Ever since the tablet rush started all over again in 2010 with the Apple iPad, almost all leading PC and Phone makers have jumped into the market with their offering. A bit to our surprise, Sony has taken its time to release its offering and as we near 2012, we have the Sony S tablet with us. Running Android Honeycomb (3.2.1), Sony S lands at a time when Samsung, Motorola, Lenovo and HTC have their tablets selling in the market for a while now. The Sony S faces stiff competition from a variety of low cost tablets, Android offerings, RIM’s Playbook and the iPad 2 in India. Will it make an impact? Read on for our review of the Sony S (SGPT111IN/S IN5).
Sony Tablet S – Spces
- 800 x 1280 pixels 9.4 inches TFT screen
- SD, expandable up to 32GB
- 16/32 GB internal storage, 1GB RAM
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA
- Bluetooth & Infrared
- 5 MP with autofocus (1.3 MP front camera)
- Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9
Design & Usability
When it comes to design the Tablet S easily stands out from the rest in the market with a unique and eye catching design. Ensuring that no Apple lawsuit would claim it is similar to an iPad, the Sony S has a complete plastic body that is tapered at one end, giving it a look closer to a netbook than a regular tablet. The immediate consequence is that you will be tempted to open it like a netbook, and obviously it doesn’t open up like one.
Coming back to design, the tablet is good to hold in the landscape mode tapering towards the bottom and feels very comfortable and light to hold in the hand as the weight is easily distributed (though the whole plastic body also has a part to play in it). This is the position Sony expects one to use the tablet at most times, given the webcam is also placed accordingly in the center. Though I must admit that things aren’t that hunky dory once you hold the tablet in the portrait mode and your appreciation for the design starts dropping from this point. You feel as though the tablet might slip from your right hand which is the slimmer side of the tablet. Also other apps like the camera feel that they aren’t really made for use in the portrait mode.
The overall look of the Sony S is akin to an open book with the front cover folding back while you are reading. The power and volume buttons on the right side is well placed when holding the device in landscape mode and are easy to operate.
On the left you have a 3.5mm audio jack and hidden beneath a plastic cover you would see the SD card slot and a Micro USB port. Sadly the SD card contents cannot be opened directly on the tablet like other devices and have to be copied to the tablet which defeats the whole purpose of external memory on the device.
Surprisingly Sony S has a proprietary charging port on the bottom and a charger resembling a netbook and not a smartphone as we are used to seeing with most tablets. Clearly, Sony missed the expertise of its former mobile JV Sony-Ericsson. The Sony S is a tablet made by a PC maker and not a smartphone maker, when we look back at this moment a few years later, this might well be one of the reasons why things weren’t really magical for Sony at a time when tablets are more acceptable as a computing device than ever before. Also the device does not have USB charge like other Android tablets.
On the rounded side you have a 1.3MP camera in the front and a 5MP camera right behind it in the back. No wonder, this is the thickest side of the Sony Tablet S. A couple of rubberized supports are also seen on the back, something that is common for a laptop being used when lying on the desk, not so much for a tablet. However, given the Sony S has a natural slope, you can place it on the desk like a keyboard and type on it.
As you might think that given the convenient design in the landscape mode and the slope of the tablet typing would be a breeze on it when used as a keyboard, we thought so too. Though it came as a rude shock when we noticed the glaring mistakes we committed while typing on it and discovered the reason for the same. Firstly you would feel that the keyboard response lags a little bit. And secondly you end up hitting the task bar at the bottom of the screen instead of the space bar and as a result all of the words that you type end up being together with no spaces at all. Its very difficult to not to slow down and consciously hit the space-bar. Sadly this will surely take some time getting used to.
The screen on the device is a good 1280×800 TruBlack display, it doesn’t have a Corning Glass which has now become sort of standard in the industry and though Sony says the Tablet S has a scratch proof coating on the display, it really doesn’t seem to be working as our review unit has already developed a small scratch and some fine lines in just a few days of ‘careful’ usage. Wonder how the body of the Tablet S would cope up with elongated usage given that it is made of only plastic. Also you need to be very careful with the device lest you drop it on a hard surface, you might regret it.
Software
The Tablet S has Android Honeycomb v 3.2 installed in it and works very well with the hardware. The functioning is pretty smooth when it comes to switching between home screens or opening-closing of applications. Though there is a little lag for the orientation to change as you shift from landscape to portrait or vice versa.
Also irrespective of the build of the app, i.e. even if an app is made for the mobile screen, the same gets adjusted and stretched to fit to screen for the tablet, which we felt streamlines the app experience for Honeycomb, though it obviously needs a little bit of more work for to optimize the experience.
Android Honeycomb adds some standard buttons on the task bar which are the default keys for any navigation. Totally eliminating physical keys, you have a back, home and multitasking key at all times. Overtime one should ideally get used to the function of these keys, however one potential deal breaker is the behavior of app makers. We noticed that many app makers would rely on their own navigation inside the app in addition to the back key provided on honeycomb. As more and more Android Market apps are customized for Honeycomb / tablet interface, we should see this streamlining.
The other very good thing about the Sony Tablet S which makes it stand out from the competition is the inclusion of PlayStation Suite and thus the ability to play PlayStation and PSP games on the Tablet S via the emulator. Maybe Sony should add the option of connecting the consoles to the tab, that would really give them the edge.
Other innovative applications like the universal Remote Control works really well and lets you almost any IR capable device, the Tablet S has an IR emitter integrated along with a remote control software which makes the job pretty smooth.
More or less the software experience is pretty similar to other Android tablets out there in the market with the Tablet S atleast being on par with them.
Media
Sony Tablet S features dual speakers, one on each side of the device when holding in landscape mode. The output isn’t really great though it would easily suffice when in a room. Would not recommend you to use the same when outdoors. Its the same with any other tablet out there in the market.
Camera
The 5MP camera on the Tablet S does a decent job. Though the images taken with the camera look a little jaded and the color representation is a little dull or washed out.
Video
The videos shot from the Tablet S with the 5MP camera are decent enough when compared to other compatriots in the tablet category. The color reproduction is good though not very bright or life like. We felt that the audio in the recordings was very poor and almost inaudible at times. Lets hope that a software update is around the corner which is usually able to fix such issues.
Verdict
Overall the Sony Tablet S boasts of a design which stands out from the rest and makes it look different from the crowd to say the least.Though the fact that the whole body is made out of plastic and the absence of Gorilla glass put some blaring questions on the durability of the device.
Besides it has decent multimedia options with the addition of the PlayStation Suite clearly giving it an edge over the rest of the Android tablets. Though Sony still needs to add more decent titles available on the Tablet S to take advantage of this fact. Its battery performance is also on par with the likes of Motorola Xoom and lasts roughly around 8.5 hrs.
Sony has taken its own sweet time to plunge into the tablet market. Though, we do not really think that the Tablet S priced at Rs 29,990 (Wi-Fi); Rs 33,990 (3G+Wi-Fi) is a device which will propel them in the tablet market space. Sony should have already or needs urgently to come up with something much more than this in order to compete in the tablet market with the rest of the existing players.
