Can't wait to get your hands on the HTC Flyer, the company's first Android tablet? Well, you'll have to wait a little longer, but not much. The 7-inch tablet is now available to pre-order in the UK, courtesy of online retailer Clove Technology.
Clove says the first stocks of the Flyer are due to touch down in mid-April, and it's slapped a £600 price tag on the device. Clove warns that final pricing hasn't been confirmed yet, so it may tweak the cost once HTC confirms the official selling price for the device.
The Flyer was unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February. It raised eyebrows due to HTC's decision to use Google's Android 2.4 Gingerbread software, rather than the tablet-optimised Android 3.0 Honeycomb. We're assuming an upgrade will be pushed out sooner rather than later to bring the Flyer up to date with rivals like the Motorola Xoom.
HTC's first slate has a 7-inch screen, putting it in direct competition with Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which came out last year. HTC is slapping its Sense user interface on top of Android, and is also talking up the Scribe technology used to scribble handwriting on the screen, using the Flyer's stylus.
A 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front camera put the iPad 2 to shame. The device also offers 32GB of storage and a 1.5GHz single-core processor. The version being offered by Clove is the 3G and Wi-Fi model, although we're assuming it's SIM-free, since no operator is mentioned on the pre-order page.
The Flyer is also notable for being the first mobile device to ship with the OnLive cloud-based gaming service, something flagged up in Clove's product listing. That said, we're not sure if UK Flyer owners will be merrily streaming games from day one, since the US service is still working on its UK launch plans. Last year, however, OnLive sounded pretty positive about Blighty.
Something that may provide food for thought before pre-ordering a Flyer is this week's rumour that HTC is working on a 10-inch Honeycomb tablet. But, as yet, there has been no official confirmation beyond its listing in a US retailer's training materials.
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Comments 6
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Anonymous 17 March, 2011 10:21
SO excited! But can't afford that price tag - iPads are much cheaper which is a shame.
Anonymous 17 March, 2011 10:48
Single core processor, Android 2.4... and £600?!!! Can't see these flying out the door at that sort of price
RobertB123 17 March, 2011 14:24
Yeah.. Even The iPad 1 Is Better, You could Buy A Fully-Featured i5 PC With Atleast 8GB Of ram Or MORE For That Price, What A Rip Off.
anonymous 17 March, 2011 16:32
I had high hope for this one but it look as though Apple will be getting my hard earned notes once again!
anonymous 17 March, 2011 16:34
That was some shocking grammar there. Pleads Forgiveness...
ace9988 17 March, 2011 23:02
usually pre-order price tags are always shockingly high....especially from third party retailers, but im getting my first apple device with the ipad 2!...and yes i do have a desire HD too that runs at 1.8ghz before i get labelled as part of either faction =P