Mobile World Congress was invaded by tablets this year. Mobile manufacturers stood out more for not having one. But in the onslaught, is there anything that’s offering a truly different, better, or more exciting prospect than what’s already out there? We think so. Here’s our run down of the top three tablets that blew our minds, and that will probably be blowing our budgets in the months to come.
HTC Flyer
The HTC Flyer is a 7-inch tablet that’s arriving with Gingerbread (with an update to Honeycomb in the pipeline) impressed us at MWC 2011. While the word stylus is usually accompanied by the sound of tech heads everywhere suppressing a gag reflex, this stylus looks to change that.
The HTC Flyer’s stylus is an innovation in itself, and makes the tablet a truly different proposition. While on-screen menus react to your touch, the stylus is used exclusively to “flow ink into the tablet”. It’s not used for navigation (your fingers do that), and the tablet can tell the difference between the stylus and the tip of your finger.
There’s pressure sensitivity, which controls the flow of that digital ink, and there’s an erase button on the tablet, and another to highlight text using the stylus. Even better than all that though is the API, that HTC will be opening up to developers, and so we could see all sorts of creative applications coming to the HTC Flyer.
HP TouchPad
We got our dirty mitts on the HP TouchPad and it was the OS that really shone. Here’s what we said:
“We’ve always had a soft spot for webOS: it’s a talented, gorgeous operating system that was ahead of its time on launch. But on the HP TouchPad tablet, it feels completely naturally – like this was what it was originally designed for all along.
“webOS makes the transition to the larger 9.7-inch 1024×768 screen really well: the three panel email inbox makes full use of all the screen real estate, and multitasking is utterly intuitive.”
The feel of the HP TouchPad is that webOS is finally getting to stretch it wings and show its capabilities. It’s always been the underdog, but maybe this can pull it up into the big time.
Samsung Galaxy Pad 10.1
The Samsung Galaxy Tab in a bigger size, and with Honeycomb, is a completely different device than its predecessor, the Froyo-touting 7-inch Tab.
We said: “The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is, frankly, astounding. We say that as long-term iPad users who’ve previously felt let down by Android’s attempts at taking a slice of Apple’s tablet pie.”
Honeycomb does the job of making this tablet feel like a true replacement for a full PC. What stood out was the multitasking. Shortcut buttons and the always visible softkeys at the bottom of the page make a real difference to navigation. The bottom line here is that the Honeycomb OS just shines, as a real step forward from previous iterations of Android.
What’s top of your list from MWC 2011? Shout out in the comments!
