Official images of the Samsung's new generation AMOLED tablet, the
Galaxy Tab S 10.5, have leaked, showing the tablet from all sides. We've
already seen severalphotos of the device in the wild that revealed details like the new style faux leather back. Front • back • sides
The side shots, however, reveal some interesting details. For one,
the tablet will have a "mere" microUSB 2.0 port unlike the 12.2" Note
Pro and Tab Pro tablets, which are furnished with microUSB 3.0 ports.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 will have stereo speakers on its sides though, plus a microSD card slot. Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 will have a QHD Super AMOLED screen
(2,560 x 1,440 pixels) and will be powered by an octa-core Exynos 5420
chipset (4x Cortex-A7 @ 1.3GHz + 4x Cortex-A15 @ 1.9Ghz). It will cost around €565.
Pricey, mighty Retina Mini is best small tablet yet
The iPad mini with Retina screen is everything the little tablet
deserved to be - a more compact equal of the bigger iPad with no
compromises made. And unfortunately, it's just one thing short of what
we all thought a compact tablet should be - cheap. Well, Apple isn't
exactly known for selling cheap, it's quite on the contrary.
Last year's iPad mini was more of a byproduct of the iPad lineup -
with a significantly cheaper price, a different design and somewhat
inferior hardware, the baby iPad was quite different to its full size
sibling. This year marks a shift in Apple's product strategy. Now, the
two new iPads are equals - with the mini being merely a scaled down
version of the same spectacular screen tech and the same
high-performance internals.
There's been no corner cutting this time and the new iPad mini is
more expensive as a result. We guess the price hike comes only to
highlight the iPad mini's new standing in the pecking order - it's no
longer the budget option - it's the more portable version of the same
flagship product. A lower price point would have also hurt the big iPad
sales because the two tablets are not at all that different.
You would actually be amazed how identical the two look. But that's a
good thing in a sense. Users no longer have to pick one of the two
based on feature set or design, or bezel size for that matter. Now, you
can just pick the size that's right for you. The high-end user
experience is all there without any give or take.
Apple iPad mini 2 press photos
Comparing it to its predecessor, the Apple iPad mini with Retina
screen looks no different either, but that's until you turn it on. The
new screen is impressively sharp and the new chipset is blazing fast,
meaning loading times in most apps are noticeably faster now. The Wi-Fi
speeds have doubled, there is a seriously bigger battery inside, there
is a second mic for noise cancellation and now you have a brand new
128GB version, if you've got the money to burn - the last generation
iPad mini maxed out at 64GB.
It's amazing to think that, just a year ago, the iPad Mini was
positioned as a smaller "budget" iPad without as much power as the
9.7-inch version. Now it's a powerhouse and a top-end tablet. I said, a year ago,
I didn't know who the iPad Mini was for. But over the last year, the
Mini ended up cementing itself as my personal iPad of choice. I accepted
its limitations in exchange for its form.
Now, there are no
limitations. The new iPad Mini has a 2,048x1,526-pixel Retina Display
that's exactly the same resolution as the larger iPad, and a far faster 64-bit A7 CPU that parallels what's in the iPhone 5S and iPad Air,
plus that M7 co-processor. In fact, you could easily call the iPad Mini
with Retina Display a shrunken-down clone of the new iPad Air: it has exactly the same specs as its larger sibling
-- or, very nearly. Now the only question is, do you want to pay up
for it?
It's here that you have to wonder at Apple's pricing
strategy. The doubling of the internal storage is something that
apparently costs twice as much to achieve, compared to Google, and even
less for Amazon.
That
said, the iPad mini 2 does still feel like decent value for money given
it's not a loss leader over Google and Amazon, and not just because of
the tired "Well, it's an Apple device and therefore spending more should
be expected" excuse.
We've never bought into that, and
never will. Apple makes well-designed and premium products, but as the
extra cost for larger capacities illustrates, it's not always justified.
But
while in the phone market we can't understand why an iPhone 5S costs so
much more than an HTC One or a Galaxy S4, in the tablet space Apple has
a justified lead.
The
iPad mini 2 is an excellent device. There's no other way to look at it.
We were pretty impressed with the original mini a year ago, but
bemoaned the low-res screen and under-powered chipset powering things
along.
So we fully expected the iPad mini 2 to be another
sidekick to a bigger brother, and with the iPad Air showing itself to
be the best tablet on the market, we fully thought we'd be getting a
smaller iPad with a Retina screen and an A6 chip - so the decision to
make the tablet 64-bit enabled with the latest A7 CPU is a really great
thing to see.
It takes an already well made device and
adds in so much more: the aluminum finish no longer feels like a
deflection from the fact the iPad mini doesn't have the engine to
compete with its Snapdragon-powered rivals.
Check
out the benchmark speeds later and you'll see just how much better the
CPU is for day-to-day tasks and, coupled with the rich app ecosystem and
improved operating system, you'll see how Apple justifies charging the
premium price.
M7 Chip
The addition of the M7
chip in the iPad mini 2 seems on the surface to be a little redundant,
given you won't be doing much in the way of exercise with the mini
strapped to your arm.
