Get this HTC Flyer deal @ Dixons
If you've been keeping an eye on the HUKD Boxing Day sales dashboard, you might've already clocked this deal for the HTC Flyer. Currys is selling the 16GB Flyer for £199.97. Goodness.
The HTC Flyer has a 7in stylus-loving display, 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and front and rear cameras. Click this here link for full HTC Flyer specs.
Various delivery options available.
(Thanks to justingalore at HUKD)
jmarcelino Dec. 26, 2011 at 15:55
Think most 7" tablets will be priced around £200 in the new year. The Kindle Fire competition will make sure of that.
You need to buy the optional £50 stylus to use the special screen on this one. Apart from that the hardware is quite dated. The single core Snapdragon CPU in particular combined with slow RAM is not going to keep up with much.
If you can wait a month for new products to pop up it should be worth it.
blizzard7 Dec. 26, 2011 at 22:18
New products will cost more though and this won't go much lower (if at all) than the £179 this cost a few days ago. Its got 1 GB of RAM which is plenty and 1.5 GHz isn't terrible. I'd say it's a fine budget buy.
matt101101 / MOD Dec. 26, 2011 at 22:24
I have to agree with you, Blizzard. The processor is OK, especially if it can be overclocked, and 1gb of RAM is as much as any tablet currently available (even the Transformer Prime only has 1gb of RAM).
This is also an HTC, that means solid build quality and a 24 month warranty. I'd have this over the Playbook (which is also currently reduced), or the Kindle Fire as that needs hacking to run anything like proper Android.
jmarcelino Dec. 26, 2011 at 23:04
New products will cost more though and this won't go much lower (if at all) than the £179 this cost a few days ago. It's got 1 GB of RAM which is plenty and 1.5 GHz isn't terrible. I'd say it's a fine budget buy.
New products in the 7" space will have to compete with the Kidle Fire so they won't cost much more than than this.
The Snapdragon CPU has a decent clock speed but has a rubbish memory interface which kills its speed. You can see the lagginess and it'll remain so no matter the software.
matt101101 / MOD Dec. 26, 2011 at 23:25
It's not a bad CPU at all, yes it's not as fast as the Exynos etc, but it's hardly slow. It's the same CPU (though clocked slightly higher), that the Nokia Lumia 800 and the other 1.4ghz WP7 devices use.
Also, you're making the massive assumption that other companies won't just jump ship from the 7" market next year, as Amazon are making a loss on the hardware to make up for it in after-sale "Amazon ecosystem", purchases.
For £179, the Flyer is a bargain, the Kindle will cost about £200, that's 10% more for a tablet with a massively restricted version of Android, totally geared towards having you spend more money.
On a final note, don't forget the Flyer has two cameras and the Fire has none, 7" tabs are great for video calls, even if the rear camera is a bit pointless 
.
blizzard7 Dec. 27, 2011 at 01:23
Well the Kindle Fire hasn't exactly been getting rave reviews, and the Kindle Fire has what 8 GBs built-in? The HTC Flyer has 16 GBs + a microSD slot, which for me is checkmate right there 
Stelph Dec. 27, 2011 at 06:48
Doesn't the flyer now include the pen? I'd thought Htc realised how dumb it was expecting people in the usa to pay an extra $60 for the pen?
http://www.notebookcheck.net/HTC-Flyer-is-available-across-Europe-now-with-magic-pen.53259.0.html
What with the pen and the update to honeycomb this is tempting....
blizzard7 Dec. 27, 2011 at 11:39
Doesn't the flyer now include the pen? I'd thought Htc realised how dumb it was expecting people in the usa to pay an extra $60 for the pen?
http://www.notebookcheck.net/HTC-Flyer-is-available-across-Europe-now-with-magic-pen.53259.0.html
What with the pen and the update to honeycomb this is tempting....
You're right, it does! Holy crap this is a bargain!
jmarcelino Dec. 27, 2011 at 12:48
1) The Kindle Fire will cost far less than £200
2) The Kindle software may be slow at the moment (main problem is it's so HTML based)t, but it's hardware is far better than the Flyer (dual core 1Ghz CPU, PowerVR 540 GPU). Most people don't care about SD slots.
