HTC Flyer Review

Introduction:

Strangely, some might be scratching their heads wondering as to why in the world HTC decided to launch their very first tablet, the HTC Flyer, knowing that it’s going to be flaunting Gingerbread as opposed to the tablet-optimized experience of Honeycomb? Being aware that HTC is renowned throughout the world as a top notch smartphone maker, you really can’t doubt their decision just yet, because time after time, we’ve seen them being able to churn out devices that provide an unparalleled customized experience – thus, making you forget what’s supposed to be taking precedence over others. Granted that this Wi-Fi only tablet is sporting a $500 price tag, it might initially turn off some people, but its unique offerings on the software and hardware side just might justify the hefty premium for this 7-inch Gingerbread flavored tablet. Without further hesitation, let’s find out if the HTC Flyer can grow a pair of wings and fly above some of its Honeycomb inspired brethren.

The package contains:

• HTC Flyer
• microUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• Quick Start Guide

Design:

Can you say WOW? The HTC Flyer is arguably the best looking and solidly built 7-inch tablet we’ve been able to check out thus far; mainly because of its unibody aluminum construction. In fact, its design philosophy is undeniably reminiscent to some of HTC’s smartphones – like the Desire HD and Inspire 4G. Its white plastic accents on the back splashes a little bit of character to an already gorgeous looking tablet, but doesn’t take precedence over its brushed aluminum casing – though, it does contribute to its slightly heavier weight (14.8 oz). Regardless of that, it’s sleek (0.52” thick) enough to hold comfortably with one hand thanks to its contoured edges and moderately raised bezel. All in all, the Flyer’s profound industrial design goes to show the kind of engineering talent behind HTC’s camp.



Continuing to drool over its charming looks, we’re mesmerized even further thanks to its equally iridescent looking 7” LCD display, which boasts a reasonable resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels. Compared to the crop of existing Android tablets on the market, it’s crystal clear that the Flyer employs one of the best-looking displays thus far out of the bunch. Its resolution dishes up some fine and sharp looking visuals, but when you factor in its delectable color production, you’ll comprehend why it’s so darn good looking. Moreover, its visibility doesn’t sway thanks partly to its great viewing angles and high brightness output – making outdoor usage more than tolerable without the need of shading.


Two sets of Android capacitive buttons are built into the bottom and right edges of the tablet, while the buttons used to work with the tablet’s Magic Pen stylus are positioned further to the right, and away from the usual bunch. Meanwhile, we find the 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, light, and proximity sensors all built into the top bezel.


Along the left edge, the 3.5mm headset jack is placed alongside the dedicated power button, which is rather flush in appearance, but exhibits an acceptable response when pressed. Oppositely on the right side of the tablet, the microUSB port is positioned squarely in the middle offering power and data connectivity, though, it can also provide a mirrored experience on the big screen if you happen to have an MHL adapter – much like what’s offered with the Samsung Infuse 4G. Meanwhile, the tablet’s two microphones and volume rocker are lined together along the top edge. And much like the dedicated power button, the volume rocker is flat and almost flush, but offers the same decent feel.


Turning it around, its 5-megapixel auto-focus camera is outlined with a trim chrome bezel, however, it’s missing an LED flash to really it make it coveted. Still, there are two speaker grills found on the back as well to offer some sort of stereo audio. Interestingly enough, you can remove the top plastic panel, which is notoriously difficult to take off, so that you can gain access to its microSD card slot.

Interface:

Dual-core processors are all the rage nowadays with tablets, but HTC decided to forgo using one with the Flyer, and instead, it’s graced with a single-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU with 1GB of RAM. Honestly, it manages to get the job done with a decent amount of responsiveness with all functions – and it doesn’t have the lagginess in portrait that’s associated with what we’ve seen so far with Honeycomb tablets. Considering the elaborate 3D effects in play with its interface, the Flyer doesn’t particularly slow down with its operation, which is what you would want to see with something with a fast processor like this.

