Sony Xperia Tablet S review

There's a happy medium between boring and bizarre

There was absolutely no mistaking either of Sony's previous tablets for anything else — they had a look all their own. The Xperia Tablet S is considerably less notable, but that's probably a good thing: this is a much better-looking slate, handsome and minimalist with rounded edges, a classy silver-and-black color scheme, and a thin profile. The top edge rolls over into the back, giving it the look and feel of a folded-over magazine page — its grippy texture also makes it much more comfortable to hold one-handed. I like the look, but it's purely aesthetic this time — on the previous Tablet S the fold propped the device up at a nice typing-friendly angle, but here the flap is much smaller and doesn't really change anything. The Tablet S took the idea too far, I think, but the Xperia Tablet S might not go quite far enough.

Still, it's a decent-looking device, if a little boring. The 9.4-inch display is surrounded by a big, glossy black bezel, with a Sony logo placed above the screen and to the left. Weirdly, the logo looks good there. It's not nearly as obtrusive as most center-located, glittery silver logos — it's just a quiet reminder that you're using a Sony tablet. (Of course, I'd trade it for no logo at all, but I'll take what I can get.) The 1.3-pound body is almost exactly the same weight as the iPad, and at 8.9mm (at its thinnest point, the flap is slightly larger) it's about a sheet of paper thinner than Apple's latest tablet. It feels like any other Android tablet to hold and use — I couldn't say either about Sony's other tablets, and I'll take conformity over Sony's quirky previous designs even though I wish Sony would take a few more chances.

There's some space on the Xperia Tablet's edges created by the fold-over plastic flap, and that's where Sony hides most of the device's physical buttons. There's a power button and a volume rocker on the right side, and a headphone jack on the left side above a hard-to-open, easy-to-break flap that covers a full SD card slot. Having the full SD slot is pretty awesome — syncing any Android device with a computer is a pain, and it's much easier to just throw a document or movie (mostly movies, in my case) onto a card and plug it into the tablet. Sony uses a proprietary charging port / dock connector, which is set so far back into the bottom of the tablet that it takes a big bite out of the bottom edge. It's surely for the purposes of sturdier docking, but it looks terrible — fortunately you can't see it from the front.

There are two cameras on the device, an 8-megapixel sensor on the back and a single megapixel on the front. Both are exactly what they need to be, and nothing more: the rear camera takes decent shots in a pinch, and the front camera is fine for video chat. I don't recommend going out of your way to use either one.

As Sony has moved to unify and integrate its product line, some changes have been more useful than others. I can take or leave its naming and software synergy, but I'm certainly happy that Sony's tablet team is taking cues from its TV prowess. At least, I assume that's how Sony's consistently made great tablet displays, including the Xperia Tablet S's 1280 x 800 TFT LCD. It's marginally sharper than some other tablets just because it has a 9.4-inch screen, but mostly it just looks better. It has really deep blacks, which makes movies look better, and colors and viewing angles are both excellent. It's the same size and resolution as the previous Tablet S, and it's still a very good display. Of course, it's no match for the iPad's Retina display or the 1920 x 1200 screen on the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, but it's a step above most 10-inch tablets I've tested.

So are the speakers, actually. The Xperia Tablet S has two down-firing speakers on its back, and while they're too close together to create much of a stereo effect they're at least loud enough to be heard in a non-silent room (unlike most tablets). They're not exactly mind-blowing in their power or dynamic range — wubs come few and far between — but they're totally serviceable for watching movies or YouTube videos. You can tweak a lot of equalizer options or use the settings Sony's ClearAudio+ technology thinks are ideal, but I found the default settings worked best.

Even decent speakers are a nice change

Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor is inside most of the tablets I've tested in the last six months, and they pretty much all work the same. The Xperia Tablet S is fast and responsive, and is particularly adept for playing games — I'm getting really good at Shadowgun as I test more and more tablets, and it's as smooth and impressive on the Xperia Tablet's display as any I've tried.

Software, not hardware, is now the limiting factor for Android tablet performance

Of course, the Nexus 7 also runs a Tegra 3, and using it side by side with the Xperia Tablet throws into stark relief how much Android 4.1's performance has been improved. It's the little things: the screen rotates faster, scrolling is smoother, and every animation happens slightly faster. The Xperia Tablet is perfectly usable, but the Nexus 7 feels more finely tuned. Sony has promised an update to Jelly Bean for the Xperia Tablet S, but given the number of custom apps and features for the device I'm not holding my breath.

I took the Xperia Tablet S with me to Germany for Photokina 2012, and was thrilled with the device's longevity. I watched an entire season of How I Met Your Mother (23 20-minute episodes, a little less than eight hours), plus a couple of Breaking Bad episodes and one of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, before the battery finally croaked — that's about 10 solid hours of watching movies. In more normal use — tweeting, browsing, streaming a show or two – I consistently only charged the Xperia Tablet S every three days. That's about what you'll get from an iPad, too — though the iPad achieves it while using LTE — and it's really nice to not have to think about charging the tablet every day.