Sony’s 2014 tablet arrives before its flagship smartphone - if you liked the Tablet Z, you’ll love this
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Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet review
by Sophie Charara3 April 2014
Sony builds lovely kit. Consoles, smartphones, TVs, tablets - all with super specs, expensive materials and the best components. But it’s never crafted a tablet that’s more than the sum of those parts.
The Xperia Z2 Tablet arrives thinner, lighter and more powerful than ever. Like last year’s Tablet Z, it’s a superb movie tablet, slick in use and a cut above everyday Androids because it’s waterproof.
And yet… Sony still hasn’t quite cracked it. Because the specs race is over and everyone won. Now it’s all about creating a premium, portable design and killer apps to make the tablet as essential as the smartphone. For Sony tablets something’s still missing, and it’s more than just the fifth Stuff star.
A TEXTBOOK TABLET REFRESH
A classy design let down by big bezels
Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet - A Textbook Tablet Refresh 2Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet - A Textbook Tablet Refresh 3Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet - A Textbook Tablet Refresh 4
Sony’s outgoing Xperia Tablet Z is selling for around £330, so what’s in this year’s refresh to convince us to part with £400? Choice tweaks, that’s what.
The Z2 Tablet looks almost identical to the Tablet Z, making for a fun session of spot the difference. The hardware has slimmed down half a centimetre to just 6.4mm (somehow making the 7.5mm iPad Air look fat) and it now weighs just 426g for the Wi-Fi-only version. That’s ludicrously light for a 10in tablet, and even after a couple of hours arm ache won’t be a problem for any but the feeblest of gadgeteers.
Aside from the surprisingly powerful speakers sensibly being moved to the front of the tablet from the sides and the new placement of the now flap-free headphone jack, that’s it for the cosmetic changes.
CHECK OUT OUR FULL XPERIA Z2 TABLET GALLERY
Like the Tablet Z, it’s a sliver of glass and aluminium that feels almost worryingly thin, and not overly comfortable to hold, thanks to an elongated form and slight flex in the middle. The OmniBalance styling, designed to immerse you in what’s on the screen, is finished to perfection - from the reflective skeleton frame to the statement power button, lovely to stroke matte back and artfully hidden port flaps. It's a classy design but all that fussiness is ruined by the bezels, which are huge by 2014’s standards and make the Z2 Tablet more cumbersome than it needs to be.
A big part of the Z2’s appeal is its waterproofing, which is now IP58-certified (a slight improvement over the Z) so drops in up to 1.5m of water are now safe. It might be a splashproof cooking companion or a bathtime long-reads tab. Either way it means the Z2 Tablet will be more useful in more rooms of the house, and that’s got to be a good thing. Still, with smaller, cheaper tabs here to stay, full-size tablets such as the Z2 need to work to avoid being relegated to a stay-at-home slab.
THIS IS WHAT WE CALL A MOVIE TAB
That Live Colour LCD tech seems to be doing the trick
Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet - This is What We Call a Movie Tab 2Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet - This is What We Call a Movie Tab 3
A big reason most of us want a big tablet is to give movies and TV shows the minimum space they deserve. And here the Sony shines.
It’s almost the same screen as the Tablet Z: a 10.1in 1920 x 1200 affair with tons of Sony’s display tweaks - X-Reality engine, Triluminous tech and now for the Z2 “Live Colour LCD tech” for brighter colours. Unlike Samsung and Asus, Sony hasn’t made the leap to 2k tablet resolutions yet, which is a shame and a bit of a surprise considering the company’s at the forefront of 4K TV design.
In the end all you need to know is that Sony’s an expert on screens - this one is bright and crisp with none of the viewing angle problems that have marred Xperia phones. The 264ppi iPad Air is sharper for reading text and webpages, with slightly more detail when it comes to video playback, too, but otherwise the Z2 Tablet is every bit the stunner. That’s thanks to seriously vivid colours and the kind of brightness and contrast that makes for really punchy pictures. In ultimate terms we’d say the iPad Air produces the more realistic colours, but the vibrancy of the Sony is mighty appealing and never jarringly unnatural.
APPS FOR A 10IN SONY
An excellent universal remote app isn't enough
Full-size tablets have to live up to more than just media bingeing potential. How? With apps.
Walkman, Movies and What's New on the Z2 Tablet homescreen
Whether it’s gorgeous, creative App Store apps designed for the iPad or Samsung’s huge bundle of productivity freebies, Flipboard-style homescreens and subscriptions for the TabPro range, both greatly expand what you can do with a 10in tab. We’re talking anything from manipulating virtual Korg synths to dragging and dropping Samsung files.
Samsung overhauled its software offering because Google Play still isn’t doing enough for 10in tablets. It’s neck and neck for smartphone games and apps across iOS and Android but on tablets, the number of fantastic, optimised Android apps still trails the App Store. And Sony hasn’t done enough to bridge the gap. Instead you get an almost untouched version of KitKat with only Sony’s own Walkman, Movies, Album and What’s New apps, and while that once would have been anathema to Android evangelists, they’re too busy mucking about with their cheaper Nexus tabs to pay the Z2 much mind.
That’s not to say Sony hasn’t taken certain steps. There are resizeable, windowed small apps for the likes of Gmail and the browser, which is a nice multi-tasking touch (particularly if you go for the Z2 Tablet’s keyboard case) - albeit without quite the range or flexibility of Samsung’s rival Multi Window apps.
The closest Sony has to a compelling must-have app is the excellent universal remote, plus neat tricks such as Wi-Fi ‘throwing’ of content to bigger screens. It needs more. We don’t mean useless, gimmicky bloatware - the likes of Samsung have grown up enough to choose a few worthwhile additions to KitKat and Sony needs to keep up.
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