Refreshingly, we can seemingly overlook the HTC Flyer’s lack of Honeycomb from the onset mainly because the Taiwanese company again showcases why they’re probably the best in the business when it comes to customized software experiences. Employing the most up-to-date version of their popular Sense UI, which is running on top of Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, we’re enthralled to be greeted with an experience that caters to the tablet form. Furthermore, the makeover has plenty of glitzy looking 3D visuals and transition effects to make you really wonder how it’s not bogging down the tablet one bit. Combining the fact that it’s compatible with HTCSense.com, that means you can still maintain certain aspects of the tablet all from the comfort of any internet connected computer.

Providing us a total of 7 available homescreens, our first impression of the new Sense UI is that it closely resembles Dell’s Stage UI – especially when HTC’s widgets completely encompass the size of a single homescreen. Showing off its graphics processing power, there are some neat looking 3D effects when you navigate between homescreens, and if you quickly flick it towards one direction, you get a snazzy looking carousel effect. As for the widgets, they’re actually identical to what we’ve seen with past Sense enabled devices at their core, but we truly adore the continued functionality they have to offer – all of which are accessed directly on the home-screen. Finally, you can still execute the usual pinch gesture while on the homescreen to jump into helicopter view, which allows you to view all the panels simultaneously and rearrange them to your liking.

HTC didn’t stop by just presenting us with some fancier looking visuals and widgets, but rather, they decided to improve certain aspects of the platform to give the user even more control. Specifically, the notifications panel now offers access to some quick settings, mini-music player, and some of the most recently used apps. Additionally, HTC has taken the liberty of improving the lock screen as well since you can get things like the current weather conditions, plus the ability to jump into specific apps upon unlocking the tablet. Of course it’s super useful! And we truly admire how HTC is able to kick things up a notch to give users an engaging, yet tasteful experience. Combining those elements with its high-level of personalization, there is absolutely plenty of things to admire with this one, and at the same time, we’re eager to see how it’ll transcend with Honeycomb down the road.



Organizer and Messaging:

Nope, HTC didn’t stop just at the homescreen with the Flyer, but it retooled some of the core organizer apps to make the experience fitting for a tablet. With things like the Calendar app, it utilizes a familiar two-panel scheme in landscape that’s commonly employed by many tablets – and of course, it effectively works! Being Android and all, we’re greeted with the usual set of features with the calendar; like the ability to sync calendars.


Spreading the love to even more things, other core organizer apps also get their much-needed makeover to make them extremely useful – while sprinkling a dash of creativity. For example, the calculator now smashes together both the basic and advanced panels all on one screen. Likewise, the Clock app has one tremendous overhaul with its presentation since it carries along the desk clock, world clock, alarms, stopwatch, and timer.


Besides the cramped space of its on-screen landscape keyboard, we’re still satisfied with the overall messaging experience thanks to the always fantastic and ideal Sense keyboard. Literally, it’s near perfect solely due to the fact that it offers quick access to common numbers and symbols directly on the main layout. More than responsive in keeping up with our pace, we prefer using the portrait keyboard since its length is manageable with our thumbs – much like what we experience on any smartphone in landscape.


Strange as it may be, but we actually find the layout of HTC’sMail app more ideal than the one we find with Gmail – that’s because the Gmail experience is unchanged from what we see with smartphones. Not only does the HTC Mail widget offer us a small preview of our messages, but the actual app is laid out in the same two-panel layout that’s evident throughout most core apps. Naturally, the left panel displays our inbox, while the right one will load the selected email – thus, giving us that tablet-optimized experience.


