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Airfoil. That was the first thought that popped into my head when I saw the Tablet S.
For good reason, Sony's first expedition into the tablet market defies the conventional wisdom that dictates "thinner is better." Instead, the company opted to design a tablet with more of a wedge shape. As a result, the Tablet S looks a lot like an aircraft's wing. But then I saw this commercial:
At least according to whichever marketing firm created that minute-long ad, the Tablet S' inspiration comes from a folded piece of paper. Though that's not necessarily any sexier than Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 or Apple's iPad 2, it doesn't need to be. In an increasingly expansive sea of tablet choices, Sony isn't trying to impress us based on good looks. Instead, the company is trying to uniquely cater to entertainment mavens.
ZoomBased on a cursory glance at a feature checklist, the Tablet S doesn't really seem well-suited to address that market. It's closely comparable to the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but it cannot output to HDMI. Reading data from USB-based drives is possible. But, like the solution from Samsung, you need an adapter.
Once you read beyond the most common tablet-oriented features, though, you see the Tablet S is DLNA-certified, which means it should interact very naturally with other DNLA-enabled devices like TVs, PCs, and speaker systems. The fact that this product is born into an existing ecosystem, rather than forced to co-exist with dissimilar devices, could give it a marked advantage in the tablet space. As an added bonus, the Tablet S is able to operate as a universal IR remote control, giving it functionality much like a Logitech Harmony remote in a tablet form factor.
| Native Feature Checklist | Acer Iconia A500 | Asus Eee Pad Transformer | Motorola Xoom | Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 | Sony Tablet S | Toshiba Thrive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-Sized USB Port | X | - | - | - | - | X |
| Front Camera | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Rear Camera | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| SD Card Reader | - | - | - | - | X | X |
| HDMI Output | X | X | X | - | - | X |
| microSD Card Reader | X | X | X | - | - | - |
Both of those differentiators certainly help make Sony's Tablet S the most unique tablet offering we've seen. However, they're not going to be must-haves for every potential tablet buyer. Again, this product is distinctly aimed at media enthusiasts.
Ergonomics also explain a limitation of three possible orientation modes. Looking at it in a landscape arrangement forces you to have the thin lip facing toward you. Holding the tablet the other way (thin end facing away) is more awkward, like holding a paperweight with your fingertips. Thus, we're completely fine with three, rather than four, orientation options.
| Length | Width | Height | Screen Size | Aspect Ratio | Weight | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPad 2 (3G) | 9.5" | 7.31" | .34" | 9.7" | 4:3 | 1.33 lb. |
| Acer Iconia A500 | 9.8" | 6.6" | .5" | 10.1" | 16:10 | 1.5 lb. |
| Asus Eee Pad Transformer | 10.2" | 7" | .5" | 10.1" | 16:10 | 1.65 lb. |
| Motorola Xoom | 10.7" | 7" