HTC Flyer - First HTC Tablet Takes Off

On a Flight with HTC Flyer

Adding to HTC's successful line of mobile devices is the recently launched HTC Flyer. First announced at the . It is the first tablet from the company, and HTC hopes to differentiate the Flyer from the crowded tablet market space. The Flyer comes along with HTC Scribe technology, which is used in conjunction with the bundled HTC Pen, an industry first to extend the usability of tablets we've seen so far. We'll cover more of that in the next page. Moreover, it comes with the popular HTC Sense user interface that brings interaction on the tablet a notch above the rest.

These innovative features naturally received much fanfare in the tablet scene and we too had our fair share of 'Flyer-dosage' the past two months. We had our hands-on during the media launch event in April and our PlayTest collaboration with HTC two weeks ago. Let's check out whether the HTC Flyer lives up to the hype when put through our detailed evaluation.

Weighing at 420g, the 7-inch HTC Flyer feels quite handy and comfortable, regardless whether it is in portrait or landscape mode. It also helps that it has rounded corners to enhance comfort, handling and improve aesthetics. Having said that, you can use the tablet in one hand without feeling any discomfort. In landscape mode, the left and right sides of the Flyer have a slight curve, aiding you in having a good grip of the device.

HTC opts for a 7-inch screen on the Flyer as the company believes that this is ideal for consumers to bring around as a mobile companion as compared to the many 10-inch varieties out there. As with many tablets out there, the screen attracts fingerprints easily due to its glossy surface. It also has no physical button around the screen and instead relies on a row of touch-sensitive buttons on the black bezel for navigation. The device itself is designed towards using it in a portrait orientation, which is demarcated by the HTC logo siting at the top of the screen. However, should you want to use it in landscape mode, that's not an issue as HTC has another row of touch-sensitive buttons to suit landscape usage.

At the top of the Flyer, you will see the 3.5mm audio jack just beside the Power / Lock button. The Power / Lock button is one of the better designed ones we have seen so far on a tablet as it is not recessed and easily accessible. The metal construction of the button is in contrast with the plastic frame of the Flyer, making it very easy for the finger to find it. The volume controls are also located conveniently at the right side of the Flyer. At the bottom, you will find the microUSB port which is used for charging and data transfer.

When you flip over to the back of the device, the HTC brand name in the center grabs your attention right away. The words are inscribed on the unibody aluminum chassis, giving the Flyer a premium look (just like another popular device). You will also find a pair of stereo speakers to the right of the HTC brand name. If you are holding the Flyer using your left hand, you are likely to cover them. Hence, we will recommend holding the Flyer on the right if you would like to avoid muffled audio.

Still on the rear, you will also find a 5-megapixel camera at the top left hand corner, which is slightly protruding from the surface. With such a design, we are concerned that the camera lens might get scratched over time. Even if you're generally using a sleeve or jacket to protect the Flyer, it wouldn't be in it 100% of the time to protect it.

The good thing is that HTC has supplied a white pouch with the retail package, a rare addition going by the bundles of other tablets. Note that the bundled HTC Pen doesn't integrate with the tablet and must be kept separately. Fortunately, the white pouch has a slot by its side to hold the HTC Pen firmly. As such, the entire Flyer package by HTC is a 'tightly integrated' affair.

Pilots and Cabin Crew of the Flyer 

HTC chose to run Gingerbread OS on the Flyer instead of Honeycomb OS. For those who are not familiar with the tablet scene, previous Android tablets were running Froyo, which was not optimized for use on larger screens. The user experience was less than fantastic and felt like an over-sized smartphone. Fortunately, you will not get to live through this again on the Flyer. HTC furnishes the Gingerbread OS with its customized user interface, the Sense 3.0.The HTC Sense 3.0 user interface is very much different from what you will see in its existing line of smartphones. The Sense 3.0 touts a number of changes that will make the user experience on the Flyer comparable to that of Honeycomb tablets.

First and foremost, the lock screen is now represented by a ring at the bottom of the screen. To unlock the screen, you have to swipe upwards. There are also four customizable icons above the ring, which allows you to change the app shortcuts according to your preferences. HTC adds in a new functionality to the lock screen by allowing you to not only unlock the screen, but also activate the respective app. This is done by pulling the icon into the ring.

Once you unlock the screen, you will see eight home screen panels spinning for about a second. The bottom panel has five shortcuts, which are the app launcher, the Notes app, the Reader app, the HTC Watch app and Personalization shortcut. This panel can also be customized by dragging any app in and out. 

To scroll through the eight home screen panels, you have three ways of doing so. You can scroll through the panels one by one from any direction, or you can press the Home button to see the overview of all panels. These two methods are typically found in smartphones and tablets too. HTC improves this by adding yet another option by allowing you to spin through all the home screen panels when you swipe faster.

