Sony Tablet S review
Sleek,beautiful and powerful, could this be the new tablet king?Ithas taken two years for Sony to enter the tablet market, and in that time everymanufacturer and their budget Taiwanese spin-off have colluded to fill thetablet market with dross.
Thispresents both and opportunity and a threat to Sony, and while there are manysub-standard tablets on the market, some great work has been done by a fewcompanies, and there's now a handful of successful, great value Android tabletsto choose from.
Youcan check out our Android Tablet round-up to see how this slate measures upagainst three of its rivals below:
Asidefrom the obvious iPad 2, which is the gold standard of design and usability,Samsung has unleashed a flurry of tablets, from the excellent Samsung GalaxyTab 10.1, to the imminent Galaxy Tab 7.7 which boasts a vibrant AMOLED display.
Othernotable competitors also include the Motorola Xoom, which is now aggressivelypriced at £349, and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, and soon-to-be-released EeePad Slider, which both boast full, physical QWERTY keyboards.To launchinto this crowded marketplace, Sony had to release something different, andwith the Sony Tablet S and the forthcoming Tablet P, that's exactly what itsdone.
TheSony Tablet S is a curvaceous, wedge-shaped tablet, which looks as if it hasbeen folded out of a single piece of textured black plastic. It's thicker atone side, with a rounded edge, as if you'd taken a thin paper back, and foldedthe cover back on itself to really get stuck into the story.
Asidefrom making it look different to every other tablet on the market, the SonyTablet S's unique appearance isn't purely aesthetic. The design means thattyping is comfortable when laid flat on a table or desk, which is a flaw inmost flat tablets.
Thebook-like design makes it easy to grip with one hand, making it perfect forbrowsing the web or reading ebooks.
TheTablet S weighs just 600g, which makes it identical in weight to the iPad 2.There's a plastic finish, which doesn't feel cheap, and it has a textured backwhich offers grip for your hand.WhileSony has done well to make the form stand out from its peers, the specs are astandard affair emulating their rivals closely. There's a dual-core Tegra 2processor clocked at 1GHz, 1GB of memory, capacitive touchscreen, and an SDexpansion slot.
TheSony Tablet S also comes with a range of other features, which make it reallystand out from the crowd. There are front and rear cameras, 1080p video captureand playback, PlayStation certification, which enables users to access a rangeof exclusive titles, and a host of Sony created apps, including a universalremote for controlling other Sony products.
Thetablet comes in two iterations, with 16GB and 32GB options available, and ithas set pricing at £399 for the 16GB version. This in itself is an admission bySony to the ferocity and difficulty of the tablet market.Sonytends to market itself as a premium manufacturer, and set its pricingaccordingly, but at £399, it has decided to compete directly with companies itwould look down upon in other markets.
Interface and apps
TheSony Tablet S ships with Android 3.1, which is Google's dedicated operatingsystem for tablet devices known as Honeycomb. This improves browsability on alarger screen, unlike the first tablets which ran the smartphone version ofAndroid.Honeycombis a great operating system, and offers everything you need from a tablet,which is helping to put Android tablets on an equal footing with the iPad.
Android Honeycom
Pressand hold on the screen, and you will be taken to a selection of widgets, apps,and other additions to your desktop. It's easy to get it set up your way, butwe can't help but feel that Honeycomb has a long way to go until it's as usableas iOS.
homescreen
Sonyhas enhanced the standard Android Honeycomb interface, without changing thedesign, so it feels more intuitive than other tablets. The home screen staysthe same, with the addition of a favourites button next to the apps menu, soyou can quickly access your most-used applications.Sonyhas also placed some handy quick launch buttons in the top left, so you canaccess the browser, email and a social feed reader app, which brings togetheryour Twitter and Facebook accounts into one manageable place.
In abid to make the interface more intuitive, Sony has made some tweaks toHoneycomb which are unique to the Sony Tablet S. The apps menu itself hasreceived a bit of a makeover, so it's a little more responsive to your finger,and you can sort the icons by newest first, A-Z, and even add your ownseparators in, to totally customise the look and feel.Sonyhas also made some tweaks to the responsiveness of the touchscreen to yourfinger, and the effects are immediately noticeable.
