The best Sony tablets. Sony Xperia Tablet S - Specifications Pros and cons of Sony Xperia Tablet Z

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The main competitors have already brought their products to the market, and Sony waited until the fall of 2011 and only then announced its vision for this class of devices. Did Sony manage to surprise buyers? Partly yes! Based on the combination of characteristics, a tablet called Sony Tablet S turned out to be an interesting and original solution, although not ideal. On the other hand, are there many ideal devices today? In this article I will try to describe my impressions of working with this tablet, which was purchased in March 2012. As a side note, screenshots and performance thoughts will be based on Android 4.0. On May 31, owners of the Sony Tablet S got the opportunity to officially update the operating system. And this update brought with it some nice innovations. So let's go!

Design and ergonomics

It is noticeable to the naked eye that Sony did not want to release another faceless device, which is a uniformly thin rectangle, similar to what Samsung and Asus brought to the market. The designers of the Japanese manufacturer pretty much racked their brains over how to highlight their creation on store shelves. And they succeeded! Sony Tablet S is not to be confused with any other tablet. The point is in its shape of the case: it is something similar to a magazine folded in half. The thickness of the case at the top of the tablet (just where the hands hold it) is much greater than the thickness at the bottom and is as much as 24 mm.

Due to this, a more confident grip is achieved when holding the device on weight. And this is important when you have to do something with the tablet while standing. Hands get tired noticeably less. In this matter, I can compare the Sony Tablet S with the Asus Prime tablet. Taiwanese product is a simple metal rectangle, very thin. This creates some inconvenience. The edges of the tablet cut into the palm of your hand, making it harder for your fingers to grasp. So Sony designers not only managed to distinguish the Sony Tablet S from the crowd of competitors, but also significantly improved its ergonomics.

Moreover, the back surface of the tablet is made of rough plastic, completely non-slip under the fingers. There are also four plastic feet to prevent the Sony Tablet S from slipping on the table. This is also a big plus.

Few interfaces. There is a charger port on the bottom, and a 3.5 mm jack on the left side. In the same place, under a beautiful cover, you can find slots for an SD memory card (which is a definite plus!) And for a SIM card (I have a version of Sony Tablet S with 3G support). The microUSB connector for synchronization with a PC has not gone anywhere. And through a special adapter, you can connect an external drive to the tablet, so that the host mode is implemented. However, having a slot for full-size SD cards, I never figured out why I should connect something else via cable. You can charge the tablet only through a proprietary connector, charging does not come from a PC. The power supply unit is extremely similar to that of Sony netbooks, it is quite large for tablet standards.

Do you think that in this section I will only praise Sony? No, I'll tell you about a fly in the ointment. Or rather, there are two of them. The first is the screen cover and the front side of the device. They are monstrously easily soiled, and instantly smeared with fingers. So every day the tablet can and should be wiped with napkins to clean the optics. And prints interfere with work under sunlight, since the display is already glossy.

The second is the location of the three keys: power and volume control. They are located at the top on the right side literally close to each other. Although they are embossed, they are too crowded, and there are rare erroneous pressings. However, I can not fail to note their pleasant move and a clear tactile response.

In the end, I can say this: the appearance and ease of holding in the hands of the tablet are excellent. You won't get carried away here at all. Sony managed to create a really nice device with minor exceptions.

Screen

It uses an IPS-matrix with a diagonal of 9.4 inches and a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels. Based on the experience of long-term operation, I can safely say that when used indoors, the screen makes an exceptionally rosy impression. I note good color reproduction, no less good viewing angles. Perhaps someone will be somewhat upset by the imperfect black color. On the Internet, you can find many opinions that the white color on the Sony Tablet S screen has a yellowish tint. Probably, it is so, but it does not cause any obvious problems. Outside, things are not so good. The maximum brightness in direct sunlight is no longer enough, and it is difficult to read from the screen. Plus, the extremely high visibility of the display also does not improve readability. The screen coating is prone to scratches, so wear the device with care.

So, when using at home, the screen in the Sony Tablet S is more than good, but on the street there may be problems. There it is better to use Samsung AMOLED screens or Asus matrices with a high brightness function.

autonomy

Agree, this aspect is extremely important for any Android device. The Sony Tablet S is based on the Nvidia Tegra 2 chip (2 cores), which is moderately optimized in terms of power saving. In addition, there is a feeling that something was done inside Sony when finalizing Android. But first things first.

Under the hood we have a 5000 mAh battery. It's sloppy. Especially for Android, which is famous for its immodest appetite for battery life. On the official website, the company declares 7 hours of work from charging. In reality, this is what happens. If you turn on Wi-Fi and start browsing the web, the battery will last for 5.5-6 hours. The brightness was set to about 50% of the maximum. I note that my tablet also supports 3G. So, when working through a cellular network, the battery was subjectively less discharged. If you watch a DVDrip of 2.2 GB for 1.5 hours, then approximately 25% of the total charge will be used up. That is, the tablet will be able to show video for 5-6 hours (but it depends on the resolution and bitrate). "Heavy" games will land the battery in about 4 hours.

And now for the bad. When writing proprietary lotions for Android, Sony programmers did something that, even in standby mode with Wi-Fi turned off and a dark screen, the tablet loses 2.5-3% of the battery charge per hour. That is, overnight you will miss about 15-20% of the charge! This is strange. It is worth considering that some software also significantly increases power consumption. For example, HD Widgets spent another 2% of the charge per hour during their work. I had to remove them.

The tablet is charged for two hours. I advise you to buy a cradle, with its help it is much easier to charge the Sony Tablet S, and the tablet looks more elegant in such a stand. According to Sony Tablet S does not look like a strong man in terms of power consumption. In my opinion, Sony engineers made a mistake with the battery capacity, it should have been made more powerful. And so the Sony Tablet S is not the kind of device with which you can fearlessly leave the house for 10 hours. It will not survive until the end of the working day with heavy use. This turns it into a bedside device. To make matters worse, I could not find external batteries for sale that can connect to the connector in the Sony Tablet S. It will not work to charge the device on the go.

As a result, power consumption is a serious minus of the tablet. To some extent, we can hope for an update of Sony tablets coming in the fall, which will certainly include models based on the Tegra 3 chip. Having an Asus tablet based on this solution, I can say that Tegra 3 really consumes less power in standby mode. So we are waiting.

