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Sony Tablet S video review

#267 | 4:23 |

Gadget TV

Thursday September 1, 2011

Sony's first full-size

Android tablet, the Sony Tablet S

, is a contender. We're no Apple fanboys (well, not all of us, at least) but this is the first Android tablet that's made us say anything but "cool, but it's not an iPad." The most striking thing is the design which looks great but also feels incredibly balanced when holding with one hand. In any orientation. Integration with Sony's own device ecosystem including PlayStation certification, Cybershot camera tweaks, Sony Reader for eBooks and screen design inspired by Bravia make this the best Android tablet we've seen to date. And we've seen plenty.

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Show Notes

Sony Tablet S
$499 / $599
16GB / 32GB

The design of the Sony Tablet S centers around the fold design. It's wedge shaped, thicker at the top with a smooth curve. The back is textured plastic making it easy to grip with one hand in any orientation.

The screen is a 9.4-inch 1280x800 pixel glossy capacitive touch screen inspired by the monolithic look of Sony's Bravia TVs. While the screen is glossy, it performs pretty well in direct light as there's an antireflective layer between the capacitive touch and LCD screens.

Power and volume buttons are hidden underneath the fold on the right-side of the device.

Sony's tweaks to Honeycomb come mostly in the form of bundled apps. Apps like Reader, Remote control, DLNA and others. An excellent addition to the device.

All told, this is the first Android tablet that actually feels like a contender and not a "oh, tablets are the thing? OK, here" offering.

Sony Tablet S specs
5MP rear camera
VGA front camera
NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor at 1GHz
1280x800px
16 or 32GB storage
Expandable storage via SD card up to an additional 32GB
IR transmitter for home theater remote

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