Themain area these tweaks manifest themselves is the on-screen keyboard, and thisis one of the best in the business. You can type quickly and accurately, evenin spite of the smaller screen size.
keyboard
Inlandscape mode, the full QWERTY keyboard has a numeric keypad on the right handside, which is a fantastic addition, and means you don't have to flick keyboardmodes, like you do on the iPad.Thismakes typing a lot easier, and combined with the wedge-shaped design offeringup the keypad to a usable angle when aid flat, we have one of the best tabletsfor typing, without a physical keyboard.
Apps
TheTablet S ships with Android 3.1 and is instantly upgradeable to the latest 3.2version, which enables all users to access to the Android Marketplace with itsselection of 300,000 apps.
Whilethe gap has closed between the iOS and Android app stores in terms of thenumber of apps on offer, we still feel that there's a long way to go beforeGoogle can match the quality of Apple's apps.
Abrowse of the Android Market doesn't yield the selection of big names thatyou'd find on the App Store, and scratching below the surface often meansdisappointing quality, which Apple simply would not accept. However, it by farsurpasses the app stores of BlackBerry and HP.Sonyhas tried to address this issue with a choice of its own apps. Proprietary appstores normally cause us to emit a disgusted groan, but this is an area whichmakes the Sony Tablet S really stand out.
Select app
Thereare feed readers and mail clients, which offer nothing which isn't already onthe Marketplace, but also some great games and a handy universal remote app.
TheSony Tablet S is PlayStation certified, and the tablet has been released with aPS1 port of Crash Bandicoot and Pinball Heroes game.ThePlayStation factor makes the Sony Tablet S a great buy for gamers, but at themoment, the number of titles is quite pitiful. We really hope that theselection of games increases exponentially over the coming months.
Sonyfans who have kitted their home out with the Japanese giant's wares will alsolove the universal remote. This uses Infrared to allow you to control your TV,PlayStation 3, Blu-ray player and other Sony gizmos, all from the comfort ofyour living room.
Sonyhas also added its own music service, which offers access to 9 million tunesfor £9.99 a month, and also an on-demand video service, which is againavailable as part of a subscription.
Performance and gaming
Whenit comes to performance, the Sony Tablet S really comes into its own.
Usingthe operating system is fast, and every swipe is rewarded with smooth draggingof screens and apps, and there was no slowdown whatsoever.Despitethe great specs, rendering was an issue on certain websites, which causedstrange half page displays and juddery scrolling.
Oneof the worst offenders was Sony's own app store called Select App, which iswhere you find the PlayStation titles, and this was extremely frustrating andslow to use.
Wealso found issues when rotating the screen, and it often stuck, before jerkinginto place- and while it didn't ruin the experience, it's touches like thisthat show why the iPad 2 is so good.Batterylife was a standard affair, and the boost in performance seems to have had aknock-on effect in longevity. We found the Sony lasted around 4 hours whenplaying demanding video, around 9 hours of web browsing and game playing, andaround 30 hours of occasional coffee table web browsing.
Settings
TheiPad is pretty light on media and connectivity, but this is another area wherethe Sony Tablet S excels.
Youcan add an SD card to the 16/32GB of built in memory, and there's also aMicroUSB connection for added files to your tablet. However, storage is anissue with the Sony.
Thefirst bugbear is that a MicroUSB cable isn't sold with the tablet, which willbe an annoyance for anyone who takes the Sony Tablet S home, to starttransferring media, music and video.Thesecond is that an exploration of the file manager reveals that on the 16GBmodel, only 9GB is available to use. What's more, with everything that comesinstalled as standard, you only have 7GB to play with.
File transfer
Thisis partly due to a partition that the Sony makes, to keep the operating systemand file system separate. When we received the tablet, only 3.7GB was availablefor apps and system files.
Witha total of 9GB for the file system, and 4GB for the system files, a whopping3GB is M.I.A, presumably lost when formatting the system, which makes that SDexpansion slot look all the more necessary.
Wehad high hopes for the Sony as a media tablet, but unfortunately, the Tablet Sfell short of our expectations.
movie player
We loadedthe Tablet S with three movies, but neither of our .MKV movies were recognised.The third, which was a standard definition .mp4 movie played fine, but the lackof support for this popular format left us disappointed.Thescreen is also a bug-bear on the Sony Tablet S, and again we felt let down.It's sharp and clear, but it's just not very bright, and this really hit homewhile watching our movie. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 screen is much morevibrant, and a real media lover's tablet.
