Sony Xperia Tablet Z Lightning

Friday, 5 July 2013

Sony Xperia Tablet Z Lightning

Design:As I mentioned, Sony’s novel design ethos from the Xperia Z is clearly visible in the Tablet Z; a great move from where I’m standing. It’s not glitzy or too fancy; just a simple black rectangle with slightly rounded corners, and straight, square sides inlaid with black glass-like plastic (at least on the black version).

On the whole it’s actually very understated, and looks different to most other tablets on the market — it certainly couldn’t be confused for an iPad, which is a very good thing in my book.

It’s not often that I get to say a gadget has made me drool, but the Xperia Tablet Z managed it. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things that has to be experienced in the flesh to really understand its gorgeous physicality — no amount of photos or videos will truly give you a sense of what this thing is like.

The main design feature of the Tablet Z has to be its minuscule thickness. This thing is so thin; it’s actually thinner than most of the anorexic phones we’ve got today, at just 6.9mm thick. Compare that to the iPad’s 9.4mm and you get an idea of just how thin it is. That insane waistline basically defines the rest of the tablet.

The front of the Z is just a screen with a chat cam embedded above it. In fact, it resembles pretty much any modern Sony TV, complete with the little Sony logo in the top left-hand corner. When the screen is off, you can’t really see where screen ends and the frame begins, although it does have quite a large bezel around the outside. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though, because it’s about a thumb’s width either side of the screen, which gives you something to hold onto without interfering with whatever you’re trying to watch or read. I’m not entirely sure why, but the screen just begs to be touched, much more so than an iPad.

Along the sides of the tablet you’ve got the doors that cover the ports; a thin volume rocker; a power button; a small but bright notification LED, and two contacts for a charging dock. The top edge features an IR blaster, which is apparently a thing now, considering all the flagship Android phones seem to have them. In the tablet’s bottom left and right corners are two sets of speakers, one pair along the bottom and another pair on the sides, which means when you’re holding it you don’t block the speakers.

The rear of the tablet is a lot less fancy than the front, with a matt black fibreglass-infused polycarbonate back plate, which actually ends up being just about the right amount of grip, giving you confidence that this thing isn’t going to slide out of your hands. The 8.1MP shooter punctuates the back plate in the top right-hand corner, with an NFC chip indicator stuck like a tramp-stamp centrally on its bottom edge.