[Jason Dunn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzn9LkvKM8E

"Introducing the HTC Flyer -- the big screen that's small enough to hold in your hand. The premium unibody construction looks great and feels solid in your hand, while still keeping the weight to less than a paperback book. Plus, it does most things your PC can -- and more!"

Although I feel a bit leery about HTC's new non-Honeycomb tablet from a will-they-upgrade-the-software perspective, there's a lot to like about this tablet. I've always been fond of the HTC Sense UI, and this tablet at 7" seems to hit a sweet spot for portability and productivity. Best Buy will be selling the WiFi only version via Best Buy in the spring, but no firm details on pricing just yet. This one has my attention though!

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzn9LkvKM8E

"Introducing the HTC Flyer -- the big screen that's small enough to hold in your hand. The premium unibody construction looks great and feels solid in your hand, while still keeping the weight to less than a paperback book. Plus, it does most things your PC can -- and more!"

Although I feel a bit leery about HTC's new non-Honeycomb tablet from a will-they-upgrade-the-software perspective, there's a lot to like about this tablet. I've always been fond of the HTC Sense UI, and this tablet at 7" seems to hit a sweet spot for portability and productivity. Best Buy will be selling the WiFi only version via Best Buy in the spring, but no firm details on pricing just yet. This one has my attention though!

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

The advantage of it being a HTC is the number of custom ROMs available. I'm sure someone will get Honeycomb up on it once Google releases the AOSP version.

[alese]

HTC allready confirmed that Flyer will get/have Honeycomb so I wouldn't worry about that.

Also, at the moment, I doubt that Honeycomb would bring anything special to the Flyer - the 7" screen is rather small so the "phone" OS and applications work just great (same as Samsung TAB), the Honeycomb is buggy (at least on Xoom), Flyer doesn't have dual core CPU so optimizations for it in Honeycomb wont give you any advantages - I would say that for now Android 2.x is just fine especially combined with HTC customizations.
I love the idea of Scribe, together with Evernote integration, this could be a perfect digital notebook - and you really don't need Honeycomb for it.
My biggest problem with the Flyer is price, just like with all other "mainstream" Android tablets - it looks like in Europe it will cost 600+ EUR and that is just too much, especially compared to iPad.
If Flyer would be something like 400 or maybe even 300 EUR that would be something completely different - ah the wishfull thinking...

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by alese

HTC allready confirmed that Flyer will get/have Honeycomb so I wouldn't worry about that.

Interesting! I hadn't heard that.

Originally Posted by alese

Also, at the moment, I doubt that Honeycomb would bring anything special to the Flyer - the 7" screen is rather small so the "phone" OS and applications work just great (same as Samsung TAB), the Honeycomb is buggy (at least on Xoom), Flyer doesn't have dual core CPU so optimizations for it in Honeycomb wont give you any advantages - I would say that for now Android 2.x is just fine especially combined with HTC customizations.

That makes sense, but my concern is also that applications designed for Honeycomb wouldn't be compatible with Android 2.x...but if the Flyer is going to get 3.0, it's not much of a concern then.

Originally Posted by alese

My biggest problem with the Flyer is price, just like with all other "mainstream" Android tablets - it looks like in Europe it will cost 600+ EUR and that is just too much, especially compared to iPad.

Indeed, who would have thought - ever - that Apple would be the "affordable" tablet option, at least in terms of what you get for the money? You get a nine inch screen with the iPad 2, and for the same price or even a bit more, you get a seven inch screen on the other tablets. It should be cheaper for the smaller screen...

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

€600 is Europe's price. Since when has anything electronics-related in Europe cost less than the US?

It's also interesting to note the reaction when manufacturers, for once, aren't undercutting Apple by much: It's not cheap enough!

When they were undercutting Apple: It's cheap, it can't be good!

Pricing. It's hard to win.

[alese]

Originally Posted by Lee Yuan Sheng

�€600 is Europe's price. Since when has anything electronics-related in Europe cost less than the US?

It's also interesting to note the reaction when manufacturers, for once, aren't undercutting Apple by much: It's not cheap enough!

When they were undercutting Apple: It's cheap, it can't be good!

Pricing. It's hard to win.

True, that's European price, but you get iPAD2 16GB WiFi for 500 and 3G model for something like 650.
It's pretty much the same situation as it was with Galaxy TAB, that was 600+ last fall when I bought my iPAD for 450 EUR, true I didn't get 3G but I got bigger screen and more and better applications.

Average person will be in similar situation - you get bigger tablet for lower/similar price, it has to be a better deal...
I guess pricing for these devices is linked to the pricing for high end smartphones - 7" device has to cost more than 4" phone with more or less the same HW and SW, and since such phones are 500-600 unlocked, tablets have to be 600+...
It's funny how Apple doesnt have this problem, they are selling iPhone4 unlocked for up to 800 EUR here and noone is asking how come that bigger and more powerfull iPAD with same SW costs less.