03 Nov 11 Sony Tablet S Review
You must remember the Sony Tablet S made by Sony instead of Sony Ericsson in the spring. Since all this time the tablet form factors hasn’t changed much, its unique shape left a totally fresh impression on people. Now the two companies’ decision of splitsville makes much sense. Sony intended to make this tablet more as a home electronics products rather than a device closer to a big smartphone; so they included an infrared transmitter for TV remote control in it. Given the fact that the tablet S is quite suitable for the living room and Sony’s engagement in the home entertainment sphere, it is an appropriate placement. But is it fit for anywhere else? Let’s have a detailed look of this tablet.
Specifications
First let’s know something about its specifications. The tablet S announced on April 26, 2011runs under Android OS with a 9.4 inch LCD. It has a camera of 5.0 megapixels and battery of 5000 mAh. As to the 5 megapixel camera, the daylight landscape shots taken by the it seemed a bit washed-out, so it is not so ideal for taking stills in low-light without a flash. However, the front-facing camera is good enough for Skype calls and it has all of usual scene mode, contrast and exposure settings in Android. It does a good job of close-ups too.
This tablet also has a special File Transfer app for handling exchanges with the SD memory card which is very useful for viewing, lightly editing, and sharing pictures fresh from a full-blown digital camera.
Hardware & Software
Then let’s have a look at its hardware and software. Unlike most other tablets with interchangeable looks, the Sony Tablet S is with an unevenly folded magazine-style design, which makes the bottom part well-suited for a docking station. This tablet with a dual-core 1 GHz Tegra 2 processor and 1 GB of RAM is no slouch under the hood. Also the usual antennae such as Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth are all tucked inside. And the 5000 mAh battery is enough for daily use. At least you can charge it more that once a day. In case the battery is not so durable, the cumbersome charging brick as well as the 9.4 inch size will limit how often you would like to take the tablet out of the house. But it charges up relatively quickly.
In terms of the software, you can get all of the great new Honeycomb-tailored widgets made for the bigger screen and still remain the access to the much wider variety of home screen widgets for smartphones. Lots of applications in the tablet link to Sony’s wide variety of multimedia service. Sony even snags an exclusive on Foursquare optimized for Android tablets. Here’s it performance benchmark results for your reference.
- Quadrant: 1510, 1558, 1905
- Linpack: 58.241 MFLOPS/2.9 s, 54.303 MFLOPS/3.11 s,
51.548 MFLOPS/3.27 s - NenaMark: 42.6 FPS
- GLBenchmark Egypt Standard: 17.4 FPS
- GLBenchmark PRO Standard: 28.5 FPS
- SmartBench: 3513 productivity index, 2276 gaming
Design
Here comes the unique design that you must be interested. Although this tablet weighs a little more than one a pound, you will find the curved side design very fit for hands holding. And the slight angle provides better viewing when placed on a flat surface. Apart from the unique form, some other points deserve your attention. On the right side, you can see The hardware buttons are tucked away in a clever fashion and the green notification light in the same area is bright. But there is a problem. Another LED pops on when you are charging which may distract in combination with the notification light. On the left side hidden away under a flap are micro USB and full-sized SD card slots. And some tiny indentations that curl up around the top are just for looks. In brief, the top feature is still the infrared sensor. In actual usage, the TV is as responsive to the Tablet S as any standard remote control with this infrared sensor. Maybe the application to include macro commands will enable people to turn on the TV, cable box, and audio system with a single button press. Apart from the remote control capabilities of the Tablet
S, it is also excellent in looking up actors, checking-in on social networks, and flipping through Facebook during commercials. The web browser is complete with favorites, multiple windows, and Flash support of version 11.
Overall, we can see Sony Tablet S possess both some merits and demerits. For the merits:
- Infrared for TV control is the bee’s knees
- Unique form factor
- Smooth, responsive software
For the demerits:
- Playback in some video formats not supported
- No HDMI-out and DLNA home media sharing still
limited - Camera quality is ho-hum
Despite the demerits, we still can say that the Sony Tablet S is the best currently available among all the tablets. If you are a typical couch potatoes, then the appeal of the Sony Tablet S might lost on you compared with others. This model will cost you $499.99, but if you need a browser or some applications for daily use, the $200 Kindle Fire or the competing Kobo Vox is more advisable.