Camera and multimedia

The tablet has 2 cameras: in front with a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, and in the back with 5 megapixels. You can use video. The rear camera is ordinary in terms of capabilities, you should not expect good photos from it. Rather, it is a kind of insurance when you urgently need to shoot something, regardless of the final quality, but there is nothing else at hand. Although I have already seen several times how people recorded videos on full-sized 10-inch tablets. Personally, I find this a strange thing to do. By the way, Sony Tablet S video records in 720p resolution (but the sound is very mediocre). The camera interface is quite convenient, the settings switch quickly. The speed of saving photos is high, there are no problems. But everything is spoiled by a dim display, which is very difficult to read in the sun. So shooting outdoors with the Sony Tablet S is on a cloudy day.

If we talk about video playback, then Sony did not surprise us with anything. For example, Samsung has been building support for all popular codecs and video formats into its tablets for a long time. Sony does not like to do this, and therefore out of the box the tablet “eats” only WMV and MP4 video. Yes, you can install some program for downloading videos from Youtube, and they will be perfectly opened by the device in resolution up to 720p. But for watching movies received from torrents, I strongly recommend installing the free MX Player. Things are better with music. Sony not only built a branded and beautiful player, but also added support for audiophile FLAC and OGG formats to the tablet. The volume is enough, the quality is very, very good. Good headphones are required, you should not limit yourself to simple plugs. Then you can enjoy lossless music. The Sony Tablet S completely replaces the audio player in terms of quality, and you can safely listen to something instrumental while reading the news. Yes, and the stereo speakers in the tablet are very, very good! It's nice to listen to music through them. The photo gallery is simple and pretty neat, photo thumbnails load quickly. Android 4.0 on Sony Tablet S On May 31, Sony released an official update to the fourth version of Android for Russian tablets. What did it really bring? First, the built-in browser has become faster and more convenient. Added fine adjustments to scaling and text size. You can quickly switch from mobile to desktop version of the site. Bookmarks sync with desktop Google Chrome. Remained support for Flash. Second, on the fourth Android, you can install mobile Google Chrome. Outwardly, it practically copies the desktop version. The only pity is that there is no permanently visible bookmarks bar at the top of the browser. But we are pleased with the speed and design of the application. Somewhat frustrating is the lack of support for Flash technology¸ on a number of resources you will not be able to watch the video. On the other hand, it's time to get used to it, because mobile Chrome will become a regular browser in Android in the future. Thirdly, Sony programmers managed to achieve an important thing: the smoothness of the interface! And on Android devices, this is a very big problem. It is not uncommon for 4-core flagships to stutter when scrolling desktops. Sony Tablet S is exceptionally pleasant in this aspect. Fourth, a proprietary file manager made in the company's corporate style has become the basis for working with files. The fact is that on the fourth Android, many third-party managers for some reason lost the ability to delete files from the memory card. You have to work through the staff. Fifth - you can "without dancing with a tambourine" take a screenshot of the screen. To do this, press and hold the power and volume down buttons. But the same browser almost always, after being minimized, will start loading previously opened pages again. Many games also do not like to be minimized into the background and crash. So, Sony decided to do something in this direction. Now at the bottom of the screen you always see a button that allows you to launch one of three mini-applications on top of any current application. It can be a browser, a program for controlling home appliances via infrared or a calculator. The last two options are not very interesting, but the browser is curious. For example, you read the tweet feed in the same Twitcaster. And you want to quickly look something on the Internet. Now you do not need to minimize the active application and launch a full-formatted web browser. It is enough to press the mentioned button, and the built-in browser window will open on half of the display, right on top of the running application. You can move this mini-program to the edge of the display, and it will remain there waiting for a call, almost without interfering with the previous program. To some extent, this looks like an opportunity from when you can open two applications on the display at once, dividing the display between them. Sony has added a panorama mode to the camera app. This may be useful to someone, although I did not understand the meaning of this step. The photo gallery has acquired the ability to directly access the memory card and built-in photo processing tools. You can change their parameters as in a graphical editor. Sony's branded programs have not gone away either: an email client and a reader for Twitter and Facebook. They are quite usable. Among the general pleasant features of the fourth Android, I will highlight the ability to remove unnecessary notifications with a swipe, the function of creating folders for grouping applications and quickly launching the camera from the lock screen. By the way, the next version of Android has an index of 4.1, so there is a possibility of updating to it. But the fifth Android will most likely require the purchase of a more powerful tablet. conclusions I won't give extensive recommendations on how to set up software, since everyone has different tasks, and the Google store has an extensive selection of applications. I will limit myself to the most important programs. I advise you to install Google Chrome Mobile, Tweetcaster, MX Player, Kingsoft Office and some kind of Task Manager. What to say in the end? In terms of design and ergonomics, the Sony Tablet S turned out to be a very successful and original solution. Like it or not, but the Japanese company managed to create not just another clone of the tablets of competitors, but something of its own, which stands out from the background of analogues. Pleases and a wide range of modifications. You can buy versions without 3G with 16 or 32 GB of memory, you can buy with 3G. What anyone likes. The case does not shield anything, so we have a stable connection to both Wi-Fi networks and satellites. The 3G module works fine, the sensitivity is high, on the Megafon network I got a download speed of about 6 Mbps. The color rendering screen is very pleasant, but it lacks brightness on the street. This is worth considering. Power consumption is, along with the display, the second main disadvantage of the device. For good, you need to operate the Sony Tablet S in places where there is an outlet nearby. But the power supply itself is rather big, it is inconvenient to carry it with you. So essentially we have a home tablet that you should not take with you on trips. In terms of multimedia, the tablet looks decent: it plays music perfectly (the speakers are very good!), shows movies (through third-party video players), plays almost everything. Of course, toys optimized for Tegra 3 will require a different device, but there are not very many such games. So, should you buy the Sony Tablet S today? The prices, frankly, remain inhumane (the 16 GB plus 3G version costs an average of 19 thousand, and without 3G - 16 thousand). There is a markup for the Sony brand. And that's the whole point! If you are a fan of "sony-style", then here it is in abundance. And you have to take it. If you are indifferent to Sony technology, then there are a fair amount of cheaper analogues on the market with the same characteristics. And in this case, the Sony Tablet S is not the best option, and I cannot recommend it. By and large, we see the most typical situation: Sony has made another product "for its own", who are ready to significantly overpay. The company does not look back at competitors and does not always set adequate prices for its solutions. This is bad. But so far I don't see any changes in this situation. This is not to say that the product itself is a failure, the Sony Tablet S is generally pleasant. But it should cost less. In the meantime, his purchase will be more emotional than pragmatic. This is really a product "for their own". © Oleg Kravchenko,

In this review, we will look at the best Sony tablet models. Let's get acquainted with their characteristics, find out how much they cost, consider their positive and negative sides. We will select the best models in terms of price / quality ratio.

