Second Run of Sony’s Xperia Tablet S is Holding its Own

Sony’s Xperia Tablet S is a sleek and elegant machine that has an expensive look and feel, with a nice finish and beautiful resolution in the spacious display. Although it was originally pulled from the shelves when released last September due to a software malfunction, its second release has proven to be capable of competing with last years releases like the iPad 4 and the Google Nexus 10.

The Xperia Tablet S has no 3G capabilities and is not a GSM device. There is a16 GB model with 3G capabilities available in the U.K., although anywhere else customers will have to make due with a wifi only model if they want an Xperia Tablet S. It has a black front and a silver, metallic back. The entirety of the front is covered with a glossy finish, and the result is a professional and sleek looking tablet that seems it could be a tool more than a toy.

The Sony Xperia Tablet S is 239.8x 174.4x 8.8 mm and 570 grams. It is very thin and has a light but still sturdy feel to the chassis. It has a home key at the center of one of the small sides and a power switch and volume controls on a long side of the device. It has a LED backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 800x 1280 pixels and 16 million colors. This is a very nice screen and gives a good image in many levels of light.

The screen of the Sony Xperia Tablet S is protected by an oleophobic coating and is also splash proof, meaning it can handle brief encounters with water if that situation happens to occur. This can be quite handy when a child or friend has an accident near your tablet, as it will not be damaged in the precarious event.
The Xperia Tablet S come is memory sizes of 16, 32 and 64 GB. Each model also has a slot for a full sized SD card up to 32 GB. This is a full sized SD card, not a SD mini, as is common for other tablets and phablets. It is strange that Sony has elected to go for the full sized SD card for a small device such as a tablet, and the fact that it only supports cards up to 32 GB is even stranger. Each model has 1 GB of RAM, which isn’t alot when compared to the Nexus 10’s 2 GB, but gets the job done fine. In comparison, the iPad 4 has 1 GB of RAM.

The camera of the Xperia Tablet S has 8 MP and 3263x 2448 pixel resolution, which results in a breathtaking display for photography enthusiasts. Some devices may have more mega pixels on their devices, but tablets like the Xperia Tablet S show that a good camera only needs high resolution to take captivating pictures. The Xperia Tablet S also shoots video at 30 frames per second, and has a secondary camera with 1 MP.

The CPU for the Xperia Tablet is a quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A9 processor with a ULP GeForce GPU. This means that the heard ware under the shell is quick and comparable to the competition. Many tablets out now still have dual-core CPUs. One category the Xperia Tablet S is lacking is in the OS department. It is running a version of android, v4.0.3, also called “ice cream sandwich”. This operating system is a bit outdated, as the nexus 10 is running a more current android OS, jelly bean.

The battery in the Xperia Tablet S will last for 12 hours of multimedia use, which is better than the iPads 10 hour battery. Prices for an Xperia Tablet S range from $399.99 to $599.99 for different memory storage capacities. All these models are not 3G compatible, and the only model that is is only availability in the U.K. for 429 pounds.