One of the things that sets the HTC Flyer apart from virtually every other Android tablet on the market is the support for a stylus for precise, pressure-sensitive input. This makes it possible to draw pictures, take handwritten notes, or perform other tasks that are hard to do with a fingertip. But it looks like the HTC Flyer might not actually ship with the stylus. Best Buy is showing the digital pen as a separate accessory for $79.99.
It’s possible that what we’re looking at is the price of a spare pen, but I have yet to see any confirmation that a pen will come with the HTC Flyer. All we know is that the tablet has an active digitizer and can support either pen or finger input.
The HTC Flyer wouldn’t be the first Android tablet to be largely defined by an optional accessory that isn’t included in the base price. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer is notable largely because the Android tablet has an optional keyboard docking station which lets you use the device like a notebook computer — but the keyboard dock adds $150 to the base price of the $400 tablet.
The HTC Flyer is expected to ship later this month for about $500. The tablet features a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon single core processor, a 7 inch 600 x 1024 pixel display, 16GB of storage, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, and front and rear cameras. It runs Google Android 2.3 with custom HTC Scribe software for pen input.
I have a call in to HTC to see if I can find out for certain whether the tablet or whether you’ll need to pay extra for it. But for now it’s starting to look like it could be the latter.
Update: Droid-Life received confirmation from HTC that the stylus would be sold separately, although HTC hasn’t confirmed the price.
via Android Central
I just pre-order through Best Buy and the under the Features it states that 7′ tocuh screen with digtal pen.
Without the stylus, it’s no different than the other 7 inch tablets currently available. The stylus make it different from the others. It’s not worth paying a total of $608 (with the case), and this is before tax. For a few hundred dollars more I can get a 13.3 inch core i5 laptop. I’ll be cancelling my order at Best Buy.
I was so ready to pull the trigger on a BestBuy pre-order until I read this – $80 more for an accessory that should ship with the product is just ridiculous. Acer iconia 7″ tablet is starting to look a lot more attractive at this point.
Are you kidding me?! I have been waiting for a tablet with a stylus. I would love to take notes during meeting then look like a moron typing. Now that they made a product that people are excited about, they are going to shoot themselves by NOT giving the very item that differentiates them!! Not to mention $80 is CRAZY, even if it’s just for a spare.
Sure the transformer keyboard is 150 dollars, but it is a keyboard and battery extension, so the price is not outrageous, but 80 dollars for a pen? it sounds absurd.
I’m glad you brought that up, because I came here to do that too. I’d also like to add that it’s a *specialized* keyboard, tailored for the Android UI and not just some generic USB or BT keyboard that can be used with it. This time, I side with Asus on the extra cost because it offers more than just a keyboard — ports, battery, and SD card slot too.
Afaik its always been the case that the pen is an accessory and is not shipped with the flyer