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HTC Flyer tablet hands-on

Published May 23rd, 2011 11:35AM EDT
BGR

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HTC’s first tablet is now on sale exclusively at Best Buy, and we’ve been playing with one for the last couple days. We first saw it at MWC and then we played with Sprint’s version, the EVO View 4G, at CTIA, but you know the drill… it’s always totally different when you have one up close for an extended period of time. For all intents and purposes, the HTC Flyer really is a large HTC Sense smartphone, and that results in a good experience at some times and a not-so-good experience at others. The Flyer features the latest Sense UI that included 3D home screen effects, an improved lock screen, an updated UI and more. However, the tablet is a bit chunky and it’s kind of annoying that the rear cover isn’t symmetrical; the plastic antenna covers jut out from the smooth machined aluminum case and the end result is odd. The Flyer features capacitive Android menu buttons on both orientations which is a nice effect — they disappear and reappear along the bezel for landscape and portrait use — and battery life in our limited use seems to be pretty solid. All in all, however, the experience isn’t too different from HTC’s smartphones and we wish there were some bigger twists that might help make the Flyer more unique. We’ll have much more in our full review soon, but in the meantime, you know where to find the high-res shots.

Jonathan S. Geller
Jonathan Geller Founder, President & Editor-in-chief

Jonathan S. Geller founded Boy Genius Report, now known as BGR, in 2006. It became the biggest mobile news destination in the world by the end of 2009, and BGR was acquired by leading digital media company PMC in April 2010.

Jonathan is President of BGR Media, LLC., and Editor-in-chief of the BGR website.

What started as a side project at the age of 16, quickly transpired into 24-hour days and nights of sharing exclusive and breaking news about the mobile communications industry. BGR now reaches up to 100 million readers a month through the website, syndication partners, and additional channels.