Remember when Sony was king of the electronics roost? With devices like the Walkman and its popular Trinitron line of televisions, Sony was riding as high as a moonwalking Michael Jackson’s pant ends in the ‘80s.
My how times have changed.
These days, companies such as Apple, Samsung and even Amazon have pretty much stolen Sony’s thunder when it comes to key devices like MP3 players, tablets, phones, TVs and e-readers. Add the high exchange rate of the yen to the mix and you’ve got Sony posting a quarterly loss of nearly $350 million in the second quarter of 2011.
After pretty much getting caught asleep behind the wheel in the tablet space, however, Sony is now trying to mount a counterattack. To counter the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets of the world, Sony has released its new touchy-feely darling, the Tablet S. The first thing you’ll likely notice is the unique form factor, which mimics the shape of a folded magazine. Let’s just say Apple won’t be suing Sony in European and Australian courts and accusing it of copying the iPad 2’s physical design like it did with a certain Korean company.
So what other features does the Tablet S sport? Here’s a quick look at the tale of the tape:
- Weight and dimensions: The Tablet S is 9.5 inches (241 millimeters) long and 6.8 inches (173 millimeters) wide. Thickness is 0.3 inches (7.6 millimeters) although its unique shape means the tablet has varying ranges of thickness at different locations. Weight is approximately 1 pound and 5 ounces.
- Display: The Tablet S features a 9.4-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 800. The LCD screen uses Sony’s TruBlack technology, which the company claims to feature deeper blacks and more vibrant colors. One gripe that has been made about the product so far is the lack of a tough screen surface a la Gorilla Glass, which makes the Tablet S display more prone to scratching. That makes a screen protector essential for Tablet S owners.
- Brains: Powering the Tablet S’ innards is an NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip married to the Android Honeycomb platform. That means access to Android Market apps and other Google goodies such as 3D maps and Google Voice Search. The tablet is also PlayStation certified, allowing it to play PSone and PSP games online. To get gamers started, Sony throws in Crash Bandicoot and Pinball Heroes with the device. The Playstation Suite is certainly a key feature of this device because it separates the Tablet S from all the other generic Android tablets out there.
- Hardware, etc.: The Tablet S comes with both a front camera for video chats and a beefier 5MP rear camera. Sony is also ditching its proprietary Memory Stick format for a full-size SD card slot. Internal storage options come in two flavors: 16GB for the $500 version and 32GB for the $600 one. Connectors comprise of a headphone jack and MicroUSB port.
- Wireless options: The Tablet S comes with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.
- Battery life: Tablet S battery life is rated at 8 hours, which is a couple or so hours short of the iPad but still pretty decent for a tablet.
- Other features: Sony has thrown in some extra functionality with TV’s into the Tablet S. For starters, it can function as a universal remote for TVs, Blu-ray players, stereos or cable boxes. It also has media cross connectivity with compatible TV’s, PC’s and speakers. Besides access to media via Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited, the tablet also has access to the more than 2 million titles on Sony’s Reader Store for folks who want to use it as an e-book reader.
Unlike Sony’s glorified alarm clock knows as the Dash, the Tablet S is a bona fide tablet that can stand toe-to-toe with the best offerings from Apple and Samsung when it comes to features. The fact that it has Playstation functionality gives it a unique edge to its competitors. The question now, of course, is whether its offerings will be enough to convince consumers and whether buyers will be willing to eschew established names like Apple’s iPad or even Amazon’s budget-priced Kindle Fire to give the Tablet S a shot.
