Sony Tablet S Android tablet (preview)
- — 27 April, 2011 10:47
It has taken a little longer than expected, but Sony has finally joined the rest of the tech world in unveiling an Android tablet. The Sony Tablet S has a 9.4in touchscreen display and runs the Google Android 3.1 Honeycomb platform that is specifically designed for tablet devices.
Check out our guide to the best upcoming tablets in 2011 and the best Android tablets on the market.
The Sony Tablet S has a curved design that Sony says attempts to resemble a folded magazine. The company says the physical attributes of the Tablet S make it stable and light and therefore comfortable to use for an extended period of time — the Tablet S is apparently "optimised for rich media entertainment". The Tablet S weighs a relatively light 598g.
The Sony Tablet S has front and rear-facing cameras, Wi-Fi, DLNA, Bluetooth and GPS connectivity, and is PlayStation certified, meaning it will be compatible with PlayStation games available through the Android Market. Sony will pre-load the Tablet S with Crash Bandicoot and Pinball Heroes games.
The Sony Tablet S is powered by a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, has 16 or 32GB of internal memory and 1GB of RAM. Sony will sell the Tablet S in Wi-Fi only models, and Wi-Fi + 3G models. Storage is either 16GB or 32GB on the Wi-Fi only versions and 16GB on the Wi-Fi + 3G version. All versions include an SD card slot and a USB port.
Sony has only released Australian pricing for the Wi-Fi only models of the tablet S: they will retail at $579 for the 16GB model and $689 for the 32GB variant, and will be available in Australia from late October with a late September pre-order period. The 3G version of the Sony Tablet S will not be sold in Australia until early 2012.