The stylus for the tablet, which, unlike in other parts of the world, is sold separately by Best Buy, unlocks some additional functionality that’s not necessarily common with today’s modern tablets. The stylus doesn’t replace your finger when it comes to navigation or making selections, but rather, it’ll allow you to jot down notes or scribble on something important. At any time, you can tap the display with the stylus, which then takes a screenshot of whatever you’re doing on-screen and displays it within the Scribble app. In here, you can start “scribbling” and click the stylus icon in the bottom right corner of the display to change the scribe tool, color, and density of its mark. In addition, you can run the notes app that mimics the look and feel of an actual notepad. Of course, you can type things up using the on-screen keyboard, write or draw something with the stylus, and import additional content like photos, audio, and documents.

Now what makes the stylus different from your usual plastic one, is the fact that it can distinguish certain degrees of applied pressure – thus making your markings either light or dark. Moreover, holding the bottom button on the stylus allows you to highlight text, while the top one places it into erase mode. Without a doubt, not everyone will find it a necessity, but if you’re an artistic person or want some flexibility with note taking, then this is undeniably a solution that might appeal to you. On top of that, HTC has added Evernote integration, which allows you to seamlessly sync your notes with the cloud and have them accessible from every computer.

Camera:

Running the camera app, the interface is fairly unchanged from what we see in use with HTC’s Android smartphones, but there are some neat looking effects that you can overlay to give some shots a novel look. Plus, we’re presented with the same level of manual controls and settings that should appease some photo hungry individuals out there.


Producing some barely passable images with its 5-megapixel auto-focus camera, outdoor images lack any fine detail and tend to appear soft in tone, though, color production as a whole appears to be acceptable. Indoors under low lighting, the overall quality naturally takes a dip, even more since it lacks an LED flash, but it’s nothing pretty looking with its hazy visuals and cooler color production. At this point, you’ll still want to rely on a traditional point and shoot.



Unfortunately, the tablet’s 720p video capture is ghastly worse with its non-existent details, muddy looking visuals, abundance of artifacting when moving abruptly, and sensitive exposure. Although it’s able to shoot at 29 frames per second, it still tends to look a bit choppy with its playback, while its audio recording is on the crackly side. Stay far indeed with this one!

HTC Flyer Sample Video:



Multimedia:

Happily, we notice yet again the two-panel interface in use with the Gallery app, but aside from that, it’s fairly straightforward with its approach. On the left side, it displays all of our albums, while the right one aggregates all the content within the highlighted album. Selecting a particular image, we can execute a variety of things ranging from sharing it with a specific service, making some minor edits, and the ability to apply an effect.


If there’s one thing that we’re always confident about seeing HTC excelling in, then it has to be the always-intricate presentation of the music player. Rightfully so, HTC hits it in the mark with this one as they utilize the standard two-panel interface that displays albums on the right, with the playing track on the right. Rather than pressing the forward or reverse buttons to change tracks, you can actually execute a swipe gesture on the album cover to switch songs – and it does it effortlessly. Not only are we presented with a mini-player within the notifications panel, but we absolutely find another one on the lock screen to be tastefully acceptable. Rounding out its capacity, the tablet offers a wide range of equalizer settings to perfectly hone in on specific genres of music. As for audio quality, it’s astoundingly powerful with its tone, yet screechy sounding some times when placed at the loudest volume setting.

Thanks to its mesmerizing display and peppy processor, the HTC Flyer handles all kinds of high-definition videos with barely any distracting issues. Playing a video encoded in DivX 1280 x 720 resolution, there are some instances of pixelization, but with the same one encoded in MPEG-4 and XviD, it’s filled with plenty of details, rich colors, and smooth playback.

Unfortunately, the Flyer’s lack of a dedicated HDMI port sets it apart from most of the offerings we’ve seen of late. However, you can still output videos and get a mirrored experience if you happen to own an MHL adapter, which plugs into the microUSB port on the Flyer. Luckily, we connected one and managed to experience all the neat functionality of the tablet directly on our high-definition television set, though, we still prefer a dedicated port.

However, we also shouldn't miss to mention HTC's Watch app, which will allow you to purchase or rent movies or TV shows on the device. Thankfully, these can be watched while they are being downloaded, so you'll just have to wait for the device to buffer some content, and your movie will begin.