However, there are journal-style
apps coming out that will use information on where you've been and the
weather at the time - tiny tasks that don't need the help of the larger
chip.
Design: A tiny bit heavier and thicker...but you'd never notice
If you pick up the new Mini, it feels a lot like the old Mini. The
differences become clear if you look closely, but you'd never know from a
distance.
The Mini comes in two colors: white-and-silver looks
the same as last year, but the black-and-slate model has been subtly
adjusted to "space gray," using the same lighter-metal back as the iPhone 5S and iPad Air.
Mini and Retina Mini. Can you tell the difference?
Sarah Tew/CNET
Other
than that, nothing's really changed in the iPad Mini's form. It has the
same basic compact design as last year, which the iPad Air now also
adopts: thin side bezels, a flat back, and a generally wafer-thin,
metal-and-glass look. While it's technically a bit heavier than the
older model -- 0.3mm in thickness, and a 23-gram difference for the
Wi-Fi version or a 29-gram difference for the LTE model, putting it at
0.73 or 0.75 pound, respectively -- but you'd never know from holding
it. Side by side with last year's Mini, it's nearly indistinguishable.
Sarah Tew/CNET
And,
it's still that same compact-but-not-quite-pocket-size form (unless you
have very large, deep pockets). But, it's that extra size that gives it
a huge edge over smaller tablets for running larger iPad apps in
semi-miniature.
The Mini was a perfect 10 for its form: why change it? The new Mini, wisely, barely alters the equation.
Retina Display: Worth the wait Yes. Without a
doubt, if you're a big reader, the massive jump in screen resolution is
the most welcome change on this Mini. But what's most impressive, and
hard to truly appreciate at times, is that there's no drop-off in pixels
in the smaller screen size compared with on the Air. And, the Retina
Display already looked good on the Air's 9.7-inch display.
Sarah Tew/CNET
It's a big improvement, indeed. Other 7-inch tablets routinely hit 1080p or better resolution, such as the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HDX, with 1,920x1,200-pixel resolutions and 323 pixels
per inch. The Mini's 2,048x1,536 resolution amounts to 326 pixels per
inch, offering even better pixel density over a larger amount of screen
real estate. And the Mini's screen is 7.9 inches with a closer-to-square
4x3 aspect ratio -- not the 7-inch wide-screen form factor of the
aforementioned Google and Amazon tablets.
But, it's a surprisingly subtle upgrade from a distance. Put the
non-Retina and Retina models side by side, and it's hard to tell them
apart. Get closer, and you'll see the difference right away: finer
resolution, and even color quality, are improved.
Sarah Tew/CNET
When
looking at photos or reading books or text-heavy documents, you'll see
the difference. Like the iPhone's leap to Retina, or the iPad's, it's a
level of detail you'll miss after you get used to it, rather than one
you'll notice right away.
Text: Retina vs. non-Retina, magnified.
Screenshot by Dan Ackerman/CNET
It's more like a focal adjustment, when reading text.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Videos
look great, too, but the smaller screen size and extra letterboxing
mean wide-screen movies are still pretty small. I tried out "Cloud
Atlas," and the movie at least looked extra-sharp, but the viewing space
on a Mini can get cramped.
Screen comparison, clockwise from top left: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HDX, iPad Mini Retina, iPad Air.
Interface
The iPad mini 2 won't be a surprise to anyone running a
current iPhone or iPad, bringing with it the latest version of Apple's
iOS.
But beyond the new features we're happy to report
the iPad mini 2 is nice and fast, despite being a touch slower when it
comes to CPU performance compared with the iPad Air.
We're
currently updating the iPad Mini 2 review with iOS 7.1 - check back in a
day or two to see how it changes things and whether the new software
will alter the battery and benchmark tests.
We're
getting to a point where describing a smartphone or tablet as quick
under the finger is pointless – once you reach a certain point there's
not a lot more speed to be gained.
Even dual-core phones were more than acceptable, so why make a point of highlighting the speed of the new iPad?
Well,
it's just virtually flawless through all kinds of tasks. A millisecond
faster from a finger press might not seem like much, but once you do a
hundred or a thousand of them in a day, and then go back to the previous
iPad mini, you'll realise that there's a real difference in the
operation.
The iPad mini 2 is slightly behind the iPad
Air in benchmarking terms, but leagues ahead of the Nexus 7, scoring
2,220 on the GeekBench 3 "real world" testing compared to the Tegra
3-powered Google device, which managed just 1,800.
However,
Apple's claims of total speed domination don't appear to be completely
founded, as the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX, with its Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
chip, was marginally faster in our tests.
The two both
performed amazingly well, but it's interesting to note that in
performance terms, Apple can't justify the improvement as a reason for a
higher cost.
iOS 7: an all new face
Like it or
loathe it, the all-new iOS 7 is still a real step forward for a company
that desperately needed to refresh its offering in the face of stiff
competition from Android.
The new flatter interface takes
away the pointless need to pretend all apps are real-life objects just
to integrate them into people's lives - users know that pressing the
Photos app will take them there, no matter the result.