These 3D-like animations and customization options add a degree of modernization to the Gingerbread user interface, which are on par with Honeycomb in certain aspects. However there are areas where the HTC Flyer can improve upon, most notably the multi tasking interface and the virtual QWERTY keyboard presentation which we'll explain below.

If you want to see what apps are running in the background on the Flyer, you have to press and hold the Home button. The multitasking tab is no different from that seen in Android smartphones. Although it shows ten active apps instead of five on Honeycomb tablets, we still prefer the much more visual of the apps running in the Honeycomb OS.

Another area which needs improvement is its virtual QWERTY keyboard presentation. Although the Flyer has a 7-inch screen that does allow for a bigger and roomer keyboard, we feel HTC can do better with a less cluttered keyboard. The Honeycomb OS features a redesigned keyboard which gives a better touch typing experience, as seen in our Motorola Xoom review. Don't get us wrong, the virtual QWERTY keyboard on the Flyer is fine based on the screen size but there is definitely room for improvement.

The Flyer comes with a unique feature unseen in other tablets, which is the HTC Scribe technology. HTC Scribe is developed by the company to add a new dimension of interactivity on the touchscreen. According to HTC, the screen on the Flyer can only recognize the electrical component in the HTC Pen. In the words of HTC, the Scribe technology is the use of  "integrated digital ink innovations", where the Pen interacts with the screen of the Flyer via electric signals. To function as such, the HTC Pen actually runs off AAAA-type battery and as seen in the picture below, has added functions on the Pen itself. Because of the way the HTC Pen is tightly integrated to the HTC Scribe technology featured on the tablet, it is impossible to use third-party styluses on the Flyer. As such, you should store the HTC Pen safely, for each replacement is said to cost just below S$100 (price yet to be confirmed at the point of writing).

With the HTC Pen working in conjunction with the HTC Scribe technology, you can write notes, sktech graphs and draw/doodle in a more natural way. In addition, you can use the HTC Pen to tap anywhere on the screen to capture screen shots and immediately add on your notes, sketches, etc. This latter functionality is something that few Android devices can achieve unless you download the software development kit (SDK) to do so.

You can use HTC Scribe in a number of applications such as the Notes app, Reader or Internet browser. 

Besides the HTC Pen, the Flyer also comes with exclusive apps such as the Timemark and HTC Watch. Both apps serve to enhance the functionality and differentiate the Flyer from the legion of Android tablets. Timemark enables you to record audio from meetings and conversations at any point you want to. This is especially useful when you are in an important meeting or lecture, where audio recordings can help refresh your memory on critical points mentioned. 

HTC Watch is a video on-demand download service available on the Flyer. It utilizes progressive download technologies that allow you to play movies almost immediately. This means that you do not have to wait for the file to finish downloading before watching it. Currently, there is only a "lite" version of HTC Watch available on the Flyer, which restricts you to watching movie trailers. You can expect a full version by Q4 of this year.

Pilot and Crew Testing 

Powering the Flyer is a single-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. You may be wondering why the Flyer comes with a single-core chip when its competitors are running dual-core processors. HTC's stand is that the Android OS is not optimized for dual-core operations as it lacks multi-threading. While there's some truth to that, the good thing is HTC is offering much more than just raw processing power and it's the overall features and user experience that counts. That's what we intend to find out after this performance test segments.

To support the 1.5GHz processor, HTC packs in 1GB of RAM for the Flyer. As there isn't any competitors with similar specifications, we have to pit the HTC Flyer with its dual-core counterparts. Although the Flyer will be competing on unequal grounds, it is the most appropriate comparison we've got for now. Below is a summary of the benchmark tests for tablets:

• Quadrant evaluates the CPU, memory, I/O and 3D graphics performance. This is an Android OS based test.
• Smartbench 2011 is a multi-core friendly benchmark application that includes both the Productivity and Games Indices for a more complete gauge of the overall performance of modern Android devices. This is probably where the HTC Flyer might not fare well but that's understandable.
• SunSpider JavaScript benchmark measures the browsing performance of the tablet.

In the Quadrant benchmark, oddly the HTC Flyer outperformed the dual-core competitors. That's because the Quadrant benchmark is an older test that's not optimized for dual-core devices yet, unlike the Smartbench 2011 benchmark which is multi-core ready. That's why the HTC Flyer's faster clocked processor fared better in Quadrant, while it didn't look too good in Smartbench against its dual-core based competitors. Well, numbers are just figures on paper after all. When reviewing the HTC Flyer, we found it to be generally snappy in normal usage albeit not nearly as fluid and smooth as the Honeycomb tablets. Watching movie clips on the Flyer, we noted that that there was hardly any hiccups or glitches. Overall, we were impressed with the general performance of the Flyer, despite it running a 1.5GHz single-core processor which seems dated in the era of dual-core processors.