Surely some will find its 16GB of internal storage to be more than sufficient, but luckily it packs along a microSD card slot that allows you to increase its capacity with cards up to 32GB in size.

Internet and Connectivity:

Looking at the big picture, there are a variety of compelling elements that make the web browsing performance on the HTC Flyer so gratifying, but its perfect execution offers a resounding experience. Sure we have plenty of real estate with its 7” display, but the Flyer is a champ when it comes to loading complex pages – even ones with heavy Flash content! Simultaneously, its performance doesn’t stutter for a second when Flash content is present since we’re greeted with smooth kinetic scrolling, responsive pinch gestures, and near accurate page renders. In the end, the Flyer is not only meant to deliver an enthralling experience, but one that’s complete in its offerings to stand highly amongst its brothers and sisters in the Android world.

Featuring the usual set of connectivity options, we only have Wi-Fi to rely on with data connectivity, but fortunately enough, it manages to retain a solid connection during our testing. Additionally, it features Bluetooth 3.0 to get other wireless devices to interact with it, and aGPS to work with a handful of location based services. Overseas, the HTC Flyer is enabled for 3G connectivity, while Sprint’s upcoming variant in the HTC EVO View 4G will offer WiMAX support when it’s released.

Performance:

Setting its brightness and audio setting to their medium positions, we played a movie continuously for 8 hours while connected to a Wi-Fi network before it completely drained. Needless to say that its battery life is more than acceptable, even for heavy users, but when it comes to everyday usage, we easily got a solid day out of the Flyer – with only 40% battery at the end of the day.

Conclusion:  

In reality, we’re not all that concerned that HTC decided to move forward with having Gingerbread on board with the Flyer as opposed to Honeycomb – mainly because they did a fantastic job with Sense running on top of it. Undeniably, we love how they carefully thought out the interface and its many core apps to make the experience ideal for tablet usage. Moreover, we don’t miss the fact that its sporting a single-core processor, rather than the usual dual-core one that's becoming more prevalent – albeit, it’s worth noting that it’s clocked in higher than most others. Even though it’s targeted for a specific niche, the Magic Pen stylus adds some functionality that provides some differentiation against the competition. Finally, it’s the best-looking and constructed 7-inch tablet we’ve seen thus far. It even rivals the iPad 2 in terms of premium feel.

Adulation is surely warranted with this tablet, but there are some sore spots that minutely taint its pristine aura. First and foremost, it’s not all that great when it comes to shooting photos and videos. However, our biggest hesitation is with its higher price tag over other comparably sized Android tablets – especially when you factor in its optional $80 stylus, if you get it through Best Buy, which is currently the exclusive retailer to offer the Flyer in the US. Additionally, it’s rather hard to see some people finding more value with it since you can pick up the Acer ICONIA TAB A500 and Asus Eee Pad Transformer at a cheaper price with Honeycomb on board. Nonetheless, if you have the money and willing to go down in size, then yes, the HTC Flyer is still a respectable offering worth looking at. Though, we wonder how much HTC would ask for a 10” version of the Flyer.

By the way, if you've set your eyes on the HTC Flyer, but want it to have cellular connectivity, it might be a good idea to wait a bit until Sprint outs its variant of the tablet – the HTC EVO View 4G - sometime in the summer. It will have the advantage of sporting a WiMAX chip, and who knows, maybe even a bundled stylus! Until then, the HTC Flyer through Best Buy remains a pretty decent offering for those of you, who desire a more compact tablet, powered by HTC's premium quality and having the prospect of being updated to Honeycomb later on.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Android 2.3.3
HTC Sense Version: 2.1 for Tablet
Software Number: 1.36.1540.32
Build Number: 1.36.1540.32 CL50422 release-keys
Kernel Version: 2.6.35.10-gb1cf1af

HTC Flyer Video Review: