back to article HTC Flyer 7in Android tablet

The arrival of a tablet from HTC, the company that has run the furthest and fastest since picking up the Android ball was always going to be something of a Big Deal but in some ways the new Flyer is a surprisingly odd fish. HTC Flyer In-flight entertainment: HTC's Flyer To start with it doesn’t run Honeycomb but …

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  1. moylan
    Alien

    1470 hours?

    1470 hours? i don't think so. :-)

    looks nice. like the idea of a stylus.

    looking for a 7" tablet at the mo

    if they didn't pay a licence fee to ms i'd buy one.

    1. Gordon 10

      Dumb arse

      What a stupid reason.

      If their $5 dollar fee to ms bothers you so much why not donate the same to the OSF or one of the unix distros.

      Most muppetous comment I have ever heard.

      1. Goat Jam
        Windows

        Why is it muppetry?

        I've made it a personal goal to not provide MS with any income whatsoever. Zero, nada, nil.

        I've held fast on that goal now for nigh on 7 years.

        That being the case, why would I want to suddenly break that stance and go and reward MS for their blatant rent seeking by buying a HTC device?

        I don't like MS, I don't like how their entire business model relies on taxing almost very person on the planet who wants to use a computer.

        Sure, there is the choice to go apple, but that is not without its downsides.

        Of course there is Linux, but with that you have limited options because 90% of the hardware out there is taxed by Microsoft. You have to avoid whole product ranges in some cases just to avoid paying MS for something you have no intention of using.

        Forcing people to purchase your product might make good business sense, but it does harm to everybody outside that business.

        Sure, call it obsessive and stupid if you like but I prefer to stick to my morals and my morals tell me that MS is a deeply evil corporation that has done, and continues to do, irreparable harm to the PC industry as well as the World at large over the last 30 years.

        I for one cannot, in any conscience, allow myself to contribute to the continuation of that harm.

        You are free to not give a fuck, that is your prerogative of course, but you should think about what I've said before you go mocking others who do care past their own narrow self interests.

        1. TomP

          RE: Why is it muppetry?

          But let's say, hypothetically, that the Flyer happens to be the device that meets your needs perfectly. Isn't avoiding it so MS don't get $5 a classic case of cutting off your nose to spite your face?

          1. Goat Jam
            Pint

            Nope

            The bottom line is this is a toy and you have to draw a line somewhere. Very few people actually "need" a device like this. People often conflate "want" with "need".

            Bullying HTC into paying you because you failed at selling your own product is unconscionable.

            I will never "need" anything enough to be enabler for that behaviour.

  2. Lottie

    beautiful

    but far, far too pricey for my tastes.

    Still, it's nice to see some real innovation in this form factor. I like the pen idea a lot.

  3. Stacy
    Happy

    Nice to use

    Having played with one in a shop I was far more impressed than I have been with the other tablets that I have played with (Samsumg, iPad)

    Even the eBook reader was nice to look at (nicer than some of the e-ink ebooks readers they had in the shop).

    But that price is a big ask, and I'm still waiting for the killer app... Easier sofa browsing than a laptop is great, but not 700 euros great...

    Can I have a wavering thumb please - this has the shiny factor, and feels great in your hands and it really makes me want to buy it if only I can think of a reason :)

  4. Brian 6

    Expensive

    Have to agree with this review. Its a very nice device its just far too expensive.

  5. Arctic fox
    Thumb Down

    Nice legs, shame about the face (price)

    Even though HTC are a favourite of mine (both my current and previous droid mobs) the price they are asking (plus the lack of HDMI) make this a real bummer. At *that* price I expect all the usual ports *and* a basic docking station thrown in (with extra usbs etc.). With Asus showing the way I do not understand what HTC are playing at here (or Moto for that matter). I suspect that Asus however, with their transformer and slider tablets at sensible price-points (in relation to the current state of the market) are going to clean up.

  6. uhuznaa

    Well done, HTC!

    This thing is indeed going to fly like a pig.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    looking forward ....

    To the review of the HDMI adaptor ....

  8. Charles Calthrop

    "salford, mostly cloudy"

    When did you write that review? Its been pissing it down here since early May?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Which year?

      Heeheehee.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    I was just about to say...

    I was just about to say hello to the my new car "stereo" with built in GPS until I saw the price. Errr... No. Thank you. I will pass. Wake me up when it drops under 350.

  10. Danny 14
    Thumb Down

    eeeek

    how much? No ta. You could put up with a few flaws and go for a vega, mifi & a netbook for that money.

  11. DrXym

    Way too much money

    Cut the price in half and it starts to look like good value. At £480 for wifi only it is stupid expensive and is doomed.

    1. Gordon 10

      Rtfa

      3G too

      1. Obvious Robert
        FAIL

        Rtfa yourself

        From the heading, not even the main article:

        "Suggested Price: £480 (16GB Wi-fi only), £599 (32GB Wi-Fi/3G)"

  12. Rob
    Angel

    Almost...

