Thread: HTC Flyer Review (from the point of view of an artist)

First, let me say, the Flyer is a very nice tablet. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I may have some criticisms below, but they are aimed to help, not deride the device. It is currently the ONLY ultra-portable tablet with pressure-sensitive drawing, and so those aspects are the ones I will focus on here. I hope that HTC glances at these forums once in a while... but I will be emailing them a copy of this anyway.
The pressure is quite good. Perhaps 256 levels, and some of the brushes are pretty good.

Firstly, a question. Will the inking capability be extended to any third party apps? Specifically the best on the market, Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile. It was a bit disappointing to open that app and have it simply screenshot into a gallery scribble.

2. Currently there is no color picker. Only a set of 6 colors, plus B/W. This is not enough to use it to generate color artwork. A suggestion... add a color picker button, that reveals a color picker in the same quarter-arc space as the current scribeUI. Also, a programmable button option to "eyedrop" a color from whatever is on the screen would be awesome.

3. the Ballpoint pen... while the attempt to make the ink seep into the paper, creating an imperfect edge is appreciated, as an artist I would like to have a pen-like stroke that is clean. No effect. Currently the pen looks more aliased then it does ink.

4. Notes: While much of HTC's ui choices are pretty, I too often feel they are too much form over function. This is the case with Notes. There is too much wasted space (on a tight screen) dedicated to the spiral binding. I would love to reclaim that as usable drawing/note-taking space.

5. The screen-capture "scribble" mode is brilliant. I love marking up anything on my screen.

6. Brushes are generally good. Other than the pen, I find most to be useful. I haven't quite found a way to use the marker, but the brush and pencil are solid, and I use them primarily.

7. I have not yet found any screen protectors... but I hope they don't cause the pen not to work! A suggestion. Make a screen protector that gives the screen some "tooth" or roughness. Most digital artists use some covering over their Wacom surface to increase friction so their strokes don't just woosh across the surface. I would love that for the flyer as long as it didn't ruin the look of the screen.

There are other things about HTC's apps that I really dig, and others not so much, but I'm going to leave this focused on the pen input, and hope that some things can be tweaked for future versions. Thanks HTC for a great tablet.

Andrew Weidenhammer