HTC Flyer

HTC says its Flyer is 'a tablet like no other' on its website and like Creative's Ziio, it includes a stylus (HTC refers to it as a magic pen).

The stylus can be used for a variety of tasks such as sketching drawings, scribbling notes or even adding comments to documents. For the most part the pen has real use because drawing with the tip of your finger, for example, can be quite difficult depending on what you're trying to do.

At the same time using the Flyer with the pen makes the device seem somewhat dated, as pens like this were last seen on old tablet/notebooks, PDAs and smartphones years ago.

Measuring 195.4 x 122 x 13.2mm the Flyer is one of the smallest tablets in our July 2011 grouptest. In stark contrast the device which is priced at US $817, is also the most expensive device on test.           

Studying the tablet closely it's hard to agree with the price because, for starters, the Flyer doesn't ship with Android Honeycomb but rather an older version of the OS (2.3). Since Android 2.3 was designed for smartphones rather than tablets, the Flyer is a little more clunky to use than Honeycomb devices.

At the same time the tablet features only a single-core processor whereas most of the other devices in this price range feature dual-core chips. That said, the Flyer offers fluid performance and never really shows any signs of noticeable lag.