Sony announced that their Android 3.1 Tablet S will be coming to Canada today, we found out the official launch date is actually the 16th of September. There are a couple versions, a 16GB for $499.99 and a 32GB for $599.99. So what makes the Tablet S different than all the other tablets that have arrived on Canadian soil? Here’s a few quick notes with my short time with it.
First, the design is different. Sony says the idea of this tablet came from a folded piece of paper, actually they dub it a “folding design”, with most of the weight being at the top, while the bottom is incredibly thin. It only weighs 590 grams and overall dimensions are 9.5 x 6.8 x 0.3 inches, so a bit smaller than the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. This is mainly due to the display, coming in at 9.4 inches, which is actually a good size and compliments the unique elevated design when it sits on a table/your lap. The display itself catches a massive amount of fingerprints, but has a high resolution to it at 1280 x 800. The viewing angles were good and in our full review we’ll take it outside and see how it does with direct sunlight.
As for other specs, the Wi-Fi only Tablet S comes with NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor with 1GB of RAM. I saw little lag time during the quick overview but noticed the accelerometer took its sweet time to adjust to the way the tablet was being held. On the front of the tablet is a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling, on the back is a respectable 5-megapixel camera that can shoot 720p HD videos. One of the cool aspects of this is the ability to share media via DLNA capable devices. In the video you’ll see a quick demo of how you can immediately push images and videos to the TV, plus share music wirelessly.
The huge advantage that the Tablet S has over the other tablets is the distinctive and standout muliti media features. This is the only tablet that’s PlayStation certified, this comes pre-loaded with a couple titles, Crash Bandicoot and Pinball Heroes. Sony expect more games to be coming out by the end of the year.
As for accessories, to start the Sony Tablet S has two. A Bluetooth Keyboard that has dedicated keys for Android (top left hand side) will retail for $79.99 and a Desk Cradle that will cost $39.99. There’s so much more, like the Reader eBooks and the ability to watch movies from Q Video on demand. We’ll have a full in-depth review up shortly. The Tablet S will be available at the Sony Store (and online), Best Buy, Future Shop and London Drugs.
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