HTC Jetstream

Google’s Android Honeycomb OS was the talk of the town as the calendar rolled over to 2011. Billed as Android’s first true tablet OS, most got their first look at Honeycomb during CES where it was loaded on the Motorola Xoom. Since then we have seen numerous Honeycomb-based tablets find their way to market, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the T-Mobile LG G-Slate, both products we’ve since reviewed.

Today we’ll be looking at another tablet built around Android, this time coming from a traditional phone maker, meet the HTC Jetstream.

HTC has been one of the leading mobile manufacturers in the past few years, a position that gave them the chance to grow in the tablet market also. With tablets eating up on netbook sales at an accelerated pace, we can clearly see where HTC is headed with these offerings. We intend to figure out what’s HTC’s proposition with the Jetstream, not only from a value perspective — a driving force of netbook sales — but in terms of features, design and overall experience.

Powering the HTC Jetstream are the typical current-gen tablet hardware which includes an  dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon MSM8260 processor and 1GB RAM that bests rival tabs clocked at 1GHz. There’s also a batch of radios on board to take advantage of the second place operator’s 3G / 4G networks with LTE 700MHz / 1700MHz, triband HSPA+/HSPA/UMTS, quadband EDGE/GPRS, in addition to WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0 support. It also comes with an accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS and a digital compass. HTC offers the Jetstream with either 16GB or 32GB storage. Additionally, with external styluses enjoying a revival in the mobile world, the Jetstream is compatible with HTC Scribe digital stylus

If all this is not enough, in the middle of that bezel sits a 1.3MP front-facing camera and an ambient light sensor. The volume rocker up top is nice and big at 1.5 inches long. Then there’s a USB port for connecting with a power supply or for transferring files. A removable panel on the rear of the Jetstream hides an 8MP double-LED flash-enabled camera, and a SIM-card slot and microSD card slot are concealed in the same bay. On the bottom edge of the HTC Jetstream a pair of stereo speakers deliver decent audio.

HTC Jetstream features an LED-backlit 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 pixel screen. But it’s neither IPS nor PLS powered, which means viewing angles are not as good as those found on Galaxy’s flagship Android tablets and it’s 7300mAh gives 10 hours of moderate use.