Sony Corporation is one of the trendsetters in the field of electronics. Sony tablets are distinguished by high quality components and assembly, as well as perfect color reproduction and speed. In addition, Sony is the world's only developer of a waterproof ultra-thin tablet PC. Gadgets released by the Japanese giant, although they cost fabulous money, are considered one of the best on the planet, not inferior to models from leading companies.

Types of tablets

Sony produces several different lines of tablets aimed at its customer:

1. Xperia Z Tablet Compact. A series of tablets with a screen of 8 inches. The latest models are equipped with the most advanced developments. They are distinguished by good performance, excellent resolution of the camera matrix and support for 4G LTE format.
2. Xperia Z. The flagship series of tablet PCs. The technical characteristics of the line are ahead of the possibilities of applications. In addition, these are the thinnest and lightest tablets in the world.
3. Xperia Tablet Z. The standard series of tablet PCs. It has good characteristics, many manufacturers would consider it a flagship, but for Sony it is a budget line of tablets. Some models of this line are equipped with a waterproof case.
4. Xperia Tablet S. A good series of gadgets with Nvidia Tegra processors and an increased operating mode without recharging.
5. Sony Tablet P. A series of folding tablets with 2 screens of 5.5 inches. It has excellent music reproduction.

How to choose a tablet

The main nuances that must be considered when choosing a Sony tablet:

1. Power and clock frequency of the processor.
2. Support for wireless networks.
3. Screen resolution and size.
4. The amount of internal memory.
5. Resolution of the matrix of the rear and front cameras.

Pros and cons

The advantages of Sony tablets are their undoubted quality and future technologies. By purchasing such a gadget, you can be sure that the technical capabilities will remain at the level for a long time. The downside is not at all democratic price.

My rating of the best Sony tablets

1. Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet.
2. Sony Xperia Tablet Z.
3. Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact.
4. Sony Tablet S.
5. Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet.
6. Sony Tablet P.

Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet

Specifications Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet

System
A type	tablet
Operating system	Android 4.4
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 2300 MHz
Number of Cores	4
Built-in memory	16 GB
RAM	3 GB
Memory card slot	yes, microSDXC, up to 128 GB
Screen
Screen	10.1", 1920x1200
Widescreen display	Yes
A type	TFT IPS, glossy
Touchscreen	capacitive, multi-touch
Number of pixels per inch (PPI)	224
scratch resistant glass	there is
video processor	Adreno 330
Wireless connection
WiFi support	yes, Wi-Fi 802.11n, WiFi Direct, Miracast, DLNA
Bluetooth support	yes, Bluetooth 4.0, A2DP
NFC support	there is
mobile connection
infrared port	there is
Camera
rear camera	yes, 8.1 megapixels
Rear camera features	autofocus
Front-camera	yes, 2.2 megapixels
Sound
Built-in speakers	yes, stereo sound
Built-in microphone	there is
FM tuner	there is
Functionality
GPS	there is
GLONASS	there is
	there is
Sensors
QWERTY keyboard	optional
Connection
To computer via USB	there is
External devices via USB	there is
MHL support	there is
Audio/headphone output	yes, 3.5 mm
Headset connection	there is
Dock connector	there is
Nutrition
Working hours	13 h
Standby time	100 h
Battery capacity	6000 mAh
Dimensions and weight
Dimensions (LxWxD)	266x172x6mm
Weight	439 g
Additional Information
Frame	waterproof

Advantages and problems of Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet

Advantages:

1. light.
2. responsive.
3. fast and powerful.
4. good screen.
5. comfortable cover.

Flaws:

1. problems with the screen - yellow spots.
2. poor location of the headphone jack.

Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet video review

Sony Xperia Tablet Z

Specifications for Sony Xperia Tablet Z

System
A type	tablet
Operating system	Android 4.2
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 1500 MHz
Number of Cores	4
Built-in memory	16 GB
RAM	2 GB
Memory card slot	yes, microSDXC, up to 64 GB
Screen
Screen	10.1", 1920x1200
Widescreen display	Yes
A type	TFT
Touchscreen	capacitive, multi-touch
Number of pixels per inch (PPI)	224
video processor	Adreno 320
Wireless connection
WiFi support
Bluetooth support	yes, Bluetooth 4.0, A2DP
NFC support	there is
infrared port	there is
Camera
rear camera	yes, 8 megapixels
Rear camera features	autofocus
Front-camera	yes, 2.2 megapixels
Sound
Built-in speakers	yes, stereo sound
Built-in microphone	there is
FM tuner	there is
Functionality
GPS	there is
Automatic screen orientation	there is
Sensors	accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, light sensor
Format Support
Audio	AAC, OGG, FLAC, MP3
Video	MPEG-4, MKV, H.264, H.263, MP4
Connection
To computer via USB	there is
External devices via USB	optional
MHL support	there is
Audio/headphone output	yes, 3.5 mm
Dock connector	there is
Nutrition
Working time (video)	10 h
Battery Charging Time	7 h
Battery capacity	6000 mAh (22.2 Wh)
USB charging	there is
Dimensions and weight
Dimensions (LxWxD)	266x172x7mm
Weight	495 g
Additional Information
Frame	waterproof
Peculiarities	remote control function; support for JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, WEBP formats; AAC, HE-AAC, MIDI, VP8, AVI; camera face and smile detection, panorama and HDR capture

Advantages and problems of Sony Xperia Tablet Z

Advantages:

1. appearance.
2. screen.
3. CPU.
4. waterproof.
5. own stuffing.

Flaws:

1. easily soiled.
2. speakers are weak.
3. poor delivery set.
4. price.

