The HTC Flyer. Best Tablet for Mobile Design? Whatcha Think?

Well, there’s been plenty of on-the-go excitement coming out of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) this week… who am I kidding. It’s mostly been tablet this and tablet that. They stand to be the ultimate tech toy this year and the variations of mobile computing companies are showing off are proof you’ll have plenty of options.

There is one however that stands above the fray. With all the MWC activities coming to an end, the Android-powered HTC Flyer has the features and the pressure-sensitive stylus no other tablet maker is providing. Are designers set to be more mobile? Could this be the real Wacom Cintiq killer? Whatcha think?

HTC Flyer Price

The price hasn’t been announced yet, but it has been leaked on Amazon Germany. It’s set at 669 Euros (730 USD) configured with all the features listed below.

Thoughts on the HTC Flyer Features

We caught up with Jeffrey Matthias of Jeffrey Mathias Design who gave us his thoughts on the new HTC Flyer specs, the form factor and using it for design.

1.5GHz Snapdragon single-core processor
Interesting, since the 1.0 Ghz dual-core Tegra seems to be the processor in vogue with the new run of Android tablets and since the iPad 2 is rumored to have a dual-core. This probably makes it great for single tasking though. I have an iPhone for listening to my stories (audiobooks) while I work, so this set up is likely fine. Power consumption will be the bigger concern.

7″ size
I’ll have to play with one for the final decision, but the smaller size (vs 10″) will likely make it easier to rotate. That is important for my drawing style. I never learned to draw a straight line in more than one direction. It will also make it more portable, meaning more likely to be with me when I need it. I am guessing that 7″ is large enough for sketching purposes.

1GB RAM
This is good.

Cameras
5MP color with auto-focus and 1.3 MP front facing camera. The resolution is just so-so, but who cares? I will be using my phone before this thing for rear camera photos and front facing is good enough for video conferencing.

Android 2.4 Gingerbread
This is annoying, but I found a blog citing HTC saying that Honeycomb (3.0) would be on it by Q2 2011. I blame Google for this one. Still can’t figure out why they gave Motorola the exclusive time with it.

Other thoughts
The price is going to be the deciding factor here [See above]. I was waiting for the iPad 2 specs to be officially announced because I had given up on a real stylus. In my mind, I’m comparing this to the $1000 for a 12″ Wacom Cintiq, so the pricing will likely be ok no matter what. I know the levels of pressure sensitivity are unlikely to be the 1024 the Wacom can boast and the size is smaller, but I think that the form factor just may make this a winner for industrial designers. I don’t get the sense from their web copy, though, that we are the intended audience. I can’t really figure out who is the intended audience.

Thanks Jeffrey. Great thoughts. I’m liking the size. Another inch might be nice, but really, this makes it easy to travel with or throw in a pocket. I’m not impressed so much with it coming out with Android 2.4 either, so looking forward to Q2. Even better would be the new Snapdragon chip, the 2.5GHz Snapdragon also revealed this week. There’s barely a mention of the stylus, how it functions or how sensitive it is. It’s very much not being positioned toward any particular person or type of work. Smart for HTC. I think they’ve got a strong product here.

What are your thoughts?