Sony enters the tablet market

With every other major manufacturer having multiple versions in the market already, Sony has been one of the last major entrants for tablets. And with that, it faces quite the uphill battle; with one tablet pretty much dominating the scene, leaving not much to be shared by the rest. However, for its part, Sony seems to have made a decent effort to distinguish itself from the rest, at least more than it has with naming the device. Instead of going for a flat-slab form factor, it's more along the lines of a magazine folded around the back. When in portrait mode, this makes for a better grip (the textured back is helpful too), while in landscape mode and set on a flat surface, it puts the screen at an angle that is convenient for viewing and typing. This does mean that the tablet is thicker than a lot of the others on the market, though. On the front of the tablet is the screen in line with the rest; black bezel with nothing but a camera. On the left is the headphone jack, a flap to reveal the micro-USB port and SD-card slot. On the right is the volume rocker and power button. The micro-USB port cannot be used for charging and a proprietary connection is used, the slot for which is at the bottom. The texturised back feels plastic-y but not weak and the device weighs about 600g — which is in line with the competition. In terms of specifications, the Tablet S is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor with 1GB of memory. The screen measures 9.4 inches with a resolution of 1280x800. The review unit features version 3.1 (Honeycomb) of Android, although I was told that the final unit in the market will have version 3.2, which includes improvements, optimisations and increased hardware support. There is no mention of when or if version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), which is supposed to bring in major improvements to the user interface and functionality to the tablets, will be available for the device Despite that, the Android ecosystem on tablets seems is rather sparse in terms of availability of quality applications. This may be because the developers are focusing on the iOS platform where the users are making this a chicken-and-egg situation. The camera on the back is a 5-megapixel sensor which racks up the pixels but the end result is mediocre. The colours are decent but the picture is grainy, especially in scenes that aren't shot in the daylight. Sony has taken it upon them to bring a few improvements to the tablets, though. With custom applications — such as a universal remote, custom intelligent music player, DLNA application (allows users to wirelessly share media to supported devices such as your TV or music player — besides improvements to the browser, the Sony Tablet S does make an attempt to place itself a notch above the other Android tablets by serving an improved performance. However, with its 16GB placed at just below Dh2,000, it fits right in with the rest — this, of course, being a good thing. At the risk of repeating myself, the tablet suffers the same fate as the Android tablets — giving users a sub-par experience. Sony's innovative form factor and improvements do enhance the experience but users may still be left wanting more. Perhaps (and hopefully), Android 4.0 will fix that for users. Until then, excellent hardware married with weak software will continue to result in a mediocre offering. Bhavishya Kanjhan is a digital marketing professional and an early adopter of all things digital. Follow his tweets on @bhavishya