Flyer vs Kindle Fire

[KoukiFC3S]

Anyone else debating on the two?

The Kindle is cheaper, but I feel like the Flyer can do more since it has the android market.

Specs wise, the Kindle has a dual core but only 512MB of ram. I think I would rather have the higher clocked single core with 1GB of RAM.

 

[Rally Android]

No memory expansion = dead tablet for me. I like Amazon, but I don't like just using there services only.

 

[JediJesus95]

Don't forget about the front and back cameras that the Flyer has and the Fire doesn't.

 

[yapkuen]

Don't forget about the front and back cameras that the Flyer has and the Fire doesn't.

If the Fire and Flyer had come out at the same time, I would've chosen the Flyer without a second thought -- overall, it looks better on paper. But now that I've had the Flyer for awhile, I'd probably be torn if given the opportunity to choose between the two. I thought I'd use the pen a lot more, but for various reasons, I simply don't. I never use the cameras on the Flyer (the back camera on my Droid Incredible is better anyway), and for the most part I just end up using my Flyer as a comic reader and e-reader, the latter of which is mostly done through the Kindle app anyway. My main hangup with the Fire is, as Rally mentioned, the lack of expandable memory. I have Amazon MP3 on my Flyer, but I much prefer accessing my media locally over streaming it from Amazon Cloud Player, and I have plenty of media. I had an 8GB iPod Touch back in the day, and I ran out of storage on that thing way too quickly.

 

[HalizDad]

I sold my NC for the Flyer the day it dropped to $300.00...I guess that answers the question...No SD card in the Fire = No money from me. Even if it had an SD card, without the entire Android market, and the ability to download anything I want, I wouldn't do it. The Flyer makes an OUTSTANDING e-reader too, which is why I bought it in the first place.

 

[Artisanthe]

There is little to compare between the HTC Flyer and the Kindle Fire....other than Price and Size...which are now both similar. 100.00 more the Flyer?....it's a no brainer.....if you can find one. My local BB sold out immediately.

The Flyer is a full featured Gingerbread Tablet that currently awaits it's Honeycomb Update and the Increased Pen Functionality that comes with it. Since the Rom has already been leaked....and HTC already has shown the Full Pen Functionality on the Flyers bigger brother the Jetstream....I feel pretty sure that we will see this Upgrade. Remember, the Upgrade was promised at Launch and the Flyer was designed with this in mind. If you have not expereinced the Pen on the Jetstream yet, do yourself a favor and check it out at an ATT store. The Flyer and Lenovo tablets are nowhere near this advanced. The recent price drop for the Flyer likely owes more to Samsung's impending 7 inch Galaxy Tab Plus that is rumored to be launching with Honeycomb (no pen). Sammy is also rumored to be aggressively pricing the new Tab in the 350.00 or less range. The Fire just hurried the price drop along.

The Subsidized Kindle Fire....being offered below it's estimated actual cost....is a stripped down Android Tablet that is meant to be little more than a Portal for Amazon Purchases. Amazon has stolen a page from the Apple Playbook here. It is narrowly focused to stream Amazon content and the browse Amazon websites. It is basically a larger iPod Touch and has been similarly Optimized (crippled?) to run best in the Amazon Environment. It is ultimately a Trojan Horse to get you to buy more from Amazon.....Very Smart.

The Amazon Fire has little use as a Business aid and has even been cut off from the Android Market and the Apps there. You are forced into the Amazon Market instead. This is not all a bad thing....and depends on what you want or need. If you want a souped up Reader that makes your Amazon Purchases more streamlined....then the Kindle Fire is for you. But if you want an actual Tablet for productivity that does everything the Fire does and much much more.....it's no contest. We wait for the Honeycomb update though.

Happy Hunting....D

 

[yapkuen]

Artisanthe, I'm intrigued -- how improved is the pen functionality in the Jetstream? Some of the reviews over in the Jetstream forum make it sound like it's basically the same old pen, except you can also use it to navigate, which isn't all that exciting to me.

 

[Artisanthe]

Artisanthe, I'm intrigued -- how improved is the pen functionality in the Jetstream? Some of the reviews over in the Jetstream forum make it sound like it's basically the same old pen, except you can also use it to navigate, which isn't all that exciting to me.

