Sony Xperia Tablet S Review

Review index

Posted: 09 Oct 2012, 06:22, by Daniel P.

Categories: Android Android Tablets Tablets Sony Sony

Discuss11

Interface and functionality:

The Xperia Tablet S is running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but Sony has pimped the stock interface up with a few useful tricks. First off, we have the Small Apps dock that we are familiar with from the newest Sony Xperia phones.

It allows you to lock a number of, well, small apps, on the screen, and carry on whatever you are doing underneath, while the tiny app is always on-screen, like a permanent widget that doesn't change along with your homescreen. There is a tiny browser in there, Calculator, Memo notes app, Timer and Recorder, Clip app for screen grabs, as well as Sony's Remote Control application.




The Xperia Tablet S has the Small App dock we are familiar with from the newest Xperia phones

More of those Small Apps can be added in the dock from the Play Store, but currently the selection is pretty limited. You can even lock widgets from the tablet to appear on the current screen at all times.

Another novelty is the Guest Mode, which allows you to share the Xperia Tablet S with friends and family with personalized homescreen looks and settings for each user, and restricted app access to areas you don't want anybody to pry into. For example, you can give the tablet to your kid, and only give them access to a certain game and that's that.




The Guest Mode allows you to restrict the access to applications and features to other users of the tablet

Sony Apps:

One of the handy features in the Xperia Tablet S is the universal remote control function via the infrared port. The Remote Control application accompanying it allows you to command your home electronics TVs, stereos and set-top boxes, and there is a rich number of brands and models preinstalled, or you can program it yourself, including setting up macros.




The universal Remote Control application allows you to control multiple devices with only your tablet

Sony Reader

Another useful app for the couch potato in you is Watch Now, which curates shows running at the moment on up to 50 channels of your choosing, based on your historical preferences, but also based on how they are trending in social networks and news feeds. Once you spot a show you might like, you can just “throw” it to the TV in front of you by flicking its tile up with your finger, and the channel will change to the one that is running the episode via the universal remote control function. The way the app learns what channels you have is by typing in your ZIP code and cable provider at first launch. The Watch Now app doesn't come preinstalled, though, you'd have to download it separately.

Other Sony-specific apps on the tablet include the Sony Reader, which taps the millions of e-books available in the company’s catalog, and you also have access to the Sony Entertainment Network for multimedia content, where you can find 80,000 movies and TV shows, as well as over 15 million tunes.

You will need account at that Sony Entertainment Network if you want to use the Socialife app. It aggregates your Facebook, Twitter and news feeds, arranges them according to your preferences, and allows you to play any media content spotted in the feed with a tap.


Socialife application

Another account you will need is for the PlayStation Network, if you want to get and play the limited amount of titles that are in the PlayStation Mobile Store for Android that just launched recently for select Xperia phones and tablets.



The PlayStation Mobile Store

Processor and Memory:

The typical for Android slates of late quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor clocked at 1.4GHz is powering the ICS interface with a slight hint of Sony features without any hiccups on the Xperia Tablet S.

We have 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal memory as a basis, but there are also 32GB and even 64GB versions of the tablet. Not much point in them, though, as Sony has supplied the Xperia Tablet S with a regular SD card slot, and one 64GB unit of those is less than $40 now to outfit your tablet with a total of 80GB storage. Out of the 16GB internal memory on our unit, 10GB are user-available, and the rest is for the operating system, and app installation.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
*Sony Xperia Tablet S*	4231	11543	57.3
*Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1)*	2711	4995	18.7
*Asus Transformer Pad Infinity*	4204	12693	39.6

Internet and Connectivity:

We didn’t have any trouble panning around, zooming and reflowing text with the stock ICS browser on the Xperia Tablet S. It runs well, and supports Adobe Flash out of the box, for the times you might need it.

The tablet sports the usual set of wireless connectivity options - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS, and DLNA. Perhaps the best option present is the infrared sensor, which allows you to use the tablet as a universal remote control. As for wired connectivity, the slate can play a USB host, for connecting memory sticks for example, and there is a File Transfer app for sending files back and forth.


