The HTC Flyer announced today looks like it has the makings of a competent device and V3.co.uk had a chance to get hands-on with the tablet at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

First impressions were generally positive, although it does feel that HTC has played it safe. The 7in tablet will come with a 1,024 x 600 resolution, and the display was pleasantly crisp to look at. The device was also comfortable to hold although it does weigh a tad more than the Galaxy Tab at 415g.

The unibody design gives the Flyer a particularly sturdy feel and the tab looks like it's more than capable of surviving an accidental drop, certainly better than the iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab.

HTC will ship the device with Gingerbread, although it is unclear at this time whether it means 2.3 or 2.4. Still, the HTC Sense overlay, which has been designed from the ground up, looked as good as ever.

There were two features that really stood out as useful for enterprises. Firstly, tapping any screen with the stylus allows users to 'print screen' the display. Users can then annotate the pages, save them and then share with a single click.

This appears to be a very useful feature and works for every page on the device whether it is an application or web page. We were able to take a screen shot of the Android homescreen, for example, and annotate it.

Secondly, the note-taking feature was very impressive, with the Flyer able to record audio. This might sound like an average feature, but the record syncs with notes that are taken using the stylus.

Upon playback of recording, the device shows users where exactly during the recording they made notes. This is an impressive feature that could save a lot of time for business users attending long meetings and needing to skip to the important bits.

The device is also capable of syncing with the Evernote app, another appealing enterprise feature.

Video playback also looked impressive and the incorporation of the HTC Watch app, which allows users to download movies directly to the tablet, will no doubt be popular. Users are able to start watching movies while they are downloading and pause the download if necessary.

While we are disappointed that the tablet will not ship with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the HTC Sense interface goes some way towards making up for this, with deep integration. From what we have seen so far, HTC definitely looks like it is onto a winner here. The only thing standing that could potential put off users is an inflated price tag.

V3.co.uk will be posting a video demonstration of the HTC Flyer soon.

Author: Khidr Suleman

15 Feb 2011