    ... I agree with the review, out of all the custom interfaces that have been slapped on Android that I have tried I think Sense is by far the nicest and most functional. I'm definately looking to get a Pad at some point but at the moment I think I will wait to see what HTC's 10inch will be like and at what price. For the first time ever I'm not going to be too much of an early adopter until prices and offerings settle down a bit. Saying that if I suudenly came into a large chunk of cash I could quite happily spend (large enough that I could bypass common sense), then I would definately grab one of these.

    HTC is always worth keeping an eye on in my book, it would be nice if they could just concentrate on the other services they provide and bring them up to speed (sense.com?) I would be a loyal customer.

    1. DrXym

      Sense is nice

      But personally I don't think it adds anything notable over the generic L&F apart from some pretty widgets and screens. In some ways it's also quite annoying since the Sense includes a lot of crapware like a twitter client, finance stock quotes etc. which is baked into the firmware and therefore you can't remove even if you want to. It just sits their cluttering up the apps menu, and sometimes these things autolaunch themselves (possibly by being part of the same apk) and depriving memory & CPU to other apps you might actually want to use.

  13. Ru
    Coat

    On screen sizes...

    I'm glad that not everyone is charging down the 10" screen route. Like the bigger screen netbooks, big tablets just feel inconvenient to me. 7" is just about small enough to squeeze into a map pocket on a coat; anything bigger than that and I may as well just take a laptop with me.

    I feel I may be in the minority though. I like my Dell Streak 5, for example...

    1. David Evans
      Thumb Up

      @Ru

      No you're not. I love the form factor of my 7" Galaxy Tab and have no interest in a larger tablet. I AM interested in the Flyer though because HTC have obviously given some thought to tablets as a productivity tool, which is refreshing in this market. Its too expensive, but once they upgrade it to Honeycomb (I thought that was reserved for Dual Core chips though?) as promised, I could seriously make a case for getting this.

    2. Patrick 14
      Thumb Up

      7" all the way

      I get what you mean about 10". its to big. I've owned the ipad (9.7" WTF ) and I feel its to big for most job's.

      Gone down to 7" Dell streak 7 wifi ( £165 as new grand A cex with 5% off ) and apart from rubbish viewing angles its great. Very fast quadrant standard score of just over 1700.

      And it has GPS built in too which show me a ipad that does without 3g.

      Flash is good too better than other phones I have used

      And I use a Palm pre unlocked and most stable smartphone compaired to most Android. I know I owned quite a few of them LOL...

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is good

    Have an iPad and Galax Tab, but for business use I prefer the HTC Flyer. With integrated hand writting I have an electronic day book. Battery life is better than the 4 hours often quoted. Easy to hold therefore very good for ebook reading. Size means it is easier to carry around than the iPad.

  15. Tom 38
    WTF?

    4 hours?

    It costs the same as an ipad, but the battery only lasts 40% of the time? Take this on a plane, and you can watch 2 films before the battery chokes..

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      iPad battery life?

      I know the iPad battery life is quoted as 10 hours, but that's a claim made by Apple.

      Has the Reg standard 'constantly looping H.264 video with full brightness' test been done? Did it come out as 10 hours too? I didn't see the results on the iPad 2 review:

      http://www.reghardware.com/2011/03/25/review_tablets_apple_ipad_2_wi_fi_only/

      1. Andrew Hodgkinson
        Go

        Anecdotally confirmed

        I was on a flight back from NZ with an iPad, via Thailand. I managed to get through 5 of the six parts of the SE version of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and about an hour into the final part before we were coming into land at London. During the brief stopover at Thailand, I did a bit of e-mail and web browsing over a 2G SIM (no 3G there) for about half an hour. I also spent around an hour listening to music when I was trying to get some sleep.

        Both were night flights and obviously while in the plane the iPad was in flight mode. The backlight was turned low - about 25% - since the plane was dark anyway. Nonetheless, sitting there watching movies, listening to music and with the half hour non-flight-mode 2G session, I must have used at least 12 hours of battery. According to the meter there was still 15% charge left when I turned it off for landing and IME the battery indicator is fairly linear and accurate in its behaviour.

        That's the closest to a continuous playback stress test I've put it through. Even so, heavy use since I got it last year has drilled home one thing that's the stand-out feature of the device for me, as someone who hates having to keep charging things: The iPad battery life is absolutely outstanding. It can be completely relied upon to last a full day without charge under heavy use.

      2. Tom 38
        Go

        Yes, ipad battery life really is that awesome

        I have 1st gen ipad, on 12 hour flight to China, I watched 10 * 42 minute TV Episodes and then spent the rest of the time reading books on the Kindle app. I ran out of battery 20 minutes before coming in to land in Shanghai.

        Obviously if you have the brightness set full strength, it does reduce it a bit, but 3G + Wifi are the real power drain, turn them off and it lasts significantly longer.

        I also regularly get 7 hours of live streaming sky sports over 3G, although I really shouldn't have the cricket on at work :)

  16. Saucerhead Tharpe

    Looked at it, have had 2 HTC Droid phones

    But nah, I can't even watch Return of the Kings on it before the battery dies.

    At £300 I'd maybe have lived with that and Gingerbread, but not for the money

  17. twunt

    Vega!! Hahaha!

