Last week, we heard a rumor that HTC is planning to launch an Android tablet in March. Well, now a Norwegian site called Amobil has published a low resolution picture and some early specs for the device, which will be the first of several tablets from HTC this year, including a 10-inch LTE tablet.
The HTC Flyer tablet will supposedly sport a 7-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1024 x 600, which happens to be the same resolution and size as the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 processor, which is the same processor that powers the HTC Desire HD smartphone. The tablet actually looks a lot like the Desire HD as well, making it more comparable to the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which retains the innards and outer design of the Samsung Galaxy line of phones.
The Flyer will run either Android 2.3 or Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), which will be the first Android OS built for tablets. The device supports HSPA, will be DLNA enabled, and have an HDMI port for high definition streaming. On the camera side, it will have a 5MP rear camera with an LED flash and a 1.3MP front-facing camera. It won’t be able to make calls (it’s not a phone), but it should come preloaded with an optimized version of Skype so users can make video calls over Wi-Fi or a mobile connection.
Lastly, the Flyer will run a version of HTC Sense, which skins the Android interface to make it look prettier. All HTC Android phones run this UI (user interface).
From what we gather, this first device may be an AT&T and T-Mobile exclusive due to its inclusion of HSPA high-speed access. Both carriers are using variations of HSPA in their purported “4G” services. Sprint is utilizing a technology called WiMax and Verizon has built an LTE 4G network.
