All we need to know about the long-rumored 10.1-inch HTC Puccini tablet

The leaked photos of HTC's upcoming tablet Puccini have garnered healthy curiosity among the public. If it is a publicity gimmick, then HTC should be prepared to roll out the best, because expectations have only risen after their Flyer tablet. Let's take a look at the long-rumored and long awaited, HTC Puccini, the first tablet with built-in LTE support.

HTC Puccini

What is it? With the 10.1 inch Puccini, HTC is planning to raise the bar and is hoping that the integration of Long Term Evolution (LTE) with the tablet will help to boost their sales and shake the supremacy of Apple and Samsung. LTE or 4G is a standard in mobile phone network technology. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the US has given approval to AT&T to use LTE network. Although AT&T has not started its LTE network yet, it will be open to the public from the latter half of this year. It is to be seen whether AT&T will carry forward its $50 for 5 GB tariff plan, or will come up with something new for this tablet. There are rumors that HTC may unveil Puccini at the IFA 2011 in Berlin, about to be held next month.

Price and availability

There is no confirmation on the price and availability from HTC as of now.

Why the hype

The hype was generated by the ‘leaked’ photos of the HTC Puccini. The leak has added a degree of mystery and charm to the tablet. The AT&T 4G network that it will work, has also helped in garnering much hype.

Functionality

It is based on Google’s Android v 3.0, or Honeycomb operating system. With a screen size of 10.1 inches, and a rear 8 megapixel camera, it offers a solid user experience. The camera features a dual LED flash. There is talk that the tablet is loaded with a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S3 dual core processor. The touch screen uses a WXGA (Wide eXtended Graphics Array) touch technology. WXGA offers a wide aspect ratio and makes viewing movies and videos a pleasurable experience. With a 10.1 inch screen and a 1280 x 800 pixel display, HTC is clearly focusing on enriching the user experience. A front facing camera is provided for video conferencing. The tablet will be pen input enabled, unlike HTC flyer which was stylus based. It supports 1 GB RAM and a storage capacity of 16 GB.

What’s different?

Industry experts say this device makes the best use of the Honeycomb operating system that they have ever seen. It is the first tablet featuring AT&T 4G LTE network. There is also talk of this tablet having the HTC Sense 1.1 User Interface (UI).