Like
most popular platforms that get upgraded, there's been a large amount
of flack coming Apple's way for iOS 7, with juddery icons shown when
returning to the homescreen.
This
can be negated by heading into Settings, General, Accessibility and
then toggling "Reduce Motion" to On, which creates a much nicer fade
transition.
Things like the Parallax effect, which moves
the image in the background to create a 3D effect, are much more stable
on the iPad mini 2.
And while this was annoyingly
unpredictable on the iPhone 5S, on the mini 2 it's much better and we
wouldn't advise you turn it off, unlike on other Apple devices.
It doesn't even have a huge effect on battery life, which is impressive in itself.
The
rest of the interface is easy to use and makes sense for the most part.
One of the newer features of iOS 7 is the notification bar, found by
dragging from the top of the tablet. This gives access to updates,
calendar entries and missed messages.
It's also one of
the weaker parts of the OS, as it always starts on the calendar, which
doesn't often give a lot of useful information.
The "Missed" section is often also sparsely populated - we'd rather this prime space was better used by Apple.
However,
there are a lot of other areas in which the Cupertino brand has made
strides in terms of improving the user experience.
For
instance, swiping upwards with all five fingers (or double tapping the
home button) will lead to the multi-tasking pane, which shows all of
your apps in large thumbnails.
This is an excellent
interface, although perhaps a little large, and you can swiftly jump
between apps or flick a thumbnail upwards to end it.
We
would like to give a special mention to the "five finger pinch" if
you've not used it before on previous iPads. Make sure it's enabled in
Settings > General, and then simply pinch in with four or five
fingers in any app to return to the home screen. You'll be doing it on
your phone before you know it, such is its simplicity.
The
new Control Center is something worth highlighting too - drag up from
the bottom of the screen and you can control music, brightness, turn on
Wi-Fi and loads more.
We would have thought that most
people know all about this feature, but the number of iOS 7 users who
get their minds blown when we show them that this exists means it's
worth highlighting.
It's annoying you can't alter the
toggles here, and long-pressing them doesn't move into the menu to get a
more advanced look at things like Wi-Fi. Apple has clearly written the
architecture to handle other toggles (like on most Android phones) so
why it's not here is unclear.
Well, it is: Apple doesn't
like the option of too much customization to keep things simple. For
some that's amazing, for others it feels locked down and far too
authoritarian on a device they've paid a lot of money for.
There
are tonnes of nuances to Apples UI that we'd like to laud here, but we
invite you to go and use it for yourself, as despite there being no
tutorial, there's very little here that the novice user won't be able to
pick up.
Performance: Similar to Air, and a huge leap over last year's Mini
If you're a gamer or a serious user of apps like video-editing or
media-rich programs, you'll notice gigantic speed boost on the Mini,
thanks to its leap from an A5 last year to an A7 this year. Applications
that hiccuped before now run smoothly; multitasking and high-end,
demanding tasks like graphics rendering, video editing, and the like are
effortless.
Actually, it turns out, the A7 processor on the
Retina Mini according to Geekbench 3 tests isn't exactly the same as the
iPad Air's: it's 1.29GHz, the same as the iPhone 5S processor, while
the 1.39GHz A7 on the iPad Air is a little faster. The new iPad Mini has
twice the RAM of the last Mini: 1GB to 512MB, but the same as the Air.
Sarah Tew/CNET
So, maybe it's not too surprising to see the Mini's specs in such a
small form, since the even smaller iPhone 5S managed a similar feat. But
the Retina Mini is an impressively fast little tablet by any measure.
In all our benchmark tests, the new iPad Mini performed a little bit
slower than the Air, but close enough to put it in nearly the same
territory. It's miles beyond last year's iPad Mini, performing up to 4
to 5x faster or even more depending on the benchmark. And, compared with
the Google Nexus 7 released earlier this year, it's a significant leap
forward.
As a result, apps run nearly identically on the iPad Air
and the new Mini, again because they're running almost exactly the same
hardware. The difference is basically screen size and pixel density:
some apps like games can look even more finely detailed, while others
might seem a tiny bit small compared with on the larger iPad. But, in
general, almost all apps I've seen make the transition to the smaller
screen size excellently.
Does it warrant an upgrade from last
year's Mini? If you're power-using your iPad, yes. For everyday use,
especially video viewing and reading, you'll be fine sticking with the
non-Retina version. But, be aware that app developers are going to go
full-force with new types of experiences that maximize use of the A7
across iPhone and iPad. As a way of future-proofing your iPad for an
extra $100, new prospective buyers should seriously consider going
Retina for the processor alone.