Sony Xperia Tablet Z video review

Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact

Specifications Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact

System
A type	tablet
Operating system	Android 4.4
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 2500 MHz
Number of Cores	4
Built-in memory	16 GB
RAM	3 GB
Memory card slot	yes, microSDXC, up to 128 GB
Screen
Screen	8", 1920x1200
Widescreen display	Yes
A type	TFT IPS, glossy
Touchscreen	capacitive, multi-touch
Number of pixels per inch (PPI)	283
video processor	Adreno 330
Wireless connection
WiFi support	yes, Wi-Fi 802.11n, WiFi Direct, DLNA
Bluetooth support	Yes, Bluetooth 4.0
NFC support	there is
Camera
rear camera	yes, 8.1 megapixels
Rear camera features	autofocus
Front-camera	yes, 2.2 megapixels
Sound
Built-in speakers	yes, stereo sound
Built-in microphone	there is
Functionality
GPS	yes, with A-GPS support
GLONASS	there is
Automatic screen orientation	there is
Sensors	accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, light sensor, barometer
Format Support
Audio	WAV, OGG, FLAC, MP3
Video	MP4
Connection
To computer via USB	there is
External devices via USB	optional
MHL support	there is
Audio/headphone output	yes, 3.5 mm
Nutrition
Working time (video)	15 h
Battery capacity	4500 mAh
USB charging	there is
Dimensions and weight
Dimensions (LxWxD)	213x124x6.4mm
Weight	270 g
Additional Information
Frame	waterproof
Peculiarities	protection class IP65/68; support for 3GPP, AVI, XVID, WEBM, ASF, AMR formats; ANT+

Advantages and problems of Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact

Advantages:

1. very fast.
2. great screen.
3. fast and accurate gps/glonass.
4. keeps charging for a long time in wifi + screen + gps mode.

Flaws:

1. camera.
2. quiet sound in the speakers.

Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact video review

Sony Tablet S

Specifications of Sony Tablet S

System
A type	tablet
Operating system	Android 4.0
CPU	Nvidia Tegra 2 1000 MHz
Number of Cores	2
Built-in memory	16 GB
RAM	1 GB
Memory card slot	yes, SDHC
Screen
Screen	9.4", 1280x800
Widescreen display	Yes
A type	TFT IPS, glossy
Touchscreen	capacitive, multi-touch
Number of pixels per inch (PPI)	161
video processor	NVIDIA Tegra 2
Wireless connection
WiFi support	yes, Wi-Fi 802.11n
Bluetooth support	Yes, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
infrared port	there is
Camera
rear camera	yes, 5 megapixels
Front-camera	yes, 0.3 megapixels
Sound
Built-in speakers	yes, stereo sound
Built-in microphone	there is
Functionality
GPS	there is
Automatic screen orientation	there is
Sensors	accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, light sensor
Format Support
Audio
Video	MPEG-4, WMV, H.264, H.263
Connection
To computer via USB	there is
External devices via USB	there is
Audio/headphone output	yes, 3.5 mm
Nutrition
Working hours	8 h
Battery capacity	5000 mAh
Dimensions and weight
Dimensions (LxWxD)	241x174x10mm
Weight	625 g
Additional Information
Housing material	plastic
Equipment	tablet, AC adapter, power cord, strap
Peculiarities	support for MP3, WMA Pro, MIDI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP formats

Advantages and problems of Sony Tablet S

Advantages:

1. bright screen.
2. fast response.
3. good sensor.
4. comfortable shape.
5. build quality.

Flaws:

1. equipment.
2. microphone.
3. soft sound from the speakers.

Sony Tablet S video review

Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet

Specifications Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet

System
A type	tablet
Operating system	Android 5.0
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994 2700 MHz
Number of Cores	8
Built-in memory	32 GB
RAM	3 GB
Memory card slot	yes, microSDXC, up to 128 GB
Screen
Screen	10.1", 2560x1600
Widescreen display	Yes
A type	TFT IPS, glossy
Touchscreen	capacitive, multi-touch
Number of pixels per inch (PPI)	299
video processor	Adreno 430
Wireless connection
WiFi support	there is
Bluetooth support	there is
Cell phone operation	there is
mobile connection	3G, EDGE, HSCSD, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, GPRS, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, LTE
Camera
rear camera	yes, 8.1 megapixels
Front-camera	yes, 5.1 megapixels
Sound
Built-in speakers	yes, stereo sound
Built-in microphone	there is
Functionality
Automatic screen orientation	there is
Sensors	accelerometer
QWERTY keyboard	optional
Format Support
Audio	FLAC, MP3
Connection
To computer via USB	there is
External devices via USB	optional
Audio/headphone output	yes, 3.5 mm
Nutrition
Working time (video)	17 h
Battery capacity	6000 mAh
Dimensions and weight
Dimensions (LxWxD)	254x167x6.1mm
Weight	392 g
Additional Information
Frame	waterproof
Housing material	plastic
Peculiarities	protection against dust and moisture according to the IP68 standard (protection against moisture up to 30 minutes in fresh water at a depth of up to 1.5 meters); colors: black, white; fast battery charging technology

Advantages and problems of Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet

Advantages:

1. performance.
2. thin and light.
3. The touchscreen response is lightning fast.
4. keeps charging for a long time.
5. excellent sound from external speakers.
6. headphone sound quality.

Flaws:

1. high price.
2. the back side gets hot.

Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet video review

Sony Tablet P

Specifications of Sony Tablet P

System
A type	tablet
Operating system	Android 3.2
CPU	Nvidia Tegra 2 1000 MHz
Number of Cores	2
Built-in memory	4 GB
RAM	1 GB
Memory card slot	yes, microSDHC
Screen
Screen	5.5", 1024x480
Widescreen display	Yes
A type	TFT glossy
Touchscreen	capacitive, multi-touch
Number of pixels per inch (PPI)	206
video processor	NVIDIA Tegra 2
Wireless connection
WiFi support	yes, Wi-Fi 802.11n
Bluetooth support	Yes, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
mobile connection	3G, HSDPA, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900
Camera
rear camera	yes, 5 megapixels
Front-camera	yes, 0.3 megapixels
Sound
Built-in speaker	there is
Built-in microphone	there is
Functionality
GPS	there is
Automatic screen orientation	there is
Sensors	accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, light sensor
Format Support
Audio	AAC, WMA, WAV, OGG, FLAC, MP3
Video	MPEG-4, WMV, H.264, H.263
Connection
To computer via USB	there is
External devices via USB	No
Audio/headphone output	yes, 3.5 mm
Nutrition
Working hours	7 h
Battery capacity	3080 mAh
Dimensions and weight
Dimensions (LxWxD)	180x158x14mm
Weight	372 g
Additional Information
Equipment	tablet, AC adapter, power cable, SD card, strap
Peculiarities	two screens with a diagonal of 5.5 inches; support for MP3, WMA Pro, MIDI, Ogg Vorbis, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP formats

Advantages and problems of Sony Tablet P

Advantages:

1. good sound module.
2. both screens work like two halves of one.
3. works very fast.

Flaws:

1. the screen is very glare.
2. Video does not support all formats by default.
3. fonts are small.

