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Yesterday saw the unveiling of the new HTC Sensation smart phone, but the company also revealed a firm release date for the HTC Flyer tablet here in the UK. The company’s first Android slate will go on sale on 9 May.
We knew the device was expected to touch down that month already, since Carphone Warehouse, Clove and Amazon were all taking pre-orders for the device with an expected shipping date of May.
Details are scarce on when operators will start selling the Flyer, but it seems as though it’ll be available through a number of independent retailers in the meantime. HTC has also kept mum on pricing, although the three retailers listed above are all quoting a £600 price for the device.
That’s pretty steep given the 7-inch tablet is going up against the larger iPad 2, and several Android tablets running the latest Android 3.0 Honeycomb software, rather than the 2.3 Gingerbread OS that powers the Flyer.
Still, the Flyer is an impressive piece of kit, with a stylish aluminium unibody casing and a single-core 1.4GHz processor inside, as well as a stylus for writing notes on its touchscreen, with a dedicated HTC app for note-taking preloaded on the device.
The Flyer also runs a new version of HTC’s Sense software, which may make up for the lack of Honeycomb. Its debut in May will come ahead of a series of tablets from HTC that are due to go on sale this year. We’re expecting two follow-ups to the Flyer to be unveiled this summer, with bigger screens and Honeycomb software.
Are you itching to buy a Flyer? If so, why? If not, where do you think it falls down versus the competition? Post a comment to give your views.