Review: HTC Jetstream

If you read my reviews, you know that I love the small HTC Flyer, easy to carry, great stylus, good battery life and amazing quality and excellent ration functions/price. Unfortunately even if HTC had everything in hand to propose a great product with the Jetstream/Puccini, they missed the point!

Let’s start with what I love about this tablet, first off, HTC did a great job hidding HoneyComb (3.1), and Sense is a super addition making this tablet the first Android dumb-proof tablet on the market (with the Flyer). I mean it and I know a lot of people out there don’t like Sense because they believe it is heavy and bloat the device with unnecessary functions but let’s also face the truth, my 6 years old is not a geek (not yet) but when I give him the Jetstream, he can easily access the note app to draw or write, access his apps and even change the wallpaper without me being next to him.
HTC make a very geeky interface accessible and for that I can only congratulate the good work.

Other point very important, it hardly lags, the dual core (non-Tegra 2) is doing a wonderful job to make of this tablet one of the most responsible HC tabs I had in my hand.

This tablet also possess  a wonderful camera 8MPx with dual LED flash, a shame when you think about it because taking pictures with a 10″ tablet is really not convenient.

The tablet is also capable of using the 4G LTE network, and that was the first one to do so, long before LTE was even available (what was the point??).

Finally, the amazing built quality, uni-body in aluminum, edges higher that the glass to avoid scratches, superb screen, 32Gb internal storage expandable with a micro-SD, Bluetooth 3.0, a microphone, a GPS and even the charger is a normal microUSB one… it sounds perfect doesn’t it?

NO! And even though the HTC Jetstream could have and still be a wonderful tablet, it failed and still fails its users in so many ways…

First the price!!! $749 +tax without contract as of today in any AT&T store, no really HTC? do you really did your study before launching this device at this price? Did AT&T really believe that putting LTE and a nice tablet to compete with the iPad would be enough to convince customers to pay this insulting price?!

Second, and in my opinion the most unforgivable mistake from HTC, the support! No support to the few customers who spent a fortune buying this product, this tablet is still running HoneyComb 3.1, no news about 3.2 or the 4 months old Ice Cream Sandwich. When you dare to ask HTC, they only tell you one thing, we are still considering it… HTC, WE (users) need more than that for this price!

Funny enough I went to an AT&T store this week-end and the personnel assured me it would receive ICS because of its launch date (September 2011).

At least HTC could provide the community on XDA or MoDaCo all the tools to continue the work but they will never do it as Sense is their baby and porting ICS to the Jetstream without the help of HTC would mean the loss of essential functions such as the scribe pen.

I really wish I could tell you to buy this tablet but I would not do you a good favor and if you are looking for a 10″ tablet with a stylus maybe wait for the Galaxy Note 10.1″. If you can’t wait, talk to your banker and do not expect much support from AT&T or HTC.

Verdict for the HTC Jetstream/Puccini

Pros		Cons
Rating:
HTC Scribe technology Good battery life Very good screen quality Micro-USB compatible charging port Great camera LTE when you have LTE coverage Bluetooth 3.0		PRICE! HoneyComb 3.1! No capacitive button
Verdict	As much as I love this tablet and I enjoy using it, I can’t forgive the lack of support from HTC that make me deeply regret the investment.