Despite my ever-professed love for BlackBerry’s Playbook, I still do not consider myself a true “fan-boy” of the growing phenomena known as the tablet. Yes, they are extremely useful; yes, they are compact and convenient; and yes, they increase productivity ten-fold; all this I agree with. However, I just can’t change the fact that I find myself preprogrammed to turn to my laptop at coffee shops and when working remotely or just pulling out one of my smartphones for simple browsing while watching TV or the odd instance that I am being lazy and don’t want to go to my laptop. For the average person, the above are ideal scenarios to use a tablet; for me however, they just aren’t. Then I met the HTC Flyer today at the HTC Design event in Toronto.

Though I didn’t get a lot of free time with the Flyer, I was blown away by what I saw. It features a gorgeous 7-inch screen, strong aluminum backing (similar to the popular HTC Legend), and is perfectly positioned to target students, business professionals, and bloggers. These are essentially the people that are in conferences/lectures all day, every day, and need something light, organized and efficient to help manage all the information being taken in - while trying to protect the environment and save paper. The Flyer does just that. It is the first major market tablet to promote the use of a stylus - or “scribe” as HTC is branding it - and as you can see in the video below, it really gives interactive productivity a whole new meaning. Because my favorite app Evernote is integrated right into it, note taking is a dream; instead of trying to type on the keyboard, the user can freely write using the Scribe; take pictures and write around them; insert voice notes; and highlight key words and sentences, all while wirelessly syncing to their Mac, PC, or smartphone. Oh, did I forget to mention it also features Sense UI? HTC’s ever-popular Android interface made popular in their long - and growing - line of Android powered handsets; this inclusion is almost as anticipated as the tablet itself.

Watch the video below for an in-depth look at the Flyer:

[click here for mobile friendly viewing]

The Flyer is currently available for purchase in the US, however - as mentioned at the end of the video - Canadian pricing, release date and carrier are all still unknown at this point.

Stay tuned for more.

Learn more about the HTC Flyer here