Regional carriers are often a little behind the times when it comes to the latest devices, but US Cellular customers usually get a pretty good assortment of new toys to play with. Come October 7th (tomorrow), they can add the HTC Flyer Gingerbread tablet to the list. The 7-inch tablet will cost $399 after a $100 mail-in-rebate at its lowest.

The $399 price requires a two-year contract and at least a $54.99 a month data plan – an expensive proposition for a tablet whose WiFi version is now only $299 at most retailers in the US. HTC dropped the price after competition in the Android tablet world heated up from the Amazon Kindle Fire. The HTC EVO View 4G, the only other version of the Flyer hardware that’s available from a wireless carrier, is $399 without the hassle of a rebate. If you’d like a cheaper data plan, you can purchase the tablet for $599 after rebate on a $15.99/200Mb a month data plan. That’s almost $800 at retail, enough to make the HTC Jetstream sit up and take notice.

Still, buyers can console themselves with the fact that the 2.3 Gingerbread tablet will be getting a Honeycomb upgrade soon, though getting it though the wireless carrier is not a certainty. The Flyer comes with 16GB of on-board memory, a 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, a 1.5GHz processor and a respectable 5 megapixel rear camera. Prospective buyers can peruse Android Community’s review.

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