Camera
We will make it short here. Tablets are rarely
dedicated with the most amazing camera sensors as they’re tablet. At least Sony
decided to include one of the 8MP Exmor R camera units, but the performance is
still at average level. We’re a little disappointed with noise on some images,
maybe it’s partially due to a fault that’s easier to recognize on 1 screen with
full res to present the whole image. There’s no flash to support in darker
environment, but the auto white balance does pretty well in making sure that
the colors look accurate, while the UI customized camera app of Sony is easy to
configure with the settings you need.
At
least Sony decided to include one of the 8MP Exmor R camera units, but the
performance is still at average level.
Video-recording capability somewhat lacks
impression, with the sky normally being over-exposed and the scrolling effect
starting when action on the camera takes place until reaching a certain level.
These results are similar to what we received from a smartphone 2 years ago, so
it’s highly probable that we’re dealing with the same sensor here. Though the HDR-video
recording capability is no longer appear on the tablet, you still options for
HDR images. One last complaint is the position at the top corner of the lens,
which regularly gets dirty.
Software
Sony hasn’t had excessive behavior to the
floating software or at least to whatever available that’s easy to remove.
There’s a predictable row of film, music and game icons, even the shortcuts for
your content and the entertainment network of Sony. We’re starting to say as
though a record was broken, but we still attach to the iTunes account and Netflix
subscription. Sony needs to make its entertainment center more attractive – a
free trial version along with buying the tablet at $499 may be helpful.
There’s
a predictable row of film, music and game icons, even the shortcuts for your
content and the entertainment network of Sony
The familiar combinations of the home
screen, widget and menus having gentle style make the Android interface of Sony
seem to be pretty innocuous. The most basic things of UI are almost identical
to what we see on last year’s Xperia Tablet S, with 2 icons along the bottom
edge of the screen acting like a shortcut for remote and the mini-apps. There’re
also the slots along the upper edges which are dedicated for your 4 favorite
apps. They still stay still when you navigate around the home screens and apps,
and are the best place to keep the browser, email and other commonly used
shortcuts. The notifications and the settings sit on the lower right corner,
while the app tray shortcuts sit above it on the top right corner – a little
different for the basic belt of Android which is available on Nexus 10.
Like what we saw on other Xperia devices
recently, you can access a mini-app collection which may float above other
apps. It’s not as practical as the multi-window mode on Galaxy series of
Samsung; you can’t split the screen between video and map apps, for example.
These mini-apps will concentrate more into the utilities, but there’s a
significant addition of a floating web browser window, along with the more
boring things such as timer and calculator. There’s also a mini-app for remote which,
we have to admit, provides us the smoothest combination method we’ve seen on an
Andoid device with IR blaster. After choosing the product and manufacturer
categories, (yes, it’s not exclusive for Sony), we can combine several TVs,
audio system and Blu-ray player in some minutes. There’re also options to
adjust what controlling buttons appear on the app, and “trackpad” option allows
you to assign the special controls (such as volume and channel button) for the
swipes.
Like
what we saw on other Xperia devices recently, you can access a mini-app
collection which may float above other apps.
Curiously, SideView, the Sony app that
combines TV guide with the remote control and voice search, is not preloaded on
our European model. We installed it ourselves from Google Play, and it joyfully
delivers the program instructions for the on-land TV networks in Britain. The
app adds some program details from Gracenote, though if there’s no TV of Sony for
pairing, we can’t advance program choices from the tablet to the large screen
like we’ve implied in the previous browser. If you’re trying to share the
private video content, or Netflix and Amazon Prime, 1 micro-USB port having MHL
compatibility will allow you to beam HD screen of the tablet to the large
screen easily.
