Special Features: Review Of Sony Tablet S

On 15th December 2011 we had had written about the launch of the Sony Tablets S and P and how it plans to give a tough competition to all the existing tablets in the market. So when we got the opportunity to review the tablet firsthand, it was a great chance to explore the possibilities of this new device, the promises it holds and whether this is the tablet that will break through the clutter, that is the tablet scenario in India. So Here We Go: It’s All About Novelty In Design For a while we have been frustrated by the lack of innovative design in the tablet market. Every tablet which has come along came with a predictable rectangular design. The question might arise that how else can one design a tablet since it’s limited in the first place? But breaking away from the design stagnation was the Indian technology firm, Notion Ink which showcased its tablet Adam last year. But Adam fizzled out due to funding problems and no one knows what Notion Ink is up to today. Since Adam was the only tablet to present a unique shaped design is the Sony Tablet S. This neat and one-sided design is what the company is calling a ‘wedge’ design. Even though it feels slightly off when holding it for the first time, but the form fold soon makes an impression with a solid perfect grip. Thanks to auto-rotation it doesn’t matter whether you are right or left handed or whether you prefer the landscape or the portrait mode, it fits firmly in your hand and provides a perfect grip on the device. You can actually hold the device in one hand and use it like you would read a folded book. If you are into consuming web content then this is the best designed tablet available in market today. Make And Specs Even though the Tablet S casing is made out of plastic but looks polished regardless and feels light. The specs are substantial when you compare it to the other tablets out there. This device sports a 1 GHz nVidia Tegra 2 dual core processor which equivalent to the iPad’s 1 Ghz A5 dual core processor. The display is decent at 9.4 inches and comes with the TruBlack display technology. The overall brightness is a little low but the browsing experience is smooth. Even though truly easy on the eyes but nowhere close to Pixel Qi’s technology. We are still trying to figure out the reason why so far no one besides Notion Ink’s Adam has used it yet. The tablet S has 2 different models 16 GB and 32 GB. 32 GB is a little less when compared to iPad’s 64 GB option but the memory can be expanded via SD card. The internal memory is powerful at 1 GB and is responsible for the crisp performance of the tablet. We loved the fact that there were no visible lags when while multi-tasking with it. The main camera is 5 MP and takes good pictures and also comes with a front-facing camera but the less said about it the better. At 0.3 MP it is a poor addition to this spec-list. I mean, who even uses a 0.3 MP camera anymore? The battery is pretty standard at 5000 mAh. We used the tablet for a full day primarily browsing the Internet and checking emails, Twitter and the Google Currents app (which by the way you absolutely have to try) along with some Playstation games. The battery lasted for roughly 8-9 hours which is strictly decent. The charger is pretty weird in a typical trademark Sony style and for once Sony should conform to a standard. . This charger cannot be used on any other device which requires a micro-USB standard like and an Android phone for example. The ‘Power-on’ button is also placed at an awkward position and not easily accessible. Also there are no physical keys on the tablet and all the keys like Home and Back are OS rendered. The exceptions are the power and Volume keys which are placed on one side. OS The device runs Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) with some modifications of the user interface by Sony. This is a deal-breaker for us. Google really screwed up on Honeycomb and it feels like a half-baked OS offering. The notifications bar is not polished and the usual intuitive nature of Android is missing. Finding how to switch on the Wi-Fi on this thing took roughly 15 minutes. Sony should have released the tablet with the latest iteration of Android called Ice Cream Sandwich. Well, they have announced that they will be updating this tab to ICS soon. We sure hope that it happens soon enough it simply can be better. If you compare this with iOS 4 not even iOS 5, Apple is really miles ahead. There are tones of pre-installed apps which people would not actually need. There is a feed reader which synchronizes Twitter and Facebook. But don’t TweetDeck and Hootsuite do it much better? There is a default Sony reader, which actually isn’t that bad. Special Features The tablet also comes with a universal infrared remote which is supported by a Sony provided app. This by far is the most awesome pre-installed feature. This tablet can thus act as a handy remote for all your media devices like your TV, music system, blu-ray player and almost any other thing that supports an infra-red remote. The addition of DLNA makes this even more awesome as you can stream your content: be it videos or music, straight to all your DLNA equipped devices like a Sony Bravia TV, music system and Playstation system. The device is officially certified as Playstation compatible by Sony which makes it the first tablet of its kind in the world. You can play all your Playstation 1 and 2 games on it very easily besides the games that are made for it specially. Then there is a host of Content apps which Sony has provided with the tablet with special focus on Indian audiences. All in all, these features are pretty accommodating for the general user as well as pros. Final Word All in all, it is a great new entry into the tablet market with its refreshing new form factor and useful features. The ICS upgrade will make it even better. Sony is definitely late to the show but with a little bit of tweaking and upgrades from Sony’s end in future iterations it could grab substantial market share. Do you own a Sony Tablet S? Let us know what you think. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts WATSummit 2012 Begins This Friday. Have You Registered Yet? Welcoming Ben Edelman, Our Keynote Speaker For WATSummit 2012 Is The Rate Of Increase Of Internet Penetration Proving To Be A Bane In India? Special Feature: Google+ Brand Pages Need To Be Approached Differently In Order To Reap Benefits Welcoming Parijat Chakraborty, TNS India At WATSummit 2012

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