Sony Xperia Tablet Z (preview)

Sony's new Xperia Tablet Z is thinner than the Apple iPad mini

PC World

Sony has already revealed its flagship Android smartphone for 2013 and the company has now announced a larger tablet device, the Xperia Tablet Z. The 10.1in tablet has a 1920x1200 display and is just 6.9mm thick, making it thinner than the Apple iPad mini.

Pros

  • Just 6.9mm thin
  • Same striking design as Xperia Z
  • microSD card slot

Cons

  • Small 6000mAh battery
  • No Australian ETA

Bottom Line

Sony has just announced the Xperia Tablet Z, a 10.1in Android tablet that's thinner than the Apple iPad mini. There's no availability details just yet, but we can only hope it lands in Australia as soon as possible.

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The Sony Xperia Tablet Z has reasonably impressive specifications, but the clear wow factor is its design. The device is just 6.9mm thick, making it the thinnest tablet on the market that we're aware of. It will be available in black and white models and follows a similar design ethos to the Xperia Z smartphone.

Although Sony has been light on specific details so far, the company has confirmed the Xperia Tablet Z is water and dust resistant. This means it is likely to have plastic flaps covering all ports. It weighs just 495g, which makes it the lightest 10.1in tablet on the market.

The Xperia Tablet Z has a 10.1in, LED-backlit LCD with a resolution of 1920x1080. This gives the device a pixel density of 224ppi, slightly less than the 299ppi that the Google Nexus 10's 2560x1600 resolution screen offers.

The Xperia Tablet Z has a similar design to Sony's Xperia Z Android smartphone.The Xperia Tablet Z has a similar design to Sony's Xperia Z Android smartphone.

The Sony Xperia Tablet Z is powered by a quad-core 1.5GHZ processor, has 2GB of RAM and comes with 32GB of internal memory. There's also a microSD card slot to expand that memory, which will be welcome news to Android fans. By comparison, Google's flagship Nexus 10 lacks expandable memory.

Although most tablet vendors consider the camera an afterthought, Sony seems to be heavily promoting it. The Xperia Tablet Z has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera that includes a backside-illuminated sensor to better capture images in low light. There's also a front-facing 2.2-megapixel camera for video calls.

The Xperia Tablet Z will be available in black and white models.The Xperia Tablet Z will be available in black and white models.

In opting for an extremely thin and light design, it appears Sony has had to make do with a small battery. The Xperia Tablet Z has a non-removable 6000mAh battery. By comparison, Google's Nexus 10 has a 9000mAh battery. Sony hasn't published any battery life figures yet, but we can only hope the smaller battery is as power efficient as possible.

Sony has confirmed the Xperia Tablet Z will come in both Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi + LTE variants but its not yet known whether a 4G-compatible model will be released in Australia. There's also no word on which variants will be released in Australia. Sony says the Xperia Tablet Z will launch globally in Q2 this year.

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