Poll - Will You Pay the $600 Best Buy Price for the HTC Flyer?

[yapkuen]

So....I watch the carrypad tablet war live today. 3 hours they compared playbook, flyer, galaxy tab for 7 inch and the acer, and others for 10 inch tablets. This carrypad review should be on youtube by tomorrow if anyone wants to watch it.

The HTC flyer is plagued with alot of problems. The single core cannot handle 720p video let alone 1080p. The pen has to be perpendicular to the screen or it does not always register the pen strokes.

Considering the high price and problems with the software I have decided to pass on the HTC Flyer. I canceled my order and bought a playbook.

After watching the comparison to me it seems as if the Flyer was designed to be pen-less and to compete with the Galaxy tab. They then added on the pen last minute.

I will be watching the 10 inch tablets and hopefully they will come with the pen and better integration.

While I really like the idea of the pen and the software its first generation just isnt up to par and that leaves you with a 1.5ghz single core tablet that cannot even handle 720p video.

When I went to talk Best Buy people about my pre order they had no clue if the pen was extra and they have no idea if its coming out on Sunday. They said they doubt it will be out Sunday as the rep hasn't come to train them on the device yet, course it is only Tuesday.

I'm watching part 1 of that right now (or at least, I think it's the same video -- I got the link off the carrypad site) and so far haven't seen the part where they try 720p video (I skipped around a bit to find the Flyer parts, so I may have missed it), but so far they're pretty complimentary of the speed -- one of the guys just asserted that as far as browser rendering speed and accelerometer responsiveness, he's not yet seen a single Honeycomb tablet that is as quick as the Flyer. "It's god damn fast, and it makes sense, and it's good."

YouTube - Tablet Wars Live Review Part 1 of 3

 

[shadohh]

It is in part 3of3 it is at the very end if I remember.

 

[yapkuen]

It is in part 3of3 it is at the very end if I remember.

Hmmm. Maybe we're not watching the same thing. I'm at the end of the last installment where they sum up each of the 7" tablets, and their summary of the Flyer is, "It is super fast. The 1.5 GHz Snapdragon really kicks asses [sic]." No mention of being unable to handle video. I skimmed through some of the other parts looking for the video test, but the only thing I could find was them showing off the multitasking with 1080p video on the Playbook. Their main complaint on the Flyer was that it costs too much and the pen is easy to lose.

EDIT: From their closing remarks it sounds like they continued to interact with folks in the live chat after they turned off the recording cameras -- was it possibly something they demoed after the recording was done?

 

[S Prime]

Hmmm. Maybe we're not watching the same thing. I'm at the end of the last installment where they sum up each of the 7" tablets, and their summary of the Flyer is, "It is super fast. The 1.5 GHz Snapdragon really kicks asses [sic]." No mention of being unable to handle video. I skimmed through some of the other parts looking for the video test, but the only thing I could find was them showing off the multitasking with 1080p video on the Playbook. Their main complaint on the Flyer was that it costs too much and the pen is easy to lose.

EDIT: From their closing remarks it sounds like they continued to interact with folks in the live chat after they turned off the recording cameras -- was it possibly something they demoed after the recording was done?

Carrypad will be doing a live interactive review of the Flyer tomorrow. See the schedule in the following link.

HTC Flyer (Retail Version) Overview and Unboxing Video*|*Carrypad

 

[shadohh]

Apparently.

Its just sad it cant do 720p flash.

 

[yapkuen]

Apparently.

Its just sad it cant do 720p flash.

Oh, was it 720p video over Flash, like in a Youtube player? Or 720p on a video file stored on the Flyer's storage?

Being unable to handle 720p video on Flash is still a bit iffy, but much more forgiveable in my book than a locally stored 720p video file. I sometimes don't even allow my computer to run Youtube at 720p because it can't handle it.

 

[S Prime]

Oh, was it 720p video over Flash, like in a Youtube player? Or 720p on a video file stored on the Flyer's storage?

Being unable to handle 720p video on Flash is still a bit iffy, but much more forgiveable in my book than a locally stored 720p video file. I sometimes don't even allow my computer to run Youtube at 720p because it can't handle it.

720p flash on YouTube are HD videos, are they not and doesn't quality depend on multiple factors?

 

[shadohh]

The only two factors I am aware of would be the connection speed and flash performance.

It is not a connection speed problem, only a flash performance problem.

