Published: 4 October, 2011
Released earlier this year in May HTC's Flyer got a lot of attention mainly because of its high $499 price tag when it went on sale with Best Buy. Although the tablet was reasonably spec'd it just wasn't reasonably priced when compared to its nearest competitors but now, six months later, Best Buy has confirmed rumours of a price cut by dropping the price to a more palatable $300. This puts it inline with slates such as the original Galaxy Tab and should make it a more attractive option to consumers.
The price slash has also spread to Europe and seems to be caused by the launch of the Kindle Fire that can now be pre-ordered for just $199 in the US. In addition to this it will not only have Amazon's tablet to compete with but the successor to the original Galaxy Tab, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, which will likely be close to or match the original's current price.
Despite being released with a single-core processor when every other tablet was packing a dual-core chip there's plenty to recommend the Flyer apart from its price. Its key features include 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory and front and rear-facing cameras. Currently the Flyer ships with Android 2.3 installed but HTC is said to be working on an upgrade to Honeycomb, when it's going to get delivered however is still a mystery.
It was recently announced that US Cellular will be offering the HTC Flyer with mobile internet connectivity this month for $399, though that's with a $54 a month data plan and after a $100 mail-in rebate.
The HTC Flyer can purchased now from Best Buy's website for $300 though the stylus which is needed to use the device's HTC Scribe functionality is still being sold separately and still costs $79.99.