14 DAY TRIAL // HTC’s first try on Android tablets, the HTC Flyer is now on sale in the UK. The slate is unlikely to get the latest Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade next year, but it is an interesting alternative to other 7-inch tablets with similar specs.
Android fans living in the UK can purchase the Wi-Fi only HTC Flyer tablet for just £199.97 (315 USD or 240 EUR) via online retailer Dixons.
The same retailer offers the 3G version of HTC Flyer for a discounted price as well. Customers who cannot live without 3G connectivity can now purchase this model for only £249 (390 USD or 300 EUR).
It is also worth mentioning that Dixons also offers a 10% discount on a tablet accessory when bought with any tablet in its portfolio with the exception of any Apple product.
HTC Flyer was launched back in May with Android 2.3 Gingerbread on board and was promised a Honeycomb upgrade in the near future.
However, it took the Taiwanese handset maker more than six months to deliver the Android 3.2 Honeycomb update to its HTC Flyer tablet. The delay must have been caused by the fact that Google released the tablet-optimized version of its mobile platform later than expected.
Anyway, the Flyer is solidly built and features decent hardware configuration. The tablet comes with a 7-inch LCD capacitive touchscreen that supports 600 x 1024 pixels resolution.
On the inside, the tablet is equipped with a single core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm MSM8255T Snapdragon CPU and an Adreno 205 graphics processing unit. It also packs 16 GB of internal memory, 1GB of RAM and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
When it comes to connectivity features, “the Flyer doesn't disappoint with its wireless versatility, with included Bluetooth 3.0 and WiFi 802.11 b/g/n technologies allowing easy hook-up with enabled devices and available networks.”
There’s also a 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and HD (720p) video recording, as well as a secondary 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.