HTC has released a detailed promotional video for its new 7-inch Flyer Tablet. The video demonstrates the device’s convenience, comparing it to the weight of a paperback book before going on to discuss its Sense UI and integration with social networking websites. Web Browsing is briefly talked about along with its support for Flash content even going so far as to take a swipe at Apple by saying you’ll never run into a “dreaded player not supported dead end.” The HTC Flyer was demoed in February running Android 2.4 Gingerbread, numerous sources indicate that the device will ship with version 3.0 Honeycomb but we are yet to receive confirmation one way or the other.
The video focused primarily on it’s magic pen and HTC’s Scribe Technology. Its perfect for writing on web pages, taking notes, notating in books, making comments, signing your signature on documents, drawing on pictures and obviously creating your own artistic masterpieces. Your work can also be printed wirelessly. An ingenious feature suitable for business meetings and college lecture hall situations is ‘Timemark’. If you’ve taken some notes using the magic pen and are having difficulty deciphering what you wrote you can play some recorded audio from the moment you began writing. This can help you recall exactly what you wrote and why. Notes can be synced to Evernote and therefore can be viewed through your PC or Smartphone.
Other demonstrated features include Video Calling, Movie playback via HTC Watch and Gaming. Specifications of the Flyer: 7 inch touch-sensitive screen with 1024 X 600 resolution, Weight: 420 grams (14.82 ounces) with battery, CPU 1.5 GHz, 1GB of RAM, 2 Cameras (5MP rear, 1.3MP Front), Storage: 32GB, Expansion: MicroSD, Ambient Light Sensor, G-Sensor, Digital Compass, Wi-fi 802.11n, GPS, Bluetooth.
Out of all the tablets that have come out recently, this actually seems promising; however, there are also some things I’m not too keen on either.
As a college student, I love gadgets that can make things easier for classes. So I was pretty impressed with the notes, audio recording, and calender and how well they seemed to be integrated. My handwriting does get pretty messy sometimes and being able to play the audio back would be amazing. Other than that, it doesn’t offer up anything any other tablet can’t dish out.
On the other hand, I didn’t enjoy the use of the word “unibody”. Most people know this is a very successful apple concept so playing it up for another product is just unprofessional in my opinion, but more importantly is the size. I honestly don’t believe there is a market for 7″ tablets. They seem way to close to a huge cell. Companies are spending a lot of money trying to find the sweet spot as far as size goes and I’m willing to be it’s within the 9″-10″ range.