The stock ICS browser of the Sony Xperia Tablet S runs well and supports Adobe Flash

Next page
Camera and Multimedia

Discuss11

Camera comparison: Apple iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S III vs HTC One X 08 Oct
Prev review

LG Escape Review 09 Oct
Next review

Related phones

Sony Xperia Tablet S

Specifications
News (9)
Review 7.5/10
User Reviews

Discussions (0)
Photos
Size it
360°
Manual

11 Comments
Follow Following

Options

Want to comment? Please login or register.

1. josephnero posted on 09 Oct 2012, 06:36 5 0

pros:Small apps and guest mode
Good camera
Sd card
Different design
Overall its nice.if i ever decide i want a tablet i may get this

2. loken posted on 09 Oct 2012, 06:44 1 0

This tablet is everything good jammed packed together,

3. spiderpig2894 posted on 09 Oct 2012, 08:32 7 0

hmm, I would have rated it with at least 8

6. loken posted on 09 Oct 2012, 09:40 9 0

phonearena is so biased and they hate sony....
Sony always gets bad raitings... look at the t it got a 7 untill many people was mad that it deserves an 8...
also the sony sl is rated 7 while to xperia s is rated 8.5.... shouldnt it be the same raiting?? upgraded processor , new colors and ics..!!!

7. XPERIA-KNIGHT posted on 09 Oct 2012, 12:16 9 0

wanna know why it always gets a bad rating? cause they give it to daniel to review the sony devices... SMH, this tablet is well worthy of an 8.5 or higher.........but dont worry cuz the user reviews always show what its REAL rating is!

8. loken posted on 10 Oct 2012, 05:50 3 1

Yeah! The Xperia S got a 9.8 in user reviews almost 10 , better than the s3

This comment is posted in response to #7 Show

This comment is posted in response to #7 Hide

11. nsnk86 posted on 11 Oct 2012, 14:06 0 0

agree with you!!

This comment is posted in response to #7 Show

This comment is posted in response to #7 Hide

4. Kronic (banned) posted on 09 Oct 2012, 09:23 1 4

Tim cook: 91% of tablet web traffic comes from the iPad. I don't even know what these other tablets are doing! They are probably in warehouses or at the back of everyone's drawer! Tim cook said this at the iPhone 5 launch event. When it comes to tablets apple iPad is the king with 68% market share.

5. Nathan_ingx posted on 09 Oct 2012, 09:32 0 0

Not bad Sony boy, not bad at all!!!

9. loken posted on 10 Oct 2012, 06:00 1 1

I'll seriously stop goin to phonearena if they rate the xperia v a 7!!!!!!!!
Its got all the good features in one phone!!!!!! ugh get lost daniel p !!

* Some comments have been hidden, because they don't meet the discussions rules.

Want to comment? Please login or register.