720p flash on YouTube are HD videos, are they not and doesn't quality depend on multiple factors?

 

[shadohh]

It certainly could just be flash sucking.

They did not try a local video. I know HTC has their video library HTC Watch? I have no idea if those are HD or SD thou.

As for my BlackBerry, I may have made a quick decision and failed. The blackberry OS is beautiful. Rivals anything I have ever used. Absolutely no APPS available.

I am already missing google voice search and all my apps I paid for on amazon app store.

I may end up taking it back and getting the flyer anyway. I have 14 days to decide.

Oh, was it 720p video over Flash, like in a Youtube player? Or 720p on a video file stored on the Flyer's storage?

Being unable to handle 720p video on Flash is still a bit iffy, but much more forgiveable in my book than a locally stored 720p video file. I sometimes don't even allow my computer to run Youtube at 720p because it can't handle it.

 

[S Prime]

It certainly could just be flash sucking.

They did not try a local video. I know HTC has their video library HTC Watch? I have no idea if those are HD or SD thou.

As for my BlackBerry, I may have made a quick decision and failed. The blackberry OS is beautiful. Rivals anything I have ever used. Absolutely no APPS available.

I am already missing google voice search and all my apps I paid for on amazon app store.

I may end up taking it back and getting the flyer anyway. I have 14 days to decide.

I have seen people complain about poor quality 720p on YouTube even on the Xoom. So I am not ready to jump ship on the Flyer yet.

 

[yapkuen]

As for my BlackBerry, I may have made a quick decision and failed. The blackberry OS is beautiful. Rivals anything I have ever used. Absolutely no APPS available.

I am already missing google voice search and all my apps I paid for on amazon app store.

I may end up taking it back and getting the flyer anyway. I have 14 days to decide.

Based on playing around with demo units in stores, I definitely agree that the BlackBerry Tablet OS is a thing of wonder. Blazing fast, the navigation gestures are awesome, and of course the ability to multitask while running a 1080p video in the background is great. The fact that it doesn't even have basic Google apps is a major hangup for me though, as is the lack of native email and calendar -- I know RIM keeps reassuring folks that they're coming, but I still don't think the tablet should've hit market without them.

As it stands right now, I think the Playbook is good as an internet consumption device, but not much else.

 

[shadohh]

720p playback was fixed in honeycomb update 3.1 fro xoom and all tegra2 devices.

I have seen people complain about poor quality 720p on YouTube even on the Xoom. So I am not ready to jump ship on the Flyer yet.

 

[YourMobileGuru]

As it stands right now, I think the Playbook is good as an internet consumption device, but not much else.

Internet and media yes I tend to agree... for now... I do predict that a year from now Playbook will definitely be a contender. It may never have as many apps as iOS and Android but if you remember the same was true of Android a short year and a half or so ago....

 

[S Prime]

720p playback was fixed in honeycomb update 3.1 fro xoom and all tegra2 devices.

Could we expect to see Honeycomb correct it on the Flyer, with it using a single core processor?

 

[shadohh]

I really dont know. It would take optimizations from adobe and I dont see it happening.

Could we expect to see Honeycomb correct it on the Flyer, with it using a single core processor?

 

[S Prime]

T J's video

Check out T J's video in the Flyer Orderet!. He has offered to answer our questions as well.

 

[shadohh]

I really dont know. It would take optimizations from adobe and I dont see it happening.

Could we expect to see Honeycomb correct it on the Flyer, with it using a single core processor?

 

[yapkuen]

carrypad.com just did a 720p video on YouTube and chippy estimated ~10% frame drop, which is meh, but when he brought up the progress bar on the video, it looked like the playback was right on the heels of the buffering, so it's not clear how much is a result of buffering and how much is a result of poor handling by the processor. I can't seem to access the IRC from work so I wasn't able to ask a followup about that.

He's moving on to on-board media testing now, including hopefully 720p and 1080p video files.

EDIT: He just tried onboard media, and it was disappointing. No 720p or 1080p playback (the software just says it can't play), although he noted that 720p shot from the onboard camera does work, so he suspects it plays low profile 720p but not others. Also no MKV, no MOV, and no MPEG-2 support. .divx extension is not recognized, but it works if renamed to .avi. Overall it seems Galaxy Tab is better for video support.

 

[shadohh]

http://www.ustream.tv/user/meetmobility/videos

 

[shadohh]

HTC hinted at getting two big apps using PEN support. I think one will be Kindle atleast.