Almost 8 months after Android Honeycomb was launched, Sony's entry into the tablet market is delayed at best. However, early leaked images of Sony's tablets, codenamed S1 and S2 at the time, revealed that the company had something different in mind. A few weeks ago, Sony officially launched these tablets, renamed Tablet S and Tablet P. Last week, Sony shipped the Tablet S for review – a 10-inch tab running Android Honeycomb.
IT'S GOT THE LOOK
The one thing Sony always gets right is design, and the Tablet S is no exception. The curved, futuristic design looks like something that might have landed from outer space. The design makes it look like the back panel has been folded back, mimicking a folded page of a magazine, and the result is that one end is comparatively thicker than the other. The dimensions work out to 20.23 mm on the thicker end and 7.62mm on the thinner one. Even though this means you don't get the thinness of an iPad 2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, this design mantra actually works. The thicker top edge gives the tablet a slight incline, which makes for a much better viewing angle on a flat surface and is also more comfortable to type on. Within the thicker edge of the tablet is a pull-out flap which conceals a mini USB port and SD card slot, but be warned, the latter does not act as an expansion slot, so you'll be stuck with the storage capacity of the tablet, either 16GB or 32GB. The power and volume buttons are on the other side. The screen and back panel also stick out a bit over the sides, so it makes it easy to grip with your hands or manage the controls with your fingers. The Tablet S features dual cameras – a rear 5-megger and a front-facing 0.3-meg shooter.
The back panel is made of a dotted, texturised black plastic, which unfortunately cheapens the tablet a bit. Even the sides are made of plastic, so you get none of that tough aluminium that we love so much on the iPad 2. It's also very prone to smudges, but it's not nearly as bad as the screen. Unlike the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the tablet's display doesn't come with any Gorilla Glass protection, so it's very prone to scratches and fingerprints. It gets pretty messy if you use it regularly, and considering that it's priced on par with the other biggies, I don't see why Sony would want to exclude an extra layer of protection.
WHAT'S INSIDE
Tablet S runs an updated version of Honeycomb, Android 3.2. Sony hasn't made many customisations to the Honeycomb experience, but a nice addition is the revamped Apps layout. The apps are arranged on a white background which makes them easy to spot, and they can be arranged alphabetically or date-wise. In addition to the regular Honeycomb controls, there's a dedicated button for recently opened apps. A Favourites button on top of the homescreen shows your recent games, media and bookmarks in a 3D-ish grid display.
The Tablet S does offer a few add-ons that are distinctly Sony. Perhaps the most important one is the inclusion of the Playstation Suite, which enables you to play Playstation and PSP games. Although the Suite itself has a disappointing array of games, you do get to experience it with the two pre-installed games that come with the device – Crash Bandicoot and Pinball heroes. Unlike the Xperia Play which came with some dedicated PSP controls, the Tablet S has only touchscreen controls, even though there's ample space for physical buttons on the top and side. The device does have a gyroscope, but navigating through Crash Bandicoot with the large touchscreen seemed a bit tedious.
A very cool app on the Tablet S is Remote control, which basically allows you to control other electronic devices around you through the infrared sensor. I configured the tablet to control our Sony TV, and it worked quite easily. You can choose any other manufacturer too from the drop down list which is quite comprehensive. There's also DLNA to enable sharing with other devices. Users might appreciate the optional keyboard Sony has on offer which has a dedicated number pad.
MEDIA
The SD card slot can be used to transfer files easily to the tablet. It opens up a File Transfer app and you can select the files you want to move across.
I loaded a few eBooks on the tablet and viewed them using the Reader app. The thick edge of the Tablet S mimics a folded magazine beautifully, so it feels quite familiar in your hands.
Another area where the tablet shone was in video playback. Sony's 1280x800 display uses TruBlack technology, similar to Nokia Lumia 800's use of a ClearBlack display. This makes the blacks look even darker and also enables better colour reproduction. Videos played smoothly and with no visible jerks between frames, and colour reproduction was better than even on some laptops I've used recently. No surprise there, considering Sony's expertise with displays. I watched a couple of movies and a few episodes of Family Guy, and I found that the tablet was easy to prop up because of the thinner bottom edge, and even on a flat surface, the elevated angle made for comfortable viewing. Sound is emitted through the stereo speakers on the side, and was loud and clear enough for me not to have to plug in my headphones most of the time.
The 5-megapixel rear shooter actually surprised with its results, which were sharp and clear even in low light. There are a few additional controls like Macro, Scene modes, White Balance and Exposure. Unlike other tablets, the shot you are framing only takes up the centre portion of the screen, with controls on the left and a shutter button on the right, which is the perfect location for shake-free release. The camera reel appears at the bottom.
The only media related problem I did face was with the Wi-Fi. The Tablet S repeatedly lost Wi-Fi connection when the screen was not in use. Even connecting to known networks seemed to be a bit of a problem because it takes a while to connect.
PERFORMANCE
The Tablet S is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 T20 chipset and dual-core 1GHz Cortex A9 processor. Quadrant scores were 1,636, which actually surpassed the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 score of 1,550. Linpack scores were 30.35 MFLOPS, very close to Motorola Xoom's 31.44.
Apart from slight delays with auto-rotate and a bit of a slowdown when downloading big files, the Tablet S never exhibited any visible lags. I was able to comfortably run close to 8-10 apps simultaneously.
Although battery life doesn't match the iPad 2's 10 hours, it's still quite impressive at about 8-8.5 hours. With Wi-Fi connected and regular use of Email, the browser and some gaming, the Tablet S lasted the whole day at work and even let me watch a movie when I got home.
OUR VERDICT
Sony's Tablet S makes for one of the smoothest Honeycomb experiences on tablets so far. With great performance, good media support and a futuristic design, the Tablet S stands out from the other options available in the market right now. We also heard that users can expect an Android Ice Cream Sandwich update for the tablet soon. Sony's expertise with displays was put to the test with this tablet, which emerges as a very healthy competitor to the iPad 2.