3) The Lumia 800 does use the same CPU as the Flyer, but in contrast to Android all of Windows Phone 7 underlying UI is done in native machine code, it doest run on top of a virtual machine like Android's Dalvik. No matter how you dice it, Android needs more CPU power for it's software stack.
blizzard7 Dec. 27, 2011 at 13:59
1) The Kindle Fire will cost far less than £200
Far less? No way. $199 = £128 + 20% VAT = £154. So at the very least, we're looking at £159, which is only 20 quid less than what this cost the other day and as matt said, it's something which is heavily geared towards spending more and advertisements.
2) The Kindle software may be slow at the moment (main problem is it's so HTML based)t, but it's hardware is far better than the Flyer (dual core 1Ghz CPU, PowerVR 540 GPU). Most people don't care about SD slots.
Most people will care when they realise they've got only got 6.5 GB usable space. Doesn't matter fast your CPU is, you'll struggle to fit a 720p movie on there once you've got some apps, games and music.
3) The Lumia 800 does use the same CPU as the Flyer, but in contrast to Android all of Windows Phone 7 underlying UI is done in native machine code, it doest run on top of a virtual machine like Android's Dalvik. No matter how you dice it, Android needs more CPU power for it's software stack.
The videos that I've watched of it look smooth as anything else. Considering the HTC Desire S runs the same Sense 3.0 with just 768 MBs of RAM and a 1 GHz processor, there should be no problems at all. It plays 720p video great and has the space to make that a feature you might actually use.
jmarcelino Dec. 27, 2011 at 16:38
Most people will care when they realise they've got only got 6.5 GB usable space. Doesn't matter fast your CPU is, you'll struggle to fit a 720p movie on there once you've got some apps, games and music.
Hello Cloud. Heard of Amazon Cloud player yet? I know some of you are still stuck in the old times, but do try to keep up...
You'll also find most people don't go around putting 720p movies on these tablets. 7" tablets are far from the ideal carrier for hi-def movies.
The videos that I've watched of it look smooth as anything else. Considering the HTC Desire S runs the same Sense 3.0 with just 768 MBs of RAM and a 1 GHz processor, there should be no problems at all. It plays 720p video great and has the space to make that a feature you might actually use.
Well we actually have one test unit around the office and they lag. Bad. Don't believe me? Read some of the hundred of reviews saying the same.
blizzard7 Dec. 27, 2011 at 21:55
No need to be insulting. Just like how "most people don't go around putting 720p movies on tablets" is just like how most people don't want anything to do with Cloud storage. What happens if I'm out and about with no WiFi point fast enough to stream anything, or your internet goes down, or Amazon's services goes down?
HTC Sense can be sluggish sometimes, but often all it needs is a restart, or an app is sucking up all the resources in the background. Many reviews call the Kindle Fire sluggish so it's not like it has the Flyer beat and it isn't even out here in the UK!
jmarcelino Dec. 27, 2011 at 23:28
Completely agree with you on the cloud business, but most people don't see it being a problem.
Witness whole companies and universities moving everything to Google's cloud! No one seems to think: what if there's no internet, or it's slow, or Google's servers stop working.
The world we live in is an eternal optimist - as long as things are cheap enough.
Yep both gadgets are sluggish. But the Fire at least has lots of room for improvement given the relatively more powerful hardware, plus it'll be cheaper.
blizzard7 Dec. 27, 2011 at 23:59
True. But for those who want something now, as I said, it's a fine budget buy
Stelph Dec. 28, 2011 at 11:19
Stelph, you did always say if the HTC Flyer fell below £200... 
Damnit, I did didn't I! May have shot myself in the foot there :-p
I currently have an Advent Vega at home (I bought on the cheap 2nd hand as it has a cracked screen) and I tend to spend a lot of the time on my sofa looking at it in a confused kind of way trying to work out what its for, then trying to google the answer on my iPhone/Laptop..... oops
I seem to be on of those people who love the idea of a tablet, has to fight all sorts of temptations about buying one, but doesnt have a clue what to do with one!
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