HTC Flyer - First HTC Tablet Takes Off

Conclusion

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.