Sony announces super-thin 10.1″ Xperia Tablet Z, coming to Japan this spring

Posted on Monday, January 21st, 2013 at 10:41 am.

Sony Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. on Monday announced its new flagship tablet, the 10.1-inch Xperia Tablet Z, which is set to arrive in the Japanese market this spring. It features an impressive thickness of 6.9mm which makes it the thinnest tablet we’re aware of, beating the 7.2mm-thick iPad mini. Equipped with a full-HD 1920×1200 display with Sony’s Bravia Engine 2 post-processing engine, Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chip, and an 8.1-megapixel Exmor R camera, the Xperia Tablet Z is a significant upgrade over the company’s current Xperia Tablet S.

Xperia Tablet Z, just like its smartphone brethren, is said to be both waterproof and dustproof. It has a lightweight body, weighing just about about 495g compared to the Nexus 7′s 603g. It looks like Sony has abandoned the “folded-magazine” design of 2011′s Tablet S and last year’s Xperia Tablet S in order to achieve the thinness.

Unlike a lot of other OEMs, Sony has included its flagship camera sensor, the 8.1MP Exmor R on the back. Sony says that, the camera automatically recognizes the scene in a dark place or even when the backlight automatically adjusts to the optimal settings for “Auto Low Premium”, you can take a picture pretty easily at any time. Taking pictures with a tablet may not be the best idea, but Sony seems keen to promote the Tablet Z’s shooting capabilities nonetheless, touting its automatic low-light mode.

Is equipped with a feature, that helps convey the movement of sound and a spacious feeling called the “S-Force Front Surround 3D” virtual surround sound technology. Other specifications include 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, which is standard for a flagship tablet or mobile device nowadays. Unlike Google’s flagship 10-inch tablet, the Sony Xperia Tablet Z will have a microSD expansion slot. It will also come with both NFC (one-touch transfers with other Xperia devices) and LTE support (presumably for the NTT DoCoMo network). Battery pack has a built-in lithium polymer battery, with a capacity of 6000mAh. That being somewhat less, we are yet to see what Sony’s power management has up its sleeves.

The Xperia Tablet Z will be available in both black and white. Sony says this product is aimed at the Japanese market, where it’ll be released this spring. Pricing and availability are unknown at this point, but maybe MWC 2013 in Barcelona will bring the details. However, given its high-end specifications, the Xperia Tablet Z probably won’t come cheap.

Source: Sony Japan