I've been following in that Forum as well....and had been pretty frustrated until I put my hands on an actual Jetstream Tablet. I got the ATT Rep to allow me to download Sketchbook Express (free) to give the Pen a further workout. It's a limited version of the App, but still, it has enough "goodies" to let you work the pen out a bit. The Rep had almost no idea what the Jetstream was about other than "Android Honeycomb Tablet" and was happy to watch me play. The Pen works throughout the various Apps...and you can draw nearly anywhere. You can Mark Up PDF's and use the Pen to Navigate....no more clumsy switching between touch and pen like the current Flyer.

Here's why I am stoked.....I work as an Artist/Designer...and the ability to snap pictures of my work....sketch over them and write comments....and then have the client initial it on the spot and email it to both of us is Invaluable to me. I work in Specialty Construction.....and the Flyer is my Go-To tool for showing Project pics and for Communication of ideas. There really is no other option right now....except for the Jetstream and the forthcoming Samsung "Note"....a 7 inch tablet that is rumored to be in the 7-800.00 range.

With Adobe and Wacom both at work on pen and touch based APK's as well, I really look forward to the future for Tablets and Artists. I can already generate a signable PDF contract with my Flyer....it's just easier on the Jetstream. I tether it (Flyer) to my Dinc for more flexibility and email access. I look forward to the Flyer2 which I hope will add a Flash for the Camera ....and a Leap forward in Pen productivity.

Yapkuen....all I can say is ....go pick up a Jetstream and play with it. I think you will see the potential and I'd be interested to hear your take on it. If the Jetstream were WiFi....I would already own it. Meanwhile, I think the Flyer for 299 is a Steal...D

 

[HalizDad]

You can use the pen anywhere on the gingerbread flyer too...including pdf. It may be different in honeycomb, but you can scribble anywhere on gingerbread too is my point.

Sent from my HTC Flyer P512 using Tapatalk

 

[yapkuen]

You can use the pen anywhere on the gingerbread flyer too...including pdf. It may be different in honeycomb, but you can scribble anywhere on gingerbread too is my point.

Sent from my HTC Flyer P512 using Tapatalk

Sounds like one major difference is that HTC has somehow made it so that on Honeycomb, the pen will be recognized as an input for certain drawing/handwriting apps even if that app is not using the pen APIs provided by HTC. The Sketchbook Express app, for example, which Artisanthe apparently drew in using the pen on a Jetstream, takes a Scribble the moment you touch the screen with the pen on the Flyer. I'm not sure exactly how they pulled it off to make the software recognize specific apps and make them pen-enabled.

 

[dstrauss#IM]

This one is truly a no-brainer for anyone who would be reading this forum, and anyone with even a shred of technical ability. For only $100 more than the Kindle Fire, you get double the internal memory (16gb); double the ram (1gb); micros SD slot (up to 32gb, for total of 48gb of storage); HDMI video out (reqiures third party adapter); GPS; bluetooth; Android Market; Google Maps and other services; and the N-Trig Scribe pen technology (Steve Jobs IS NOT RIGHT - an active digital pen is NOT a stylus like the old Palm Pilot days - just annotate a PDF one time with any active digitizer device and you will be hooked for life). In fact, the only thing it is "missing" from the Kindle Fire is the integrated Amazon purchasing environment, and if you are a Prime member anyway you can get all of that through the browser, WITHOUT Amazon knowing everything you are doing in its Silk web watching EVERY movement you make in their browser.

 

[HalizDad]

Oh. I don't use Sketchbook express so I didn't know. Maybe if honeycomb is offered (which I doubt I'll download due to previous experience) it will come with it or a free version

Sent from one of my gadgets

 

[gus6464]

I just purchased a flyer last night from best buy and I also have the fire on preorder. I have 45 days to decide if I want to keep the flyer and so far its an OK tablet but I do not like the fact that it comes with so much bloatware installed out of the box. First thing I did was root it and install a custom rom from xda but it still has a lot of stuff I do not care for. I have an ipad 2 but I find it's too big sometimes. I will say though that it's tons more responsive than the 10.1 and xoom but still kinda laggy on some things compared to the ipad. Stock android web browser feels pretty sluggish and I wish there was something for android like icab browser for ios.

As it stands right now I'm probably going to get the fire and save 100 bucks but this is by far the best tablet I have used with android. Just wish it didn't have so much bloatware preinstalled.

Sent from my HTC Flyer P512 using Tapatalk

 

[BigCTM]

I am in the same boat but I am leaning toward keeping the Flyer. I actually like HTC Sense and some of the bloatware that HTC installs - much better than some of the competition. The Fire has basically no advantages over the Flyer except price, dual core and maybe Gorilla Glass if you push it.

