HTC Flyer gets dated for European release

HTC chief Florian Seiche has confirmed that the company's 7-inch tablet, the HTC Flyer, will go on sale in Europe on May 9 2011. The slate, announced at MWC 2011 last February, has already shown up for pre-order at several retailers, with the SIM-free price set at £599.99.

Your money gets you a 1024 x 600 display which works with a finger-touch or with a special active stylus for handwriting, sketching and adding notes to Evernote. There's also a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a front-facing camera, HTC Watch for downloading movies and TV shows, and the usual bevy of WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth and GPS.

Whether the Flyer will earn its premium price tag will depend on whether HTC can convince buyers that the pen functionality is worth it. We'll reserve judgement until we have a chance to review the Gingerbread-based tablet.