Though the HTC Jetstream, a 10.1-inch Android 3.0 tablet, isn’t destined for the UK (for now…) we couldn’t not resist taking a peek at Honeycomb on a tablet that’s been given the HTC Sense treatment.
As you’d expect, Sense on the Jetsream, practically redraws the Honeycomb look and feel from every angle, switching out the default keyboard for a more familiar HTC one, adding HTC Watch and that trademark rainbow pastel colour background.
Lookswise it’s somewhat of a toss-up between Motorola’s chunky metallic Xoom and Samsung’s super slim and uber light Galaxy Tab 10.1.
It’s got a curved camera unit on the back that houses an 8-megapixel beast (a bit excessive for a tablet perhaps?) and the back is covered in a brushed metal effect covering.
We dutifully snapped the HTC Jetstream from a number of angles while having a peek around at its various menus.
Processor-wise it’s got the same 1.5GHz speed as the single-core one that blazes away inside the HTC Flyer and it’ll support the Magic Pen active stylus that comes with the Flyer as well. Sadly, there wasn’t one on hand at Qualcomm’s stand for us to play around with. But we expect much of the same functionality as that of the Flyer in this department.
Click through for more hands on pictures along with our thoughts.
Things like the app laucnher tray have been resprayed in a slate grey colour, keeping in with HTC’s greens ‘n blacks colour palette.
Double tapping on any of the homescreens launches this leap mode style view of the screens, like it does on other Honeycomb tabs.
In the top right corner of the main homescreens there’s the palette and paintbrush icon seen on HTC phones; this is the shortcut to the menu where you can customise the appearance of the Jetstream.
Top video recording through the 8-megapixel camera appears to be 720p (1280 x 720) on the HTC Jetstream.
The Jetstream is HTC’s first Honeycomb tablet and it’s shipping with 3.1. This will allow you to connectr all manner of peripheral devices as well as ironing out many of the useability issues that 3.0 came with. Note also ‘Sense 1.1 for Tablet’.
The main camera app of the HTC Jetsream doing its thing. We didn’t get to play around much with the settings and effects but it looks like all the usual HTC additions and imaging modes are present and correct.
We know, this is the shot you’ve all been waiting for; the on/off switch of the HTC Jetstream, complete with a lime green LED. Cool huh?
A slim volume rocker sits over on the other side; it’s a pretty lightweight device given its relative bulk and metal backing but it’s not on the Tab 10.1 levels of weightlessness.
The rear of the Jetstream; 8-megapixel camera up on the right, twin external speakers down there on the bottom.
A quick glimpse at the new-look HTC Watch app. We like how the film titles fan out concertina style; shame we couldn’t get more hands-on time with this though.
Above the larger speaker grille on the left here sits the 3.5mm connection and that shiny on/off button.
There’s a microUSB connection on the underside. While there’s no HDMI port we understand that popping an MHL adapter in will sort you out in this department.
Tapping on the bottom right corner of the Jetstream’s screen brings up a control panel where you can toggle Wi-Fi, adjust volume and enable Wi-Fi sleep mode – a neat feature of Honeycomb that disables Wi-Fi connections when the screen is off and you’re not using it, thereby saving you precious battery juice.
Behold the multi-hued beauty of HTC Sense for Tablets on the Jetstream. We really hope that a version for UK/European markets is in the pipeline.
We also had a quick play around with the Notes app which looks to be the same as the one on the Flyer. Again, no stylus meant we couldn’t draw funny pictures and sync them to our Evernote account.
And speaking of which, there’s the option to sync to Evernote for HTC Sense right there. Shame that this particular device won’t be coming to British shores anytime ever.
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