MP and back 5 MP cameras. The first one is used for video calls, while the second one is for shooting photos. Both cameras allow recording video up to 720p resolution (1280ч720 px). The quality of photos made by tablet’s main camera is far from perfect. Unclear objects contours, blurs, noise, bad colour rendering – all this is typical for HTC Flyer shoots. However, the pack of camera features is really impressive. When making a photo, you can set the exposition, sharpness and contrast with the help of multistage regulators.
Camera has fast auto focus. The photos can be made in both wide screen (19:9) and standard (4:3) proportions. The tablet also offers face recognition feature, lots of graphic effects and geo tagging. The diversity of features is likely to compensate the low quality of images. The role of camera in a tablet is not so important than in a smartphone. So, this doesn’t spoil the impressions from HTC Flyer significantly.
Stylus
The stylus that comes with HTC Flyer is made in a pen form factor. This pen is suitable not only as a control for managing applications, it also allows hand writing and drawing. You can choose different tools for this: a pencil, a marker, eraser, etc. You can change pen thickness, erase your drawings, etc. The speed of touchscreen reaction is good, no delays were revealed.
You can write notes by hand in Evertone service that requires registration. The pen is not supported at horizontally oriented applications. The pen also can make screenshots that can be sent wherever user needs (to social network account, to mailbox, etc.). This feature is not active when the application is in full screen mode.
Battery Life
HTC Flyer is equipped with 4000 mAh battery. It is enough for two days of active use of Wi-Fi networks, playing dynamic games, reading books, using GPS and other features. Of course the lifetime of battery significantly reduced when using the tablet mostly for energy-capacitive purposes like recording video or wireless data transfer.
Impressions
HTC Flyer is a powerful brand new tablet that will never make you wait for its response. It is fast-reacting, reliable, attractive in look and comfortable in use. High frequency processor leaves most of modern dual-core processor tablets behind in terms of efficiency of operation. This tablet has unique functionality that is incomparable to any of existent tablet. A worthy choice!
