HTC Flyer available across Europe today, £600 for 3G, £480 for WiFi-only version

The day every fan of 7-inch Android tablets has been waiting for has finally arrived. HTC has just announced widespread availability across Europe of its 1.5GHz Flyer. Pricing is set at £600 / €649 for the 3G-equipped 32GB variant or £480 / €499 for the one with only WiFi and 16GB on board -- though local carriers are offering subsidized pricing as low as £129 on contract. The contentious capacitive stylus, now dubbed the Magic Pen, will be shipping in each and every box, so you don't have to worry about ponying up extra for it. The HTC store linked below still offers only pre-orders, but HTC promises that there will be aluminum unibodies hitting shelves today.

WiFi HTC Flyer visits the FCC, leaves behind a line-drawn calling card

That, dear readers, is where you'll be able to find the FCC label on your brand new HTC Flyer -- well, assuming you decide to get in on the company's 7-inch dose of Android, and also assuming that HTC ever decides to actually release the thing in the US. We assume it does, as the machine has just been given the blessing of the FCC. This looks to be a WiFi-only model, also tested for BlueTooth compliance, but lacking 3G. So, if you got your pre-order in last week know that there's at least nothing federal standing between you and your $499 aluminum slice of Gingerbread, which we're still hoping will ship before the spring is through.

HTC Flyer up for preorder for $499 at Best Buy on April 24th

Europeans have been able to preorder the HTC Flyer for months, and now curious Yanks are about to get their chance, too. The tablet will be available for preorder on April 24th (that's this Sunday) for $499 with Best Buy as the exclusive seller. Though our friends across the pond have been able to snag 3G versions, the one about to come stateside just has WiFi. The Flyer, as you'll remember, is the phone maker's first tablet, and has a 7-inch (1024 x 600) display, aluminum body, 1.5GHz Qualcomm chip, and a version of the company's Sense UI that was tweaked with slates in mind. Alas, It'll ship with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), but HTC is promising an eventual upgrade to 3.0 (Honeycomb) and all of the bigger-screen goodies that come with it.

HTC confirms Flyer tablet will get Honeycomb... sometime

HTC hasn't said much on the subject of Honeycomb for its Flyer tablet since its big announcement back at Mobile World Congress, where it said it chose not to use the OS for the tablet because it didn't have enough time to customize it with its Sense UI. It's now finally chimed in on the matter again, however, and replied to a question on Twitter by saying that it "will be offering a Honeycomb upgrade when it's made available." Of course, that statement's noticeably lacking a specific date (or even a hint of one), and it may well be wise to not hold your breath for an upgrade anytime soon given Google's recent talk of a tighter grip on Honeycomb. Still, it looks like it's definitely still on the table as far as HTC is concerned.

INTRODUCING THE HTC FLYER TABLET

Introducing the HTC Flyer. The HTC Flyer is a compact 7-inch touchscreen Android 2.3.3 tablet with 600x1024 pixels res, which will come with an integrated pressure-sensitive pen experience, courtesy of the new HTC Scribe technology. The feature will be used for note-taking and drawing. The tablet will be constructed out of HTC trademark aluminum unibody. It will be powered by a single-core 1.5GHz processor, and will feature 1GB RAM, coupled with 32GB of built-in storage (microSD slot is available). For photo and video taking the tablet biz will offer a 5MP main shooter, as well as a secondary 1.3MP front-facing cam for video chats. Powering all this goodness will be courtesy of a 4000mAh battery that is said to provide up to 4 hours of constant video playback.Video after the break...

HTC FLYER LIVE VIDEO REVIEW

Aaron from PhoneDog gets a demonstration of the HTC Flyer, the company’s first tablet and yet another Android-powered device. It offers a 1.5 GHz processor, 7-inch display, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) with a tablet-specific version of HTC’s Sense UI. A new feature is HTC Scribe, which allows the user to write on the display with the included stylus. The unibody construction is quite nice, but it’ll be a tough sell against other devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and LG Optimus Pad. It’s slated to launch in the second quarter of 2011.Video after the break...