Moving up to a Retina Mini over
the previous Mini, however, you will have to suffer increased download
sizes: apps, and movies, and digital magazines all take up more space in
their Retina-optimized forms. "Cloud Atlas," while long, was a 6.2GB
download. You might want to consider a bump up to at least 32GB when
getting a Retina Mini.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Wireless: A big step up for Wi-Fi and global LTE I've
never found the pay-up for a cellular-enabled LTE iPad to be worth it,
personally, especially with so many Wi-Fi hot spots around, but Apple's
newest iPads certainly make it tempting. Despite being offered for
multiple carriers on Apple's site, all the LTE iPads are actually
identical and unlocked: you can SIM-swap across carriers and overseas to
your heart's content. Affording pay-as-you-go LTE or folding it into a
family device plan isn't as affordable as it should be, and the $129 fee
to step up to an LTE-enabled iPad Mini isn't cheap, but for a frequent
traveler or someone without a data-heavy smartphone contract, it could
be ideal.
The Mini with LTE had very good data connection via the Verizon account on my test unit, too.
The
Wi-Fi antennas have also gotten an upgrade to MIMO technology, just
like the iPad Air. MIMO promises better throughput, and better range
with dual antennas. The new Mini did seem faster over office Wi-Fi, and
wherever else I tested it. At home, I was getting well over 45 Mbps,
while the previous iPad Mini (and my iPhone 5s) don't often crack 30.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Gaming: The perfect middle ground The
iPhone's handheld design feels good for screen-tapping arcade games,
but it's got a small screen. The iPad Air is great for games, but it's
better for larger-scale board games and tap-to-move strategy titles. The
Mini is the perfect in-between. Now that its graphics have taken a
serious step up, it's also capable of playing anything on the App Store
without a hitch.
Infinity Blade III, Riptide GP2, and others
look fantastic. And, with iOS game controllers on the horizon, the Mini
could be an intriguing fit for a controller case/accessory.
Sarah Tew/CNET
iOS 7, and all the free iWork/iLife apps Apple's
new iOS devices come with a free suite of iWork and iLife software:
iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Together, they
comprise an excellent set of tools to do a lot of things on the go.
These apps run very well on the Mini's 7.9-inch screen.
Sarah Tew/CNET
On
the iPhone, things can get cramped. The Mini manages it all as a
perfect middle ground: not too cramped, but the iPad Air offers up
larger icons and menus.
Sarah Tew/CNET
iOS
7 comes preinstalled, of course, and on the iPad, iOS 7 really isn't
much different than on the iPhone. Multitasking is easier than before,
but it's still not a split-screen affair: instead, you double-tap and
tap an icon to hop over to another program. Some applications run
simultaneously, but if you open up too many, some will suspend and
restart automatically.
On the larger iPad, I wish iOS 7 enabled
deeper iPad-specific features. On the smaller Mini, it feels like a
better match: basic, clean, and functional. Read CNET's review for more-specific features.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Battery life Here's
some good and somewhat surprising news: the iPad Mini's battery life
looks to be as good as the iPad Air's. Our first battery-test run was
eye-popping: 14 hours and 14 minutes of video playback, beating Apple's
claim of 10 hours. The Air lasted 13.2 hours, while last year's iPad
Mini ran for 12.1. Stay tuned for additional battery tests and our
final, official number, but early gains are very promising.
I
used the Retina Mini while browsing, playing games, installing apps, and
more, while using LTE as well, and found I could get through a whole
day with battery to spare.
A larger internal battery, more
powerful display, and faster processor mean a bigger power brick: the
included AC wall-plug is now a 10-watt unit, versus the iPhone-size
5-watt mini-plug. Charging up using the included charger takes about the
same time as last year's Mini with its charger, all things considered.
iOS 7 with gesture support and a premium set of free Apple apps - iLife, iMovie, iPhoto, etc.
16/32/64/128GB of inbuilt storage
Weight of 331g (341g for the Wi-Fi + Cellular option)
Bluetooth 4.0
Lightning USB port
Stereo speakers
Accelerometer, compass and three-axis gyro-sensor
5MP auto-focus camera
1080p video recording at 30fps
1.2MP 720p secondary camera capable of FaceTime calls
23.8 Wh Li-Po battery
1080p TV-output with the Apple Digital AV Adapter (purchased
separately for $49), 1080p video streaming or separate audio streaming
via AirPlay
Supports magnetic cases
Main disadvantages
Expensive for a compact tablet
Non expandable memory, extra storage is largely overpriced
Tied into iTunes for uploading most of the content
No standard USB port
No GPS receiver in the Wi-Fi-only version
The new iPad mini is exactly the same size like last year's with a
mere .3mm difference in thickness. You wouldn't feel that sort of
difference even if you had both in your hands. What you may notice is
the difference in weight. The new iPad mini is 23g heavier to
accommodate the larger battery, which should deliver the same endurance
despite the quadrupled resolution.
The new dual-core 64-bit A7 chipset inside the new mini jumps two
generations ahead of the A5 processor in the original. It's not that the
older mini was sluggish, but the new device is notably faster and more
responsive in almost all apps we tried.
Last season's bigger iPad at least had the luxury of being more
powerful but those days are gone. Now the two size of iPads have equally
good specs, which kinda puts the iPad Air in a sticky position. It's
true that the bigger Air is easier to carry than any other full-size
iPad and the slimmer frame helps single-handed operation but there's no
avoiding the fact that the iPad mini is the friendlier form factor.
The iPad mini's handling and portability could be the big decider
for a lot of people who are eyeing a new iPad for Christmas. To be
honest, we don't think Apple will mind no matter which one you pick.
The Apple iPad mini 2 at HQ
Yet, it's still up to the mini to prove itself as a true equal to the
big gun. And so it will. Join us ahead where we intend to subject it to
every test we have around our test lab. This shorty will not be getting
off easy, we promise.
The GoodThe iPad Mini with Retina Display
adds an excellent high-resolution display that rivals the iPad Air's, a
far faster A7 processor, and tops it off with improved Wi-Fi and LTE
connectivity, with battery life that's as good or better than in last
year's Mini.
The BadA
starting price of $399 places it well above the small-tablet
competition, and adding more storage or LTE makes it even more
expensive. It lacks the innovative Touch ID fingerprint sensor that the
iPhone 5S sports.
The Bottom LineThe
new iPad Mini somehow shrinks down the iPad Air into an even more
compact package, sacrificing nearly nothing. It's more expensive than
before, but it's also the perfect smaller tablet.
The lightest, slimmest and water-resistant-est tablet on the market
The Sony Xperia Tablet Z is a super-light device designed to
take on the iPad with a quality screen and innovative features - but is
the price too high?
But when it comes to tablets, the
world of Android is a funny old place.. There have been plenty of
pretenders, but not really one that stands out when it comes to market
share in the way the iPad does. And it's a wrong Sony is determined to
put right with the Xperia Tablet Z.
Sony has tried before - the Xperia Tablet S,
Sony's most recent foray, was a decent if uninspiring effort. But as
with others, it failed to stand out in a world full of challengers. Time
for the Sony Xperia Tablet Z to improve on this.
The
first thing we noticed when we took the Sony Xperia Tablet Z out of its
box was how beautiful it was. We don't want to sound gushing, but as
gadget lovers, we have unboxed a lot of devices. Yet it's on only a few
occasions that we've taken something out of its box and instantly been
smitten with it.
We're thinking of the way we felt with the first iPhone (and the iPhone 4), the Nexus One, the iPad 2
and the HTC One. Certain devices just have the power to evoke a strong
reaction that makes you feel instantly transfixed. The Sony Xperia
Tablet Z definitely comes under that category.
But it won't come cheap. The 16GB Wi-Fi-only model will set
you back £399/US$499.99/AU$539, the 32GB Wi-Fi version costs
£449/US$599.99/AU$649 and the 16GB LTE/4G model is priced at £499/AU$679
(US price not currently available).
That's exactly the same as the equivalent iPad 4, and roughly what you'll pay for a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.
Make no mistake, Sony is making a statement here: "Our products are
just as good as Apple's, so don't expect them to be cheaper."
Design I'm not a fan of jagged edges on
tablets. If there's a button or some other physical feature that sticks
out from a tablet's body, I tend to notice it. And by "notice it," I
mean hate it. The iPad's buttons are guilty of this, and I was pleased to see that Apple corrected this admittedly small oversight with the iPad Mini.
The Sony Xperia Tablet Z's thin, somewhat
prickly volume rocker juts out from its left edge and while this makes
it easy to find, it's also not the most pleasing piece of plastic to
accidentally run your finger across.
Now that's thin.
Josh Miller/CNET
I'm also not a fan of the Z's hard plastic edge design. While I'm sure
it helps protect what is otherwise a fairly flimsy body, it's a bit too
thin and unyielding for my tastes.
Luckily, those are really the
only physical design gripes I have with the Tablet Z. It's otherwise
impressively light and incredibly thin for a 10-incher; however, those
who equate "premium" with metal-embossed backs will be disappointed by
the Tablet Z's brushed plastic posterior, which seems all-too eager to
take on oily fingerprints.
Along the left edge, above the volume rocker is a circular silver
power button that, like its spindly neighbor below it, sticks out from
the tablet's body. However, thanks to its rounded frame, it's able to do
so without any annoying physical unpleasantness. Speaker grilles adorn
the bottoms of the left and right edges: a location choice I haven't
quite seen on a tablet before.
The Tablet Z's body feature three
distinct ports: a headphone jack, MHL connection, and a microSD port.
All three can be covered by attached door flaps that seal each port shut
when closed, transforming the tablet into an effectively waterproof
device.
Josh Miller/CNET
The
doors to the port were a bit difficult to open until I noticed a small
slit on the bottom of each I could force a fingernail into. That's kind
of a criticism, but I understand why Sony maybe didn't want the doors on
its waterproof tablet to be easily removed.
Features
There
are several reasons why we became instant fans. Firstly, looks: the
Sony Xperia Tablet Z doesn't try too hard. There are no uber fancy bells
and whistles here. To all intents, it's a simple black rectangle. But
what a rectangle it is. Highly glossy glass on the front made from
toughened, scratch-resistant glass.
It looks (intentionally) like a larger version of Sony's already stonking Xperia Z
phone with one minor difference - the back of the tablet isn't glass
like the phone, but a more matt-style polycarbonate makeup. And aside
from the standby and power buttons on the side, there are no others. As
per Google's direction, all navigation is done via the screen's software
buttons.
Then there's the thickness. Or, rather, the
lack of. This is currently the thinnest tablet on the market - and it
really shows. If you think the iPad 4 is respectable at 9.4mm (0.37
inches), then you'll really be blown away at the Sony Xperia Tablet Z's
6.9mm (0.27 inches).
In
terms of overall footprint, it's slightly different, clocking in at
266mm x 172mm (10.5 x 6.8 inches) compared to the Apple offering's
241.2mm x 185.7mm (9.5 x 7.3 inches). But the other thing you'll notice
is just how light it is.
Weight is one of the tricky
ones, with frequent complaints that tablets such as the iPad become too
heavy to hold for long periods of time. The iPad 4 tips the scales at
662g (1.46lbs) and even the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is no feather at
600g (1.32lbs). The Sony Xperia Tablet Z trumps them both at 495g
(1.09lbs).
This really is one of those devices you have to experience to appreciate. Pictures and YouTube videos just don't do it justice.
Added to that is the fact that the Sony Xperia Tablet Z, like the Sony Xperia Z phone, is water and dust resistant.
This
is a tablet you can comfortably take into the bath and not worry about.
It's slightly disconcerting doing so, since every fibre of your being
is telling you not to dunk it in the water, but provided you make sure
the waterproof plugs are in the sockets, you'll be fine.
In
fact, the only way this doesn't work is when trying to swipe
underwater. The screen registers all kinds of movements, so you have to
take it out and dry the screen to really get it to register screen taps.
Mind you, if you're likely to be playing Fruit Ninja underwater, you
probably need to have a word with a doctor. For watching movies in the
bath or at the bus stop in the rain, you'll be fine.
If
you try and run water on the display, get ready for a panic, as it
registers a million taps and opens every app under the sun, making you
worry that the tablet has a plug open and water is getting inside. It's
not, stay cool.
However, we do wonder if waterproofing
this tablet is anything more than a gimmick. Yes, you can use it in the
bath without worrying, or get egg on it while cooking. It makes it feel
more rugged, indeed.
But do you need a tablet to do that?
Without the covers it might feel like a more slick product, and that's
something we would love to see. It could possibly do away with the
angular corners too, which is a real design problem in our eyes.
We're
not totally sold on the dust resistance either. Yes, it means that dust
won't get in beneath the screen, which used to be one of our main
bugbears on devices of old. But the Sony Xperia Tablet Z does have a
ridge all the way around the edge that seems to attract lint. You can
clear it with a blow or a blast from a vacuum but it'll just come back.
And don't get us started on fingerprints - this is a magnet for them.
And
the screen is another area you'll want to know about. We weren't bowled
over by the displays on more recent devices such as the Samsung Galaxy
Note 10.1 or Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 because of their resolutions.
The
trouble is once you've experienced a sharpness like Apple's Retina
displays, nothing else can really live up to your expectations. We used
an iPad mini
recently and it felt almost third world that we were able to spot
pixels on websites and ebooks, even if it was less of an issue with
photos and videos. The same could be said of Sony's Xperia Tablet S.
But
there are no such issues here. The Sony Xperia Tablet Z sports a Full
HD display - 1200 x 1920 pixels spread over its 10.1-inch screen, giving
a pixel density of 224ppi.
It's not the sharpest out there - that honour is held by the Google Nexus 10 and its staggering 299ppi for the larger tablet and 323ppi on the New Nexus 7 - but even still the Sony Xperia Tablet Z excels with it's clever screen processing technology.
We
spot pixels for fun and can categorically say that this is a super
sharp display that we were more than impressed with. And surprisingly in
side by side comparisons, it bested the Google Nexus 10 and was every
inch the equal of the iPad 4 - beating the latter when it comes to movie
watching simply because it has a more widescreen ratio.
On
top of that, Sony's equipped the Xperia Tablet Z with its Mobile Bravia
Engine. A lot of the time this is all smoke and mirrors, using fancy
new titles that add little to the experience. Not so much here, though.
The Sony Xperia Tablet Z looks absolutely phenomenal, with photos and
videos popping out of the screen brilliantly.
Even on
just normal tasks, like web browsing, the colour is spot-on. It's not
too bland but also not overly colourful, which is a criticism sometimes
levelled at Samsung. Whites look warm on the Sony Xperia Tablet Z,
rather than yellow.
There is little here we can
criticise, other than the fact that the screen is sometimes too bright.
We had the Sony Xperia Tablet Z set to auto-brightness, but found
ourselves often having to manually turn it right down to the lowest
possible setting. Maybe Sony thinks we're all half blind, but sometimes
less is more.
One
other observation we must point out here is how much better the screen
viewing angles are on the Sony Xperia Tablet Z compared to the
smartphone equivalent. On the tablet, it's an LED-backlit LCD panel,
while the Xperia Z phone ships with a TFT display.
The
phone screen is sharp and bright, but look at it anything other than
dead-on and it looks more washed out than an old pair of jeans. You
won't find this on the Tablet Z, where the viewing angles are much
better, although the iPad does have a superior contrast ratio based on
general usage.
It's good to see, since this could have
been a massive Achilles' heel, especially because you'd be more likely
to share content with friends on a larger screen, watching movies
together and so on.
If you're a fan of movies, a microSD
card slot is another big bonus here. Sony has stuck two fingers up at
Google and its move to cloud-based alternatives, forcing people into
32GB or less of onboard storage.
It
means that you can buy a 16GB model and easily bump your storage up by
an extra 64GB without breaking the bank. It's a big issue. Google
assumes people are happy to stream from the cloud, but bearing in mind
the space an OS and bloatware can take up and the fact that you have to
install apps onto the internal memory, by the time you've added a few
big ones like the GTA games, a couple of HD movies and a few songs, your
allowance is shot.
And if you're on a plane or a train
and want to stream from your collection of 30,000 tunes, you're out of
luck unless you've previously decided which ones to download to the
device. That's why we remain fans of SD card slots, even if you disagree
in some of the comments sections.
Powering this beast -
and making sure your movies all play without lag or stutter - is a
Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with a quad-core 1.5GHz Krait CPU. Add to
that 2GB RAM and you're on fire.
Some
early reports have claimed there is a slight lag on certain tasks such
as swiping from screen to screen, though the same posters have added
that installing another launcher such as Nova or Apex fixes the issue.
We
didn't notice much lag on our unit, and we really rinsed the Sony
Xperia Tablet Z as much as we could. Occasionally it would take a couple
of taps of the home button to go back to the main screen, but it wasn't
often and it tended to be during CPU-intensive tasks. Either way, if
those reports are true for some, it's to do with Sony's launcher rather
than a hardware issue, so Sony will be able to fix this with an update.
We
did notice that the screen isn't as responsive as we'd have liked. When
browsing the web in portrait mode it bounced all over the place at
times, and we want something amazing - really amazing - in a tablet that
costs this much,
Powering the Sony Xperia Tablet Z
you'll find a 6,000mAh power pack. While huge, it's not the biggest out
there, bearing in mind the iPad 4's is nearly double the size at
11,560mAh and the Galaxy Note 10.1 offers up 7,000mAh. We'll go into how
it performed in the Battery section of our review.
Charging
is done via a micro USB connection, which means you can use any other
chargers you have lying around the house too, though you have to have a
wall socket, since it won't charge off a laptop. Hard luck.
We
won't lie, the act of charging is a pain. For one thing, you have to
take the waterproof cover out each time (this is the downside of having a
waterproof tablet) - unless you're using the pricey official dock with
charging contacts - and although high quality and secure, we can't help
but wonder how long they will last.
Add to that, this is
not a quick charging device. Where you can plug an iPad in for a 10
minute power blast and be confident you'll gain a bit of juice for a
quick jaunt, the Sony Xperia Tablet Z takes forever to charge up. We
found it's definitely an all-night job. Slow doesn't come close to
describing it.
Just how waterproof is it? According to Sony,
the Tablet Z can be submerged in up to 3 feet of fresh water for up to
30 minutes without sustaining damage. I was hesitant to actually test
this out on my review unit until I'd actually spent enough time with it
to write most of the review. I guess I just wasn't all that confident in
how effective it would be at staying dry.
It's this waterproof.
Josh Miller/CNET
However,
I did use a kitchen faucet hose to spray the tablet down from every
conceivable angle and left it submerged in half a foot of water for a
good 10 minutes. After a quick wipe-off with a paper towel, the tablet
worked normally.
Getting (Ex)mor from your mobile cameras
The 8-megapixel back camera has been outfitted with Sony's Exmor R
technology, which is purported to allow you to take good pictures in low
light.
Only the Tablet Z's back rear camera includes Exmor R.
Josh Miller/CNET
According to Sony, the lens circuitry is arranged so that the light
sensors are in front, with the lens wiring in the back -- the opposite
of a traditional lens setup. Without the circuitry blocking the lens,
theoretically, the sensors will be able to detect more light. More light
equals more information and hopefully more lifelike shots.
While the Z's back camera does technically allow more light to come
through compared with a traditional nonflash tablet camera, it still
fails to produce nice-looking shots in low light. Low-light shots look
incredibly dithered and usually greenish, and personally, I'd rather
just use a flash. There's potential for the technology, but it seems to
suffer from the same problems it's supposed to fix.
A low-light shot taken with the Z's rear camera.
Eric Franklin/CNET
A similar shot taken with the Nexus 10's back camera.
Eric Franklin/CNET
Shots taken in normal lighting conditions look fine, but not
exceptional. The front camera is a cut above most tablet front-facing
shooters and delivers better-than-decent still shots and smooth video
for conferencing.
Software features If you're at all familiar
with Sony's suite of tablet apps, you won't find many surprises here.
Sony's movie and music marketplace apps, Video and Music Unlimited,
respectively, make returns.
Video Unlimited offers rentable and
purchasable SD-only movies and TV shows, but no streaming capability.
Thankfully, Google Play picks up the slack with streamable or
downloadable movies and TV shows; most in HD. Music Unlimited is pretty
much the same idea, but for music. Walkman is Sony's music-playing app
with built-in features for getting info and lyrics about the song from
the Internet and features a number of sound equalizer options. With Play
Memories Online, you can store your videos and photos in the cloud and
view them across multiple devices.
Josh Miller/CNET
Sony's remote control app and IR blaster make a return, and I was able
to set it up to use as my Samsung TV remote in seconds. Once
configured, the tablet can be used as the universal remote for your cable, satellite, Blu-ray player, or pretty much any home theater device.
Using DLNA, you can also "throw" content from the tablet to a networked TV or compatible set-top box, including an Xbox
360 or PlayStation 3. While pictures are sent quickly enough, streaming
even short videos from the tablet to my Xbox 360 produced video that
would play for a few seconds before pausing and buffering periodically.
Something that's probably attributed to the Tablet Z's slow Wi-Fi speed.
Josh Miller/CNET
Hardware features
The Tablet Z houses a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, 2GB RAM,
and includes support for 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS, as well as a gyroscope and an accelerometer.
The Z is one of the few tablets to include NFC capability and while it
does work, its area of functionality -- located at the official NFC
logo on the back -- is so small that I spent minutes attempting to line
it up with the Nexus 10
just to push a single picture. Also, even after the picture zoomed
away, I found it sometimes necessary to keep the two tablets touching
for a few seconds or the procedure failed. A few times it even stopped
working altogether, until I quit and then restarted the gallery app.
Pushing from the Nexus 10, however, was easier and faster and didn't
require me to keep the tablets touching any more than it should.
Josh Miller/CNET
I like what NFC technology has to offer, but let's please not start a
trend of including it just to check it off the front-of-the-box specs
list. Let's make sure that when we want to beam something to another
device, we can do so quickly and easily, without any hassle. There's no
real point in including this cool, convenient tech if I can't enact it
with a simple quick bump.
Performance The
Xperia Tablet Z is a good, but not great performer. It's great at
running games, and its screen is impressive-looking; however, apps take a
bit too long to load and Wi-Fi speeds are lackluster.
Josh Miller/CNET
Battery life
Considering
the Sony Xperia Tablet Z has a smaller 6,000mAh battery, we weren't
holding out much hope for it. But we were pleasantly surprised in
general use.
The first palpitation came when we unplugged
the unit and noticed it went down from 100% to 99% in less than two
minutes without being used. But after that, it stabilised well.
With the screen on auto brightness, we watched three 30-minute episodes of The Inbetweeners,
browsed the web for about 30 minutes, streamed four songs and one four
minute video to our TV and played a little bit of Solitaire for 10
minutes or so.
After
all that activity, the battery was down to 70%. When the screen is on
playing video, the battery loses juice slowly. When the screen is on for
browsing, it seems to eat through battery life quicker.
In
standby, the battery went down about 2% an hour when not in use, but
the Sony Xperia Tablet Z has one great trick up its sleeve - Stamina
Mode. We first saw this on the Xperia Z phone, but it really comes into its own on the Tablet Z.
Stamina
Mode works similarly to the third party Juice Defender, where it
disables the Wi-Fi and 3G radios when the screen is off, then turns them
back on immediately when you turn the screen on again. You can select
various apps to 'whitelist' and that then enables them to carry on carte
blanche.
It's
not ideal on a smartphone because you'll then have to whitelist loads
of apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, which kind of renders
it useless, but you can get away with not whitelisting anything on a
tablet and find the experience isn't diluted too much.
In
fact, we enabled Stamina Mode, put the Sony Xperia Tablet Z in a bag
and forgot about it. When we took the tablet out eight hours later, it
was only down from 100% to 98%, which is a phenomenal result.
We
imagine fitting a larger battery would have eaten into the size and
weight plus points, but it's not going to last as long as some of the
competition - for instance, the iPad will outdo it on battery life, as
well as myriad other devices. It's a mid-range competitor that you'll
probably want to charge every day or two, and there are some tablets out
there which can boast better performance than that.
The GoodThe Sony Xperia Tablet Z offers a refreshingly thin and light design, with great gaming
performance, and a sharp screen. The MHL connection, impressive
waterproofing, and expandable storage are notably appreciated extras.
The Bad$500
for 16GB of storage is a heavy price hike compared with Sony’s previous
tablet entry, and the tablet’s poor network performance and slow app
loading cuts into its value. The low-light camera feature isn’t as
effective as a traditional flash.
The Bottom LineThough
awash in features, the Xperia Tablet Z's $500 price is a decidedly
bitter pill to swallow when a better, cheaper alternative exists for
$100 less.
SONY
SGP311U1/B Xperia Tablet Z, Android Jellybean, 10.1”, 16GB, Wi-Fi - See
more at:
http://www.thetwistergroup.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=SGP311U1%3C%3EB%20Z58772&source=pg#sthash.Zc1ZvcR3.dpuf