Samsung Galaxy S4
- Announced: 14 Mar 2013
- OS: Android 4.2.2
- Hardware: Quad core, 1900 MHz, Krait 300, 2048 MB RAM
- Display: 5.0 inches, 1080 x 1920 pixels, Capacitive Touchscreen
- Camera 13 megapixels, 1920x1080 (1080p HD) video
- Technology: GSM (850 900 1800 1900)
- Data: LTE Cat3 Downlink 100 Mbit/s LTE Cat3/4 Uplink 50 Mbit/s HSDPA+ (4G) 42.2 Mbit/s HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s UMTS EDGE GPRS
Apple iPhone 5
- Announced: 12 Sep 2012
- OS: iOS
- Hardware: Dual core, 1300 MHz, Apple Swift, 1016 MB RAM
- Display: 4.0 inches, 640 x 1136 pixels, Capacitive Touchscreen
- Camera 8 megapixels, 1920x1080 (1080p HD) video
- Technology: GSM (850 900 1800 1900), CDMA (800 1700/2100 1900)
- Data: LTE Cat3 Downlink 100 Mbit/s HSDPA+ (4G) 42.2 Mbit/s UMTS EDGE GPRS EV-DO Rev.A EV-DO Rev.B
Samsung GALAXY Note II
- Announced: 29 Aug 2012
- OS: Android 4.1.2 4.1.1
- Hardware: Quad core, 1600 MHz, ARM Cortex-A9, 2048 MB RAM
- Display: 5.5 inches, 720 x 1280 pixels, Capacitive Touchscreen
- Camera 8 megapixels, 1920x1080 (1080p HD) video
- Battery: 35 hours of Talk Time, 980 hours of Stand-by
- Technology: GSM (850 900 1800 1900)
- Data: LTE Cat3 Downlink 100 Mbit/s LTE Cat3/4 Uplink 50 Mbit/s HSDPA+ (4G) 21.1 Mbit/s HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s UMTS EDGE GPRS
HTC One
- Announced: 19 Feb 2013
- OS: Android 4.1.2
- Hardware: Quad core, 1700 MHz, Krait 300, 2048 MB RAM
- Display: 4.7 inches, 1080 x 1920 pixels, Capacitive Touchscreen
- Camera 4 megapixels, 1920x1080 (1080p HD) video
- Technology: GSM (850 900 1800 1900), CDMA (800 1900)
- Data: LTE HSPA (unspecified) UMTS EDGE GPRS
Sony Xperia Z
- Announced: 07 Jan 2013
- OS: Android 4.1.2
- Hardware: Quad core, 1500 MHz, Krait, 2048 MB RAM
- Display: 5.0 inches, 1080 x 1920 pixels, Capacitive Touchscreen
- Camera 13.1 megapixels, 1920x1080 (1080p HD) video
- Battery: 11 hours of Talk Time, 550 hours of Stand-by
- Technology: GSM (850 900 1800 1900)
- Data: LTE Cat3 Downlink 100 Mbit/s LTE Cat3/4 Uplink 50 Mbit/s HSDPA+ (4G) 42.2 Mbit/s HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s UMTS EDGE GPRS
Google Nexus 4
- Announced: 29 Oct 2012
- OS: Android 4.2.2 4.2.1 4.2
- Hardware: Quad core, 1500 MHz, Krait, 2048 MB RAM
- Display: 4.7 inches, 768 x 1280 pixels, Capacitive Touchscreen
- Camera 8 megapixels, 1920x1080 (1080p HD) video
- Battery: 15.3 hours of Talk Time, 390 hours of Stand-by
- Technology: GSM (850 900 1800 1900)
- Data: HSDPA+ (4G) 42.2 Mbit/s HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s UMTS EDGE GPRS
LG Optimus G
- Announced: 28 Aug 2012
- OS: Android 4.1.2 4.0.4
- Hardware: Quad core, 1500 MHz, Krait, 2048 MB RAM
- Display: 4.7 inches, 768 x 1280 pixels, Capacitive Touchscreen
- Camera 13 megapixels, 1920x1080 (1080p HD) video
- Battery: 15 hours of Talk Time, 335 hours of Stand-by
- Technology: GSM (850 900 1800 1900)
- Data: LTE HSPA (unspecified) UMTS EDGE GPRS
Nokia Lumia 920
- Announced: 05 Sep 2012
- OS: Windows Phone 8
- Hardware: Dual core, 1500 MHz, Krait, 1024 MB RAM
- Display: 4.5 inches, 768 x 1280 pixels, Capacitive Touchscreen
- Camera 8.7 megapixels, 1920x1080 (1080p HD) video
- Battery: 17 hours of Talk Time, 400 hours of Stand-by
- Technology: GSM (850 900 1800 1900)
- Data: LTE Cat3 Downlink 100 Mbit/s LTE Cat3/4 Uplink 50 Mbit/s HSDPA+ (4G) 42.2 Mbit/s HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s UMTS EDGE GPRS