Sexier, faster and nearly as Foldy as
the previous Tablet S, the Xperia Tablet S has ditched the bulk, kept the IR
blaster and DLNA sharing, and shrugged on an all-aluminium body. Should we
welcome this svelte slate into our living rooms?
The Xperia's cold, hard aluminium casing
feels nice and expensive compared with all the creaky plastic tabs out there.
At 570-585g (depending on model), it’s lighter than the latest iPad. The
magazine-style fold (excellent for portrait mode e-reading) from the old Tablet
S remains, but the Xperia is slimmer and feels just right.
Sony
Xperia Tablet S
Resizable, floating apps mean you can check
emails while sniping in Great Big War Game or browse the web during a
film. Its quad-core Tegra 3 chip isn’t the fastest, but it multi-tasks without
hiccups. Homescreens can load slowly, but that'll be due to the widgets and
extras pre-loaded on to Ice Cream Sandwich. Cull at your leisure.
DLNA support allows you to ‘throw’ images
and video to your TV or use the tab as a universal remote thanks to a built-in
IR blaster. The Xperia Tablet S also carries a very capable 8MP rear camera
that can shoot 1080p video, and a 1MP front facer to fulfil all your slate
Skyping needs.
It's a shame Sony couldn't add a full HD
screen like recent Asus and Acer tabs, but the splashproof 9.4in, 1280x800 TFT
display isn’t to be sniffed at. Text can look a bit jagged, but video is much
better.
Good viewing angles and rich colours are a
further bonus and make it a good media player.
Tab life
Socialife
Sony's attempt at a built-in Flipboard
rival works rather nicely. It's a slick widget that pulls in feeds from social
networks and displays them in a coloured grid of clickable images, news,
Twitter feeds and so on.
Music and Video Unlimited
The Sony Entertainment Network portals are
better than most: music streams as quickly as Spotify, you can save playlists
offline and Video Unlimited's selection of movies is also very good. An AV
feast.
Now add these
Sony Slim Cover with Keyboard
Price: $130
Sony
Slim Cover with Keyboard
This Surface-style keyboard cover (sadly
not yet available in loads of colours) is powered by the tablet itself. It
weighs 400g, which is pretty decent for a netbook replacement.
Sony SGP-DS2 Cradle
Price: $50
Sony
SGP-DS2 Cradle
Slates are famously the party animals of
the tech world. Dock your tab into this adjustable charging cradle to get a
gadget; limbo dance going atop your desk.
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Info
·
Price: from $525
·
Website: www.sony.com
·
OS: Android 4.0.3 ICS
·
Screen: 9.4in TFT LCD, 1280x800
·
CPU: Quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 @ 1.3GHz
·
Storage: 16/32/64GB
·
RAM: 1GB
·
Camera: 8MP, 1080p @ 30fps (rear); 1MP, 720p (front)
·
Connectivity: Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 3.0, SD, 3.5mm socket
·
Width: 239.8mm
·
Height: 174.4mm
·
Depth: 11.85mm
·
Weight: 570g
Verdict
·
Lovely hardware, a good screen and useful
extras give this the (w) edge over other 10in Android tabs
·
Ratings: 5/5
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