Sony Tablet P video review

Sony's first tablet, the Tablet S, came out in September. More precisely, at the end of September, a version of the Tablet S without 3G appeared on the shelves. The 3G version came out later - in December 2011. And today it remains quite an attractive option for those buyers who are not chasing the most relevant technical innovations, but prefer an interesting design and a sonorous brand.

Design finds do not end there. It is also worth noting the unusual "pimple" coating of the rear "wrapped" surface.

Apparently, the designers here did not so much achieve unusual tactile sensations as they tried to avoid slipping the tablet in case of fogging of the palm of the speaker, who holds the tablet with one hand during the presentation.

Let's look at the location of the buttons and connectors. All connectors are located on the left side (although it is not entirely correct to call it a side: this is a rather large non-monolithic area).

In addition to the 3.5 mm headphone jack, these are slots for an SD card and a SIM card (the latter is only available in the 3G version, of course), as well as Micro-USB for connecting to a computer. Please note that the Tablet S uses SD, not microSD (it would seem that it has already become the de facto standard in tablets).

The buttons are located on the right side of the Tablet S. There are no surprises here: Power, volume up and down. Well, the reset hole for emergencies.

To recharge the device, a very unusual (and, I confess, inconvenient to use) Dock connector is used. It is on the bottom (narrow) edge of the device.

There are no buttons or connectors on the top. There is only a rounded surface made of the same material and the same texture as the back side (black pimply plastic).

In general, the design can be called ... unusual. It is very difficult to evaluate - both from a visual and functional point of view. Probably, the lack of Mini- or Micro-HDMI can be considered a disadvantage (there would be a place for it here), as well as an inconvenient Dock connector (it takes a very long time to get used to how to connect a charger to it). SD instead of microSD - everyone decides for himself, plus or minus. As for the appearance - here, too, it is impossible to make an unambiguous assessment. Therefore, we recommend that before buying, be sure to twist it in your hands and understand whether you personally like it or not. But as an absolute plus, we note that it stands out from the gray mass of iPad analogues. The Sony Tablet S has its own face and style, and whether they are cute or not is a matter of personal taste.

Screen

A curious feature of the screen is its size: the diagonal is 9.4 inches. Atypical solution: the standard is 10.1 inches (ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, Acer Iconia Tab A500, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, etc.) or 9.7 inches (Apple iPad, HP TouchPad). At the same time, the resolution of Sony Tablet S corresponds to 10-inch tablets. Consequently, the dpi density of the Tablet S is slightly higher.

A detailed examination of the screen using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his conclusion.

The front surface of the tablet is covered with a transparent plastic plate (resistant to scratches) with a mirror-smooth surface. There is no anti-glare filter, judging by the reflection of bright light sources. There is no special oleophobic coating on the outer surface of the screen, so fingerprints appear easily and are difficult to remove, but still the first is a little more difficult and the second is a little easier than in the case of glass surfaces without an oleophobic coating.

With manual brightness control, its maximum value was 328 cd / m², the minimum - 8.2 cd / m². As a result, at maximum brightness in bright daylight, you can see something on the screen, and the minimum brightness will allow you to comfortably use the tablet even in complete darkness. Automatic brightness control works in the same strange way as in the case of the Sony Tablet P tablet - in the "Auto" mode in bright light, the brightness rises to the maximum value, and in complete darkness it remains at the minimum level (which is too low). But the brightness can only increase - with a decrease in the level of ambient light, we did not wait for a corresponding decrease in the brightness of the screen. However, if you put the tablet into sleep mode and turn it on again, the brightness will be set according to the ambient light level. The light sensor is located to the right of the front camera. Brightness adjustment is carried out using pulse-width modulation with a high frequency - 209 Hz, so the flickering of the backlight at low brightness is not visible.

This tablet uses an IPS type matrix, so the screen has very good viewing angles without inverting shades and without significant color shift even at large deviations of the gaze from the perpendicular to the screen. True, which is typical for any IPS-matrix, the black field when deviated diagonally is significantly brightened (but remains close to neutral gray). When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field, with the exception of a couple of local areas at the edge of the screen, is good. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 30 ms (16 ms on + 14 ms off). The transition between halftones 25% and 75% (according to the numerical value of the color) takes a total of 46 ms. For the gamma curve constructed from 32 points, the exponent of the approximating power function turned out to be 2.08, which is slightly lower than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve is in good agreement with the power dependence.

The contrast ratio is quite high - 820:1. The color gamut is noticeably narrower than sRGB:

The spectra are typical for LED backlighting:

Apparently, the matrix filters slightly mix the components to each other. This technique allows you to increase the brightness of the screen with the same energy consumption for backlighting. The color temperature balance is good - shades of gray have a color temperature of about 6000 K - but the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (delta E) is large (about 12) due to the excess green component. It also contributes to an increase in brightness at the expense of some deterioration in color reproduction.

However, color temperature and delta E remain virtually unchanged over the entire gray scale area of ​​interest, so visually the color balance is very good. In general, the screen is not bad, but nothing special stands out. Screens similar in characteristics can be found in other tablets.

The tablet supports multiple touches (multitouch), 10 touches are recognized simultaneously.

The exact dimensions of the usable screen area (according to our measurements): diagonal 23.9 cm (9.4 inches), wide side - 20.2 cm, narrow side - 12.6 cm.

Platform

The tablet is running NVIDIA Tegra 2 - a standard solution for 2011, but today it is no longer so relevant. The amount of RAM is 1 GB. It is clear that the performance of the Sony Tablet S does not promise us big surprises (neither good nor bad), but nevertheless we carried out a basic set of tests.

In the Quadrant Standard, the tablet still showed an insufficiently high result: 1785 points.

The Sony Tablet S's SunSpider 0.9.1 browser benchmark passed in 2227.1ms, which is quite normal.

Note: the table shows the best results that the tablets showed

The Sony Tablet S performed well in the Vellamo benchmark, also focused on web content. With a score of 1021, the tablet outperformed the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the first ASUS Eee Pad Transformer.

In the Nenamark2 test, which measures the performance of the graphics subsystem, the tablet showed a result at the level of other tablets with Tegra 2 - 22.1 fps.

Now let's see how things are with video playback. For some unknown reason, Dice Player - NVIDIA's recommended player that uses hardware acceleration - worked completely incorrectly during testing on a Sony Tablet S (although the paid version was used). An attempt to launch any video file in most cases resulted in the application crashing. Therefore, we had to use MX Video Player, which is far from being able to use hardware acceleration very often. The results were identical to what we observed on another tablet with Tegra 2 - ASUS Eee Pad Slider (comparison Slider with ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime in the field of video playback can be read). So we state that the miracle did not happen. The Sony tablet in this regard is no better and no worse than competitors on the same platform.