    @Danny14 - I can't believe people are still suggesting the Vega as a serious alternative to anything. Its only 200 quid for a reason - its garbage. If you can reach the screen over the huge bezel without stretching your arm, then you'll stuggle to see the washed out blurry images on the screen.

    Add to that the flimsy plastic coating, the crippled version of 2.2 and the fact that for just £80 more you could have bought a 1st gen ipad from Apple.

    Hold the Vega in your hand and feel the massive sense of disappointment - at least HTC have made an effort with this one.

    Make it £250 and people will buy this instead of the crime against Android that is the Vega.

    1. paul 97
      Mushroom

      Price is king.

      For £80 more (for one week only) yes you could have had an old iPad. I expect on ebay a vega sold somewhere for £100 at somepoint. iPad 1 special offer was a v good deal - but its still 40% more! For just £100,000 more you could have got a Bentley.

      Yes , Its only 200 quid for a reason - its got cheap plastic and a dull screen.

      Yes , Its got a crap version of 2.2 android - (can easily be sorted) but still has a better internet experience than a £500 iPad2 because of flash.

      Vegas not great - but its a lot cheaper than competition. For most people this is a very very important point.

      1. twunt

        Not true

        1st Gen ipads ARE still available for £289 - direct from Apple.

        The Vega just doesn't compare to it in terms of quality.

        The only thing going for it is that it can play flash videos - but honestly - you really won't miss it.

  18. twunt

    iPad battery life?

    10 hours? THere or there abouts - plenty of test of it outlasting 10 hours too

    http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/ipad-battery-appears-to-exceed-apple-estimates/7897

    In real life usage (browsing, mailing, twittering, facebooking and gaming) I go 3 or 4 days without charge. Standby is very efficient too - 1 or 2 % overnight.

    I'm talking ipad 1 here

  19. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Pay to Unlock it

    Don't for get the extra £20.00 or thereabout to unlock it even if you didn't buy it with a data plan.

    Some 'johhny foreigners' on ebay are trying to flog them for well over £600 smackeroos.

    Fail Obviously. Far too expensive.

  20. g e
    FAIL

    Hate to put a smirk on crapple's face but

    This is way too dear.

    Was waiting to see the price of these as I was definitely going to check one out. I do know for a fact, though, that I won't be spending that kind of money on a tablet device. My Desire HD does enough of what that does and I already have it, thanks.

    So no, HTC, I will definitely not even be checking a Flyer out now I know the pricing. Fail.

    (And no, Apple, you don't make anything I want, either, so stop smirking at the back there)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @ g e

      What makes you think I'm smirking ?

      I'm too busy with customers to have the time to smirk. snffft.

  21. Piro Silver badge
    FAIL

    As everyone else says...

    ... Far too much. When I saw it come up on HTC's page, and the price, I shook my head. Who the hell would buy one at this cost? Slashed in half it would become attractive (but I still wouldn't buy one at that price, personally I've pre-ordered the dirt cheap Kogan tablet).

  22. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    High st prices

    Apart from Apple fans, and people with more money than sense - are any reg readers actually buying tablets on the high st?

    My 'straight from China' MID7 2.2 tablet cost $90 with shipping - seems to do everything a tablet should.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Is that the one with the via 8650?

      LOL you must not do much with a tablet then. Don't assume that's what others use theirs for.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Doesn't do voice over GSM/bluetooth...

    Nevermind.

  24. Johnr
    Thumb Up

    Nice Music Choice

    Aimee Mann - great music , mostly unknown - nice to see it on your Flyer

  25. Rob Daglish
    Facepalm

    Bloody lovely...

    Was looking for a mifi at the weekend, but after failing in both Orange and Vodafone, I decided to get an android phone and use my existing sim to tether to, so I'd allow myself to spend up to the mifi+12 months line rental on a new toy, so roughly 250 quid. Realised that brought the streak into play, and the Commtiva n700. Didn't really care for the Commtiva, no-one had the streak, went in to 3to have a look (no signal in this county since the network share stopped) and looked at the flyer. It was a) gorgeous b)gorgeous, c) stunningly quick and d) quite expensive.

    For the price of the flyer with a 7" screen, on a network I can't use, I could replace my (perfectly good) iPad1 - the only mistake I made was buying a non 3G one.

    In the finish up, after using the flyer, I decided there was no was I could live with the Commtiva and decided to splash the extra on a galaxy tab, but after a bit of shopping around, got one for £245 sim free from phones4u, who couldn't understand why I didn't want to take one for only £99 now, and £45 per month for the next 24 months...

  26. Head
    Thumb Up

    Hmmm

    I am sure if you can afford it, it will leave you in a blissful state of post Metrosexual wank-spasm.

  27. Tim99 Silver badge
    WTF?

    They're having a larf

    An Apple 10" 16GB Wi-Fi fondlePad for £399, vs £480 for a 7" Android with a pen?

    The Apple has a 1024-by-768 screen vs 1024 x 600 for the HTC.

    Alright not the same thing, but a capacitive pen for the Apple is under a tenner...

    OK, I already have a fondlePad, but I'm also a Linux fanboi, so I'd buy the HTC at £299.

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