HTC Flyer up for SIM-free UK pre-order

By Chris Davies/Updated: April 11, 2011 7:44 am EST

The HTC Flyer has gone up for pre-order at Carphone Warehouse, with the retailer announcing that the 7-inch slate will be available – contract free and SIM-unlocked – for £599.99 ($980). Currently listed as in-stock, the Flyer has a 5-megapixel main camera, HTC Scribe digital stylus for notetaking and annotation, and will be the first device from the company with support for HTC Watch, the company's new media streaming app.

There's also a 1.5GHz single-core processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and GPS, along with a front-facing webcam. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS is liberally coated with a layer of HTC's latest Sense UI software, complete with a 3D-style homescreen carousel and integration with online note synching service Evernote (that supports handwriting recognition, among other things).

The Flyer was one of the stand-out gadgets of MWC 2011, and we had a good play with the slate – in its Sprint-centric HTC EVO View 4G form – last month at CTIA 2011. We're checking in with Carphone Warehouse to see if that in-stock message is accurate.

Update: Carphone Warehouse tells us that while the Flyer may be listed as in-stock, it won't be shipping until May 2011.

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