Sony Tablet S Review

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It’s been some time since Sony had a tablet on the market. Times have changed since the VAIO UX’s day, though, and where once tablets were niche devices, now they’re making headway into our living rooms. The Sony Tablet S is the first model of the company’s new strategy, packing Android Honeycomb into a hardware design that’s a little more interesting than many rivals have managed. Late to the game against the iPad, though, has the Tablet S’ tardiness undermined its potential? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

Hardware

Sony hasn’t strayed too far from the Honeycomb herd with the Tablet S’ core specifications. Powered by NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 paired with 1GB of RAM, its dimensions are kept compact thanks to a slightly smaller than usual 9.4-inch capacitive touchscreen. This still runs at 1280 x 800, like 10.1-inch Honeycomb slates, so the only real difference is a slightly higher pixel density. The display overall is a success, with wide viewing angles and solid contrast, though as is often the case it’s highly reflective and a fingerprint magnet.

Where Sony first pulls away from the pack is in the physical design; this is no basic slab. Sony calls it “folding design” and says the tapering form-factor is based on a folded-back magazine. The company has even carried that through to the rear panel, emphasizing the asymmetry with a ridgeline where the curve ends, and using contrasting white and black plastic to highlight. Ports – including a full-sized SD card reader, useful for quickly checking shots from your digital camera, and microUSB, though no HDMI – are clustered in the white end-caps, some under flip-out panels.

Battery

Sony claims iPad 2 equaling battery life from the 5,000 mAh battery such as Sony PCGA-BP71 battery, Sony VGP-BPS2 battery, Sony VGP-BPS3 battery, Sony VGP-BPS5 battery, Sony VGP-BPS8 battery, Sony VGP-BPS9 battery, Sony VGP-BPL2 battery, Sony PCG-R505 battery, Sony PCG-V505 battery, Sony PCG-Z505 battery in the Tablet S, and our experience suggests that’s a reasonably fair estimate. With mixed use but a solid amount of browsing and gaming, together with multimedia playback, we saw approximately ten hours of runtime. Less ambitious use, like ereading, and more casual browsing should see that extend even further.

Accessories

Sony has two key Tablet S accessories initially, a Bluetooth Keyboard ($79.99) and a Desk Cradle ($39.99). The former – which in fact works with any Bluetooth tablet – is a low-profile ‘board with a similar layout to the keys on Sony’s VAIO laptop range. It has a line of dedicated keys for Android tablets, such as Home, Search, the contextual menu, etc., which work with models from other companies.

The Desk Cradle, meanwhile, is a little less useful. It only charges the Tablet S, and has no ports or other connectivity. While it can be adjusted for angle, it only has two positions rather than free movement. Drop the slate in, and a menu offers a choice of displaying the gallery, a desk clock or the preloaded chumby app with its various widgets. With no HDMI output on either tablet or dock, there’s currently no way to hook the Tablet S up to a big-screen TV, Sony instead relying on the DLNA support.

Wrap-Up

Sony’s UX series VAIO UMPCs were, with their tiny slide-out keyboards and futuristic design, innovative enough to still show up in motion pictures as space-age props long after their actual hardware was outdated. The company has attempted some of that creativity with the Sony Tablet S, too, though it’s far more in line with what other Android device manufacturers are pushing out. We’ll have to wait for the dual-display Tablet P, with its pair of 5.5-inch touchscreens, for the truly eye-catching hardware.

Starting at $499 when the Tablet S goes on sale in mid-September, Sony matches the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 pricing. That’s perhaps a brave strategy given the Apple slate’s current dominance, though viewed against the Samsung each has its strengths and weaknesses. Sony has packed the Tablet S with a higher resolution rear camera than that in the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the custom apps are arguably more useful than Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, especially the universal remote; on the flip-side, it’s a chunkier tablet than the Samsung and the asymmetrical design forces compromises in terms of bulk that have to be balanced against the increased ease of holding it in portrait orientation. Performance and app selection are in the same ballpark, for the most part.