It is much faster than the Tab 10.1 I just sold. I am using Dolphin Browser HD and like it quite a bit. The Flyer has many advantages which were stated real well in some earlier posts.

HTC should have priced this at 299 to begin with and they might be in a different place now.

I just purchased a flyer last night from best buy and I also have the fire on preorder. I have 45 days to decide if I want to keep the flyer and so far its an OK tablet but I do not like the fact that it comes with so much bloatware installed out of the box. First thing I did was root it and install a custom rom from xda but it still has a lot of stuff I do not care for. I have an ipad 2 but I find it's too big sometimes. I will say though that it's tons more responsive than the 10.1 and xoom but still kinda laggy on some things compared to the ipad. Stock android web browser feels pretty sluggish and I wish there was something for android like icab browser for ios.

As it stands right now I'm probably going to get the fire and save 100 bucks but this is by far the best tablet I have used for android. Just wish it didn't have so much bloatware preinstalled.

Sent from my HTC Flyer P512 using Tapatalk

 

[yapkuen]

I
Yapkuen....all I can say is ....go pick up a Jetstream and play with it. I think you will see the potential and I'd be interested to hear your take on it. If the Jetstream were WiFi....I would already own it. Meanwhile, I think the Flyer for 299 is a Steal...D

Hmmm... I think from your perspective as an artist/designer, the changes HTC made in the Jetstream definitely do enhance the quality of the pen. For me, primarily a note-taker, the main shortcomings I saw with the Flyer were 1) lack of on-the-fly OCR, or even localized after-the-fact OCR (not all of my handwritten notes are suitable for uploading to Evernote for OCR, as the cloud is still somewhat of a legal gray area when it comes to protecting confidential business information, trade secrets, and protected work product); and 2) lack of an exportable file format for notes (also related to my inability to load some notes to the cloud; the Notes app saves handwritten notes as several separate "layers" of image files, which makes it hard to gather them all together for document retention purposes). Also kind of related to #2 is the inability to simply open up a note from a file manager, such as Astro. I ran into this problem when I backed up my HTC Notes folder onto an SD card because I had to do a factory reset on my Flyer. Even after I copied the folder back to its original location post-reset, I couldn't access the old notes again in the Notes app because apparently there's something unique about the notebook structure which, once deleted during a clean wipe, can't be replicated again. This could be fixed by allowing the Notes app to save to .pdf format, since PDFs can be re-opened and annotated in the PDF viewer as well as easily exported to a PC, but that option hasn't been made available. It's too bad, because I'd really like to use my Flyer as my primary note-taking tool so that I can be done with the stacks of writing pads and paper notebooks that clutter my office.

 

[Artisanthe]

This could be fixed by allowing the Notes app to save to .pdf format, since PDFs can be re-opened and annotated in the PDF viewer as well as easily exported to a PC, but that option hasn't been made available. It's too bad, because I'd really like to use my Flyer as my primary note-taking tool so that I can be done with the stacks of writing pads and paper notebooks that clutter my office.

I agree with you as to the PDF shortcomings and General OCR challenges. But.....this is an Android issue for the most part .....and not Tablet specific. The first Note App to have Full Clean export of PDF will be a Winner. I currently use EZPDF (Market)....a rapidly evolving PDF Reader and Tool. For now, there is no better way to do this. The Legalities of Cloud Storage will be Ironed out soon as well with So much Investment headed that way.

It will be interesting to watch the Odd Sized Mini Tablet.....Samsung's 5.4 inch Galaxy Note....when it launches. It is Note Specific and comes with a Pen. It is also curiously based on Gingerbread rather than Honeycomb.....even though it will launch a month or two from now. We'll see if there are any OCR breakthroughs.

OCR is like Voice Recognition.....a work in progress. There are so many "nuances" that must be "trained" into the Software. We are evolving Tablets for more Tool Specific Jobs and I believe this will come to the forefront. The first round of 10 inch tablets were best used for couch potatoes surfing the net without the weight of a Laptop. (I personally never cared much about Netflix or Facebook) The Flyer was the Only Tablet I have been interested in until the Jetstream for Business. I still prefer the 7 inch Form Factor. For now....I don't see a better horse to ride....so we wait.

I know this is a Kindle Fire vs Flyer thread.....but I think that has been mostly settled.

Best of Luck and Thanks for Sharing....D