Xperia Z Tablet Review – Beach Companion

Being the owner of an Xperia Z smartphone it seemed fitting that I gave it’s bigger brother the once over. With a day away from Clove HQ and the English summertime belatedly arriving I thought it would be good to review the tablet by incorporating it into my day at the beach. The IP57 rating (water and dust proofing) of the tablet lends itself to the perfect beach companion. Therefore, I sought to investigate just how good the 10.1” tablet really is and if its features make for the ideal beachside device. This is not your traditional review, its a true user review that will comment on some of the standout features  (in my opinion) and the ‘usability’ of the device in a ‘day-to-day’ scenario.

Looks

The Xperia Z tablet follows the same design as the Xperia Z smartphone, harsh edges and minimalistic looks result in a truly stunning looking device. Similar to the smartphone, the Xperia Z tablet has flaps to cover the ports, allowing for water and dust proofing of the device. These flaps also help generate the minimalistic look of the tablet. A company who always produces attractive devices, Sony has excelled in producing a fantastic looking tablet with all the features to go with it. At just 7.2mm thick it’s a wonder how they managed to cram such a wealth of top quality components inside the 10.1” tablet’s slender body. The tablet has a thicker bezel around the display on the shorter sides of the device, allowing the user to hold it and not impede their vision of the screen. Unlike the smartphone, the tablet has a matte black finish on the back of the device as opposed to the glass finish on the phone (see pic below).

It’s rather hard to describe the looks of anything without providing you with some pictures, so here’s some I took whilst at the beach:

Screen

The biggest fear I had with taking a tablet to the beach is not being able to see the screen very well due to the sunlight reflecting. To begin with, it was a struggle, however once the brightness was turned up I could begin to enjoy the screen much more. I managed to read the display with ease on the device, even with sunglasses on. This is quite impressive considering, at times, the device was in direct sunlight and still very usable. The 10.1” 1200 x 1900 display is certainly a standout feature for me. If we’re honest, a tablets key feature should probably be the display, Sony seem to have acknowledged this. With a 224 ppi display the Xperia Z tablet produces crisp images with great colour depth. The BRAVIA engine 2 ensures that the pictures look as good as they possibly can. All this technology behind the display equated to a very well performing device down at the beach. I managed to watch an episode of my favourite TV program whilst soaking up some rays, not many people can say they’ve done that, it really is like having a small HD TV in your hands. Needless to say, I was impressed with the screen and the display.

Camera

Like many, I’m not really a fan of taking pictures on a tablet. However, in some situations it’s acceptable and if you’re going to take a picture you may as well take a good one, right? The Xperia Z tablet is kitted out with an 8 MP camera on the back and, similar to its smaller brother, it has the Sony Exmor R sensor and auto focus features. To give you an idea of the camera quality here are some pictures I took whilst on my excursion:

Another feature I stumbled across whilst playing with the camera is “sweep panorama”, spending about a minute working out how to use it I eventually took some great shots. It basically stitches together a series of pictures to create a panoramic view of where you’re standing, allowing you to fit more into a single picture. Here is a couple of “sweep panoramas” I took:

I was impressed with the quality of the photos taken on the Xperia Z tablet, especially when you consider that photos will almost certainly not be its main use. Perfect for family days out when you want to grab some good pictures without to much trouble.

Other Features

One of the main focal points of this device is the IP57 rating, this means the device can be submerged in water and fend off dust, sand and other small particles. The device handled the sand well and, once washed off in the sea, it was all gone. It’s nice to have piece of mind knowing that you can take the tablet to the beach and not worry about the sand or the sea wrecking your device:

A few of the other features I was impressed with are the speakers, ‘3D sound’ is what Sony call it, on the bottom corners of the tablet is where the speakers are located. The sound they produce is impressive and provides ample volume for close quarters listening. I used my Sony SRS-BTV5 NFC speaker whilst at the beach which pairs with the Xperia Z tablet easily:

There are to a whole range of connectivity options with the Z.  The model I used had 4G connectivity if you have an appropriate SIM card, but of course 3G connectivity is possible too.  You can send text messages and connect to the internet through the phone connection but no option for a traditional phone call.

WiFi, Bluetooth, and DLNA are included on the device not to mention the ability to share the screen wirelessly or via MHL with another HD enabled monitor. I don’t need to explain these in depth for you.

Conclusion

After spending a day with the Xperia Z tablet it was obvious the build quality and styling of the device is straight from Sony’s top drawer. I like the minimalistic design and sharp edges, the device feels very pleasing to hold because of how thin it is when compared to other tablets in the market. The quality of the display is another standout feature for me, ultra crisp edges and a vast array of colours combined with Sony’s BRAVIA engine 2 software result in an almost unbelievable display to trump any tablet on the market.

Although I didn’t get a chance to look through everything on the tablet, what I did manage to look at was handled with ease including videos, movies, music, games and Skype, all of which ran very smoothly on the 1.5GHz Quad Core Xperia Z tablet. With an expandable micro SD slot up to 64GB there’s a fair amount of room for you to fill it up with entertainment before you take it on your travels.

All things considered the Xperia Z tablet is a very well rounded tablet that performs well in all areas, standout features such as the IP57 rating, HD display and 8 MP camera give the tablet a feel of real quality. Backed-up up by a speedy 1.5GHz quad core processor the Xperia Z tablet really is a great beach companion. It is just a bit of a shame that it is a little expensive for most, having said this, the features and design compel you to spend..

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