Next up, we take a look into the the browser performance. We use the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark (which is OS independant) to compare the Android tablets, with the addition of the Apple iPad 2 for a better gauge of the Flyer's position among the competition.

The HTC Flyer lagged behind the others by a slight margin. This is consistent with HTC's claims that dual-core processors do have a positive impact on browser performance. Nevertheless, our browsing experience on the Flyer was generally similar to the rest of the tablets we reviewed so far. Do note that the benchmark results are obtained using stock firmware and not conclusive indicators of the Flyer's performance.

On-board Entertainment 

With a screen resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, the experience was good when reading and watching multimedia content on the Flyer. Speaking of multimedia, the pair of stereo speakers at the back of the Flyer is ample for watching movies and listening to music. The 7-inch display is perfect for reading e-books as it fits each page nicely. We cannot say the same for internet browsing as a bigger screen would lend its hand in more comfortable viewing of each web page. On the Flyer and most other devices smaller than 10-inches, you would typically have to zoom in to have a clearer view of web pages.

The HTC Flyer comes equipped with a 5-megapixel auto-focus rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front camera. Let's see how the Flyer's rear camera fare in our camera tests below.

We put the HTC Flyer through our last round of testing - battery life. We use a 720p video with screen brightness and volume turned up to 100%. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections are turned on as well, allowing regular data to stream through email and Twitter. We compare the HTC Flyer with the likes of Apple iPad 2, BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom in a test of battery stamina.

The HTC Flyer has a poorer battery life compared to the BlackBerry PlayBook, which is equipped with a similar screen size but running a dual-core processor. As the BlackBerry PlayBook carries a 5300mAh battery, it will definitely last longer than the 4000mAh battery of the HTC Flyer. Nevertheless, we feel the battery life is average and could be better.

Due to the above battery life findings, the HTC Flyer doesn't fare too well in the Portability Index, even though it matched up well against the iPad 2 and the Xoom. However, the rightful comparison is with the PlayBook since it has a similar form factor. Taking into account the longer battery life of the PlayBook, its weight and diementions, you can see the Flyer's predicament. Putting it in a different comparison, while the Flyer is lighter than the iPad 2, it doesn't give you its battery stamina and you get a smaller screen.

Our battery test above is geared towards simulating intensive usage conditions on the device, hence for average users, the battery life of the HTC Flyer will be better than the results seen here. The battery life actually differs from individual to individual as it depends on usage patterns.

HTC's First Born 

To say that the Flyer is just another Android tablet on the market will do great injustice to HTC. The Flyer is different from the family of Android tablets in many ways. It is the first Gingerbread-powered tablet we have reviewed so far. It also has a powerful customized overlay, the HTC Sense 3.0, which enhances the usability of the Android OS. We liked the addition of HTC's exclusive services such as HTC Watch. We particularly like the HTC Pen as it brings touch screen experience to new levels. Taking into account that this is the first tablet from HTC, we applaud their creativity in coming up with a unique offering for consumers.

However, the Flyer also has its weaknesses to work on. While the HTC Sense 3.0 makes the Gingerbread user interface more polished, we have to admit that we still prefer the tablet friendly Honeycomb OS. The differences aren't world's apart but the small differences do eventually add-up as you use the device more frequently. HTC has confirmed that the Honeycomb update is in the pipeline, but no confirmed date penned yet.

Battery life was another area that we felt could have been better on the Flyer given that people are doing more and more things on tablets. Another nagging problem among most tablets is the camera performance. Although it is weird to take pictures using a tablet, having a better camera on the Flyer will give HTC more brownie points and boosts the device's versatility as you can rely on it. Last but not least, the HTC Flyer is overly priced at S$1,068. Forking out a thousand dollars for a tablet will put off many consumers, especially when other tablets are priced lower than the Flyer. In conjunction with the Great Singapore Sale, the HTC Flyer will be available at a promotional retail price of S$899 for a limited period of time (which hopefully could be the normal price in future). While the HTC Flyer boasts premium services and advanced ink technologies in HTC Scribe, we still feel that the HTC Flyer will be more attractive if the price is lower.

While it is difficult to determine whether the HTC Flyer can replicate the same success as its line of smartphones, we have no doubt that the company will continue to innovate and improve upon this model.The HTC Flyer is already a good example of the company's tag line, "Quietly Brilliant" and we have seen how far HTC has come since their humble beginnings in the smartphone market. We will not be surprised if they come up with a future winner in the tablet market as well.

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