Gaming
As wementioned, the Sony Tablet S is PlayStation certified, which means there are ahost of PlayStation titles to enjoy.
Thesegames use a mix of touchscreen controls on the newer games such as Pinball, andan on-screen PS1 pad on ported titles such as Crash Bandicoot.
Usingan onscreen joypad takes some getting used to, and with no tactile buttons toguide you, we were forever pressing the wrong button, and it did feelimprecise.
Itdoesn't take long to get into it, and with a bit of trial and error, thecontrols were soon mastered, and we ended up loving the gaming experience.
Thesize and shape of the Sony Tablet S really helps you play for extended periods,with the buttons well positioned near the left and right hand sides of thescreen.Ifyou're a fan of old PS1 titles, this tablet is for you, let's just hope Sonyhonour their commitment, and keep bringing out good retro games.
Camera
Likemost tablets, Sony has included front and rear cameras, and these tend to be ahalf-hearted affair, with dubious quality and limited use. The front camera isdesigned for video chatting with Skype or other clients, and the rear camerafor taking snaps for sharing online.
Sonyhas gone with a 5MP camera on the rear of the tablet, which is capable ofcapturing high-definition video.
Whenit came to picture quality, good frame rates don't save the day, and shotslooked washed out, and grainy, even in good light.
At5MP we didn't expect much, and quality was very much on par with the equallyuninspiring iPad 2.
Optingfor 0.3MP sensor with VGA video quality on the front facing camera yielded theresults one would expect. Picture quality was lifeless, grainy and noisy.
Videowas slightly better, and anyone who has tried to chat with friends over a webcam will always appreciate smooth video over a higher quality, choppy feed.
Withthe Sony Tablet S you could enjoy a video chat on Skype with a friend, but thequality was no-where near that of Apple's Facetime.UnlikeFacetime, there's no built-in app for video chatting with friends, so you willneed to visit the app store, to get one of the popular video chat apps, such asSkype.
Verdict
Weloved the Sony Tablet S and its wedge-shaped design, which really makes thisstand out from the crowd. The responsive touch screen and unique shape combineto make this tablet extremely usable, and a joy to type on.
Sony Android Tablet SFeatures:
Can easily stream video fromthe tablet to a DLNA-enabled TV
Playstation 3 Connectivity +Gaming Support
Premium Build Quality withergonomically contoured design
5MP and 3MP front and RearCamera
Integrated IR blaster whichcan works as all-in-one remote control
Sony Tablet Technical Specifications:
3G/Wi-Fi Connectivity
9.4” inch (1280 x 768) pixelsmulti-touch display
16GB/32GB Internal memory
5 Megapixel Rear Camera withHD Video
3 Megapixel Front Camera
Optional accessories likewireless keyboard, Docks
GPS, Bluetooth and DLNAcertified
Access to Sony Exclusivecontent: Music/Video unlimited, e-book Reader store
Swift & Smooth UIExperience
Sony Tablet S Price in India: Coming Soon….
We liked:
Thetweaks that Sony has made to Android 3.1, to aid usability and performance havereally paid off, and the Sony was enjoyable to use, and we kept on coming back.What'smore, the host of exclusive content, from the universal remote app to the hostof PlayStation titles mean there's a genuine reason to choose this tablet overthe slew of other Android devices on the market.
We disliked
Thelack of storage on the 16GB version was unfortunate, and we hope that Sony canaddress the amount of storage on offer to people who only choose the 16GBversion.
Mediaplayback was disappointing, and like the iPad 2, anyone who wants to watchvideo on their Sony Tablet will need to spend hours recoding their files.
Despitethe form being ideal for web browsing, the rendering problems on many web pagesruined the experience, somewhat, and using the browser was no-where near asslick as on the iPad.
Thefinal bugbear was not with the Sony, but with Android 3.1 itself. While it hascome a long way, we still feel that iOS offers a better experience and a muchstronger line-up of apps, supported content and quality accessories.
TheSony Tablet S has everything needed to be a fantastic tablet, and afront-runner in the Android race. The form factor makes it a superb buy forpeople who spend time on the move.
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