Can HTC Flyer's leaked specs stand against Samsung Galaxy Tab, RIM's PlayBook and Dell Streak 7?

Just days after Samsung's Galaxy Tab2's new features emerged in the wild, it now seems to be HTC tablet Flyer's turn, as its features have also been leaked.

Norwegian Site Amobil stated that HTC Flyer will come in the 7-inch form factor which puts it in the range of RIM's PlayBook, Dell Streak 7 and Samsung Galaxy Tablet. The Flyer has screen resolution of 1024x600 and is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255. It sports a 5 MP rear-camera and 1.3 MP front facing camera.

Last week DigiTimes reported that the first tablet from HTC's stable codenamed Flyer is due for shipping by March. The Flyer will run on Android 2.3 or Gingerbread and will be upgradable to Android 3.0 or Honeycomb. The other two models will hit the market in the second quarter of 2011 and both will run on Honeycomb juice.

If the reported HTC Flyer specifications are true, then with a 7-inch screen and resolution of 1024x600 it will fit comfortably in the league of Samsung Galaxy Tab and RIM PlayBook beating Dell Streak 7's screen resolution of 800x480.

Also HTC Flyer's reported use of Android 2.3 or Gingerbread places it above other Android competitors like Galaxy Tab and Dell Streak which sport Android 2.2 or Froyo. Also, with DigiTimes reporting that the Flyer will be eligible for Android 3.0 or Honeycomb upgrade, this feature will pitch it against RIM's PlayBook, which sports a new QNX-based OS.

The HTC Flyer is surmised to run on a Snapdragon MSM8255 1GHz processor which it uses in its smartphone Desire HD. CNET states that the HTC Flyer could just be the Desire HD in a larger form similar to Samsung Galaxy being akin to its smartphone Galaxy S. However, the HTC Flyer's processor is a single-core chip compared to Dell Streak 7's dual-core Tegra 2, PlayBook's TI OMAP dual core and Galaxy Tab's dual core Hummingbird 1.2 GHz. Thus the HTC Flyer may not be able to support 1080p PlayBack which Galaxy Tab, PlayBook and Streak 7 support.

Also the report says it could be a larger edition of Desire HD. If this holds true, then it carries similar memory configuration of 768 MB RAM with 1.5 GB internal memory which is expandable to 32 GB. If the HTC Flyer sports 768 MB RAM, then it will be higher than Galaxy Tab's and Dell Streak's 512 MB capacity but still lower than RIM's 1 GB RAM which makes it faster than the others. It is also reported that the Flyer will come with an upgraded Sense UI, which was first released with Desire HD phone.

The Flyer also sports a 5 MP rear camera and 1.3 MP front camera which is similar to Galaxy Tab's and Streak 7's camera specification. However, PlayBook offers a higher 3 MP front camera.

Recently Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 specifications were reported. The report suggested that the new tablet from the Samsung camp will sport a display size of 7-inches with 3D capacity with a resolution of 2048x1200 and be powered by a Tegra 2 processor. This will also flaunt 1GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage and 8 MP rear and 3 MP front-facing camera. The Galaxy 2 will run on Android 2.3 and will be upgradable to Android 3.0. If specifications hold true, then HTC Flyer sure will have a tough fight.

In a December 2010 report, Bloomberg said the Taiwan-based HTC had filed for a trademark at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a device called HTC Scribe on December 26, defining it as a handheld wireless device, namely a tablet computer.

Reports of HTC crafting a tablet have been circling since September when DigiTimes reported that a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer Pegatron Technology had taken orders from HTC to manufacture an Android-based tablet due in first quarter of 2011.

Here is a tentative comparison of tablets with 7-inch form factor which includes HTC Flyer, Samsung Galaxy Tab, RIM PlayBook and Dell Streak 7: