However, the Tablet S doesn't have the solid feel of Apple's iPad 2 or the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab. It feels a bit plasticky in places and not quite up to Sony's usual, high standard of build quality.
For some reason, Sony put in a very bright green LCD that blinks when the Tablet S wants to notify you of events - such as email arriving. It's way too bright in dark rooms, and can't be turned down or off unfortunately.
You can use the Tablet S as a remote control for TVs and DVD players, which works great. However, Sony didn't go the whole hog and made it possible to use the Tablet S as a remote keyboard to enter text too, which is a real omission.
Overall, the Tablet S fits in well with your home network. It has Wi-Fi (no 3G though), USB and, unusually for Android tablets, an SD memory card slot for easy file sharing.
Unfortunately, the Tablet S can't handle really big SD cards like my Lexar 64GB ones and it doesn't understand other file systems than Microsoft's FAT32. This means you can't use files bigger than four gigabytes, which limits the usefulness of the SD card slot.
The Tablet S supports the Windows-based DLNA network protocol. With this feature, you can stream audio, video and images to the Tablet S from your Windows-based laptop or desktop computer. I tried it on my home network, and it works as advertised.
Going to back to the device itself, the Tablet S is one of the nicest Android devices I've tried. The screen is LED backlit, 9.4 inches in size and very sharp with 1,280 by 800 pixel resolution. Thanks to the TruBlack screen technology, the display is actually one of the best I've seen.
Add to that an Nvidia Tegra chip with a dual-core processor that runs at 1GHz speed, and you have a fast, lag-free tablet that responds quickly to your finger poking. The processor grunt doesn't seem to hurt battery life much, as the Tablet S would go almost two days before a charge. I wish Sony could've stuck with a USB charger instead of a proprietary one that does the job faster, but has a flimsy connector and means you have something else to carry around with the Tablet S at all times.
For web browsing and other internet tasks, the Tablet S is a pleasure to use. It runs the latest version of Android for tablets that also supports Adobe's Flash player.
Watching movies and recorded TV in standard definition worked well on the Tablet S; however, despite the dual-core processor, the Tablet S had problems playing back high definition movies properly. Even 720p movies would stutter, no matter which media player was used.
The Tablet S fares better with video recorded on it: you get two cameras with the Tablet S, one 5Mpixel rear facing with LED flash and Sony's excellent Exmoor Mobile sensor; the forward-facing one for video calls/chats is a low-resolution VGA one.
Pictures from the rear-facing camera are fairly good, and the 720p high-definition video it can record at 30 frames per second is passable too.
The PlayStation games on the Tablet S, Crash Bandicoot and Pinball Heroes ran fine. Possibly to save space on the 32GB Tablet S (24GB is available for user files) you have to download the games before you can play them. In the case of Crash Bandicoot for instance, that meant 521MB to pull down, which took quite a while over the Tablet S Wi-Fi connection that's not the fastest in the business with 39Mbps reported connection rate close to my wireless router.
Tablet gaming is a different kettle of fish to consoles and PCs; it's fun to use the movement sensors and tilt the tablet, but after a while you miss physical controls such as a keyboard or game pad.
Speaking of controls, Sony decided to cook up its own user interface for the Tablet S and I have to say I'm not a fan of it. It works once you're used to it, but the icons are spread all over the screen in a non-intuitive fashion.
Sony's gone down an interesting route with the Tablet S with the entertainment focus. By and large the Tablet S fits into this role albeit with some design misses. If you're after an Android tablet to use at home, check out Sony's variant as it's one of the better ones out there, maybe even the best.
You'd have to overlook the high price though: at $950 RRP including GST, Sony's asking a good chunk of change for the Tablet S, and this may make it a tough sell for the Japanese electronics giant.
Sony Tablet S
$950 (32GB) $799 (16GB)
Pros
Stylish design
Great screen and snappy performance
USB port, SD card slot included
Decent 5MP camera
Access to Sony's movie, music and games catalogues
Can be used as a control centre for home entertainment devices, and integrates well with Windows networks
Cons
High price
Annoying design misses such as overly bright notification LED.
Poor playback of HD movies and TV.