Operating system and applications

We have already said that Sony has developed its own shell for Android Honeycomb. This manifested itself in the icons of the main applications that have changed their appearance, the appearance of additional mini-icons (in the upper left part of the screen, near the Google search bar) and nice effects.

Icons redrawn by Sony now look more uniform: they are all dark purple, strictly square. But for some reason, not all applications received updated icons (even from pre-installed ones). Therefore, there is still no general uniformity.

Of the applications, it is worth noting the interface design Music player. Here we see randomly scattered albums, each of which can be pushed aside, turned over at any angle and, of course, you can start listening. Apart from Music player there is also a standard android application Music.

Appendix social leader is a social media content aggregator. Alas, only Facebook and Twitter are supported. Wi-Fi wire- utility for checking Wi-Fi connection and getting information about it.

Very interesting tool - Remote control. Let's talk about it in more detail. The app turns your tablet into a universal remote control. This is possible due to the fact that the Sony Tablet S has an infrared port.

The setup is elementary: select the type of device (TV, BD and DVD players, network media players, receivers, speakers, etc.), then select the manufacturer of the device.

In our case, we wanted to set up an LG TV and an Apple TV 2 network media player. Both were found among the proposed options. True, the application does not offer a choice of specific models (even when this model is obvious - as is the case with Apple TV 2).

And this is where the main difficulty awaits us. When the device type and manufacturer are selected, you are prompted to select the type of remote control. There are nine types in total, and you need to simply search through them to find the one on which the buttons displayed on the tablet will work.

In our case, the TV "responded" when choosing the fifth type. After this is done, all that remains is to configure the gesture control (for example, by default, swiping up increases the volume, and swiping down decreases the volume). Everything, now the TV control is configured. Similarly, with Apple TV, only there we did not have to select the types of remote control - apparently, there were no options there. And indeed, everything worked fine. That's just in the case of Apple TV, one cannot but find fault with the lack of an alphabetic keyboard. Users of this device (and others like it) know how tedious it is to use the joystick to enter a YouTube search query (by typing one letter at a time). It would be very convenient if using a tablet it became possible to do this simply by typing on a virtual QWERTY keyboard.

Also from the applications we note DLNA(the ability to stream content from the tablet to DLNA-compatible devices) and reader- similar to iBooks. True, it seemed to me not very convenient and functional - free readers from the Google Play Store (as the Android Market is now called) and the aforementioned iBooks on iOS are more convenient.

From pleasant trifles - application Clock. This is if you want to use the tablet as a photo frame.

More - File Transfer: A file manager that allows you to conveniently transfer data from an SD card to the device's internal memory and vice versa.

In terms of games, here we are offered Pinball Heroes and the old Crash Bandicoot, developed for the first PlayStation and now available on the Sony Tablet S. The idea itself is curious (a nostalgic dream!), but in fairness, we note that playing PSone games on a touch screen - very unusual, and not the pleasure, of course.

In general, Sony did a very good job on the software. Yes, there are no serious software packages like Polaris Office here (by the way, it's a pity). But those applications that the developers of the tablet nevertheless equipped are really useful and pleasant, they expand the functionality of the device in an unexpected direction (for example, in the case of remote control). As the main disadvantage, we note the difficulty of obtaining root access (although, of course, various instructions can be found on the Web) and problems with adb drivers (in order to connect the tablet to a PC). Accordingly, it will not be easy to be able to take screenshots, for example. But, again, this problem is solvable. The proof of this is the screenshots in this article.

Connection

As already mentioned, starting from December 2011, Sony Tablet S is available in a version with a 3G module. 3G works correctly, we have no complaints. It is difficult to adequately test the 3G speed, because, firstly, the operator and the tariff can act as a limiter, and secondly, the reception will not be equally confident everywhere (in other words, on the ground floor and on the 15th floor of the same building, the speed may be different). But still, “to calm our conscience”, we launched the Speedtest.net utility (as an application from the Google Play Store).

In the screenshot above, you should pay attention only to the speed of receiving files, because when transferring files, the operator artificially lowered the speed due to excess traffic.

Another scenario for using the 3G module is sending SMS/MMS messages. Everything is standard here: there is an application in Android Honeycomb SMS/MMS, this tablet is no exception. Moreover, the design of the Sony application did not change.

Camera

The situation with the cameras of the Sony Tablet S is the same as that of the Sony Tablet P. There are two cameras: the front one (0.3 MP) provides the possibility of video communication, including via Skype. Rear (5 MP) - for taking photos and videos.

The image quality is acceptable, although the colors lack saturation and the image as a whole lacks detail. As pluses, we note a small amount of noise and artifacts (see a fragment of the above frame below).

The tablet takes good pictures of the text, you can shoot documents before leaving and then calmly study them on the road.

Video recording is done in 720p resolution. The quality is not bad, the main complaint is the same as for the Tablet P: the bitrate could be higher. A 31-second clip filmed with the rear camera of the Sony Tablet S is available for download (MP4 format, size 24.9 MB).

Offline work

We weren't happy with the battery life. True, it cannot be said that it completely disappointed us, but ... If we play an SD-resolution movie (685 Kbps, 608 × 256, Xvid Advanced [email protected], Dice Player was used, and hardware acceleration was activated), set the brightness to maximum, and make the volume so that it is comfortable to watch with headphones, the battery will run out in about four and a half hours. It won't be enough. Of course, you can say that the brightness should not be twisted to the maximum, but alas, with automatic brightness, the image seems darkish. Therefore, the maximum brightness in this case is not a whim. You can play Angry Birds Seasons on a tablet for about five and a half hours. It's also an average result.

conclusions

The Sony Tablet S is an interesting tablet. Perhaps this is a reasonable compromise between originality and generally accepted standards. It seems that everything is “like with people”, but not boring, but with a twist. A screen with a standard resolution for 10-inch tablets, but not 10 inches, but 9.4. The case is like standard dimensions and weight, but with an unusual asymmetry (a thickening on top that shifts the center of gravity). Similarly with OS and applications. We especially note the presence of an infrared port and the ability to transfer media data to DLNA-compatible devices.

Yes, at the moment Sony Tablet S (even with a 3G module) does not look so attractive against the backdrop of high-profile announcements from Apple, ASUS, Samsung and other competitors. But if you're not into chasing the latest tech and have a passion for the Sony brand, then the Tablet S is an obvious and not bad choice. Sony Tablet P is still too extravagant thing, but Tablet S is quite a mainstream. However, not banal, like most "iPad-like" products, but with its own face. And, by the way, quite reasonable price.

A new offshoot from VAIO called Tablet could be an interesting project for Sony. The device with the letter S turned out to be peculiar, not without flaws, but it has its own charm ...

Design, construction

Sony compares the device with a rolled-up magazine, in my opinion, it is hardly worth saying such things. Look at some glossy magazine, would you like to carry such a thing in your bag all the time, and even rolled up? I don't know, I don't. Thinness as a trend has not gone away, since the RAZR, manufacturers have been constantly using this technique, especially when they present a continuation of a device. Suffice it to recall the iPad 2 and a lot of words about size reduction.

However, Sony always go their own way, as if not paying attention to the market as a whole. Then, however, it occurs to someone - something is wrong - and a new round begins. For example, I don't have much to say about a flip-tablet called P. There's an old marketing rule here that's proven over the years, people don't like pocket TVs. In the sense that the more exotic the device and the more phrases needed to justify the form factor, the less successful it will be. There will be, oh, there will be rabid fans who are ready to tear everyone on the forums who will say at least a word about two displays at once. As always.

We are dealing with a thick tablet that really looks like a rolled up magazine. The declared dimensions are 174.3 x 10.1 x 241.2 mm, weight 598 grams. Apparently, the average thickness is indicated, because I myself measured the thickest place with a ruler, there are about two centimeters. For comparison, the iPad 2 measures 241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8 mm and weighs 601 grams. The entire Tablet S is made of plastic, on the back, “folded” side there are legs and pimples, it is convenient to hold the tablet in your hand. Here I want to highlight, despite the thickness, the Tablet S is really comfortable to hold in your hand. I can repeat again. Especially holding on to the butt where the thickening is with the left hand. Holding with two hands is not so great, typing on the virtual keyboard is also, the thumbs barely reach some of the keys. While there is only a black version, the display protection is glossy, quickly covered with prints. It is difficult to remove them even with the help of a miracle rag. On the side there are inserts made of silvery plastic, on the right end there is a slot for SD cards, a USB micro-AB connector for connecting an adapter.

The story is this, Sony believes that this is a very strong advantage, you connect the adapter to the tablet and already connect the USB flash drive to the adapter. Or a camera. Or something else. You need to buy the adapter yourself! This is a very sound idea. Of course, they are sold everywhere, in any stall.

Very strange. There is also a 3.5 mm jack on the same end. Camera lenses on the front and back, there is a groove on the back for attaching a strap, speakers. The sound of the Tablet S is not bad, in principle, it can be used as a music box without any problems. On the right side there are volume buttons, a power button, a hidden reset button. Light indicator in the style of Sony, small, dim.

For three days of wearing in the bag, there were no scratches or chips. It seems to me that the lower part at the back is most susceptible to this, there is plastic with a silver coating. Pay attention to the proprietary connector for connecting the power supply, it is not covered by anything. Contacts should be periodically wiped with alcohol or Sasha cologne. Don't forget to do it. Is always.

Display

Display diagonal 9.4 inches, resolution 1280 x 800 pixels, LED backlight, of course, touch screen (capacitive type). It leaves only positive impressions, I really like the brightness, the drawing of various new elements. As you can see, Sony has worked on the icons, reminiscent of PS3, PSP, Sony Ericsson and other products. In my sample there was only one branded background image, I did not find any original "live" wallpapers. Thanks to the powerful processor, the image on the display quickly turns over, when switching between desktops, the brakes are not felt. Viewing angles are good. I recommend using automatic brightness control so that the battery lasts longer.

All this is true, if you do not compare the screen with what is in the iPad. Look at the photos. I want to note that I will not load you with hundreds of screenshots, it will be easier to watch the video in the article, where I show the main programs and capabilities of the gadget. So, if you compare it with the screen of the iPad 2, then you will immediately notice that in the Tablet S the screen turns yellow. And the black is not that black, more of a dark dark grey. And the brightness is not so great. All this is a given. At the presentation, a lot of warm words were said about the display of the tablet. Take a look at the photos comparing Tablet S and iPad 2 for yourself. The brightness is the same. And, well, you can also look at the video, I remind you once again. When using a browser, the difference in displays is especially noticeable, with Sony everything is a bit unclear.

Performance

It uses the NVIDIA Tegra 2, 1 GHz processor, it seems that they already wrote about the processor on our website.

Is Tablet S fast? Yes. Moreover, when compared with the iPad 2, sometimes you don’t know which is faster. Eska launches programs quickly, the browser quickly draws pages, games are played, mail arrives. What more could you want.

There is Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, everything is typical here. Sometimes, suddenly, for no reason, the connection to the access point falls off, we are talking about Wi-Fi. There is also an infrared port, but more on that in the next part.

We'll talk about Sony's additives in the interface, programs, OS in the second part.

Modifications

At the moment, two versions of the tablet are available, the names, as always, are exotic - SGPT112RU and SGPT111RU, the differences are in memory, the younger model has 16 GB, the older one has 32 GB. The site Sonystyle.ru lovingly says "hard drive". Miracles of translation, as always.

Perhaps, we should immediately mention the version with 3G, in Europe sales of this model will begin closer to the New Year. I have nothing to add here, of course, a complete failure. Now many inexpensive tablets are equipped with 3G, this is the norm. It is impossible not to focus on the successful experience of iPad sales and various finds by Apple, when both Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi + 3G devices were presented. As practice shows, even the most economical users eventually agree that it would be better to buy a version with both. More than once or twice, being in the city with Tablet S, I greatly regretted the lack of 3G. Accordingly, it is completely incomprehensible to me why Sony decided to act in such a strange way.

Accessories

While Russian consumers may not particularly scour the shops in search of original additions, everything will be, but later. There are three types of covers, among them there is a regular leather folder. There is also a stand, when the Tablet S is installed in the cradle, it becomes even more like a photo frame.

Formats

Strange all the same in Sony people. Look, here is a tablet. Usually, after all, people on tablets listen to video more than they listen to music, right? That is, you can sacrifice support for music formats, but make watching videos as comfortable as possible so that everything can be watched. Well, at least the usual "avishki". Now, look at the screenshots, it details what the Sony Tablet S supports.

A little strange, in my opinion. For example, Samsung is trying to provide support for most formats in their tablets, and especially for video.

Nutrition

So, is everyone ready to fly to Sony country? Then don't forget to bring the original charger with you. And if you lose, then everything, kaput. Yes, yes, in my favorite company they again took up their own. There is a charging port here. A small power supply with a long cable will take up a lot of space in your bag. Please note that Sony VAIO P laptops had the same power supply, well, at least judging by the dimensions. Apparently, there were superfluous ones, so Sony decided to attach them. It takes about two and a half hours to fully charge, the official website says five hours, but you should not believe this. Or I had such a special, reactive pattern. The claimed battery life is about 8 hours, in fact the tablet works much less. For example, when watching the TV series Dexter, the Tablet S lasted less than four hours. When using a browser, email client, various programs - the usual daytime mode - is enough from morning (from ten) to evening (up to eight). Then the battery indicator remains almost empty. That is, the Tablet S is far from being a champion in terms of operating time. And the mighty power supply tunes in to sad thoughts.

Conclusions on the first part

What is in front of us? Sex toy from Sony? The tablet is comfortable to hold in your hands, but there is no metal, carbon fiber, carbon fiber or other materials typical of the company. Rather, typical for a number of devices. You can estimate the sizes yourself, everything is individual here, but the little thing turned out to be massive. Work speed? Yes, the Tablet S is fast, there are no problems with video or games, and page loading too. The display feels nice until you pick up the iPad 2 (and you pick it up and feel the cold metal and all). Working hours? On iPad 2, you can watch videos almost twice as long. Throw in a massive charger and your plug. Android version? While using the device, version 3.2 flew through the air, it was installed, everything is in order. Although there are not so many changes there, and everything cannot be called increasing the functionality of the gadget at times.

In the next part, we will talk about a set of programs from Sony, a camera, changes in the interface, the importance of Playstation certification and other things. While you might be thinking about buying the Sony Tablet S, prices range from Rs 19,000 to Rs 23,000. In principle, for 23,000 it is quite possible to buy an iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G. What would you choose? Although, wait, we'll talk about this after the release of the second part of the material.

It seems to me that before us is an attempt by Sony to get into the market, not noticing that there is already a big, big elephant in this china shop and clapping its eyes and ears in surprise, listening to stories about the concept of four screens, folded magazines, etc.

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Sergey Kuzmin ()

Externally, Sony Tablet S gives the impression of an expensive and reliable device. The only complaint, besides the controversial thickness, is the glossy black lid, which picks up fingerprints very well and is sure to get scratched when using the tablet without a case. However, during testing, no scratches appeared on it.

Screen

The tablet is equipped with a 9.4-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:9. The screen is protected by tempered glass, so it is not easy to scratch it. The diagonal of the Sony Tablet S display is quite a bit inferior to the top models of competitors, but subjectively the difference is almost imperceptible.

The image displayed by the Tablet S has high viewing angles, which is primarily characteristic of IPS technology. In principle, we have a standard high-quality display that does not differ from other products of the same price category. The picture is quite bright, the colors are saturated - there is nothing to complain about.

As for the cameras, in this regard, the tablet from Sony also has nothing to brag about. It seems that installing a 5-megapixel main and 0.3-megapixel front camera in such devices has become an unspoken rule. As is the case with other tablets, the Tablet S lacks the stars in the sky, although it takes decent pictures in good light. In any case, taking pictures with a tablet is somehow strange, it looks especially funny from the outside.

Hardware platform, autonomy

Like all current Android flagships, Tablet S is based on NVIDIA Tegra 2 with a dual-core GHz chip. The rest of the specifications include 1 GB of RAM, a 16 or 32 GB drive, depending on the modification, a Bluetooth module.

It is curious that the tablet received an infrared port through which you can control home appliances. Let's pay tribute to Sony - the equipment is supported not only by this company, but also by other manufacturers. If necessary, you can independently program the Tablet S to control any TV and not just a TV. You can “make friends” with a tablet with almost any household appliance that provides control from the remote control. It is naive to think that this is any significant innovation. It was also possible to control household appliances from a Windows Mobile-based PDA, but this possibility is not popular. Why? Probably because the remote is still more familiar, even if at home there are a dozen remotes for various devices.

I want to note the high speed of the tablet when working with any applications. It is comfortable to watch movies on the Tablet S, games run without problems, including those ported from the first generation PlayStation.

The Sony Tablet S is equipped with a 5000 mAh battery. This is an average for Android models. One charge is enough for less than five hours of video viewing. In a more gentle mode, close to everyday use, the tablet will last a working day, that is, about 8 hours.

Software

The tablet runs Android 3.2, which is much more stable and productive than the first editions of Honeycomb. Unlike smartphone versions of Android, this platform is perfectly optimized for large screens.

The operating system interface is already familiar to Ferra's readers. Before us is the main desktop and four additional ones, on which you can place various widgets and application icons. You can change the content of the screens by clicking on the "+" in the upper right corner of the screen. Nearby there is a button to go to all installed programs.

The Google search engine is located at the top left of the screen. Sony has redesigned this element by adding four shortcut keys next to search for browser, email client, remote control menu and e-book reader. In the lower left corner there are virtual buttons "Back", "Home" and a button to call the last running programs. To the right, next to the clock, there is a notification panel and a menu with quick settings.

Sony has done a lot of work on the design of the user interface. The changes cannot be called global, but still they have changed the standard design quite a lot. The company has added new themes, redrawn shortcuts, and introduced an updated screen of installed applications. The music player and video player have become much more effective, the built-in browser and on-screen keyboard have been optimized.

Both in the design and in the set of applications from Sony, one can feel the desire of the company to demonstrate the gaming orientation of the device. The tablet is certified to run games from the first generation PlayStation and PSP. It comes with an emulator for these consoles. By the way, a very handy thing. Of course, it cannot be compared with analog gamepads, but today it is the best that can be implemented on a touch screen. However, it is too early to talk about a single ecosystem that would unite Sony tablets, set-top boxes and smartphones. Thematic design and several applications are not enough for this. It remains to be hoped that the Japanese will not stop there and continue to integrate multimedia services into different devices.

Competitors

Apple iPad 2. Perhaps all manufacturers will have to get used to the idea that their most modern tablets will be compared primarily with the brainchild of Apple. In such an important parameter as price, the Tablet S and iPad 2 are similar, and it is also not easy to identify a technology leader. Both devices are comfortable in work - subjectively, the tablet from Sony is not inferior in performance to the American device. On the iPad 2 side, there are more versions available for sale - here you have just Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi with 3G, and memory from 16 to 64 GB. Tablet S is only available in two versions - with a drive capacity of 16 and 32 GB. This is a significant drawback that limits the scope of the apparatus. Still, 3G support guarantees much greater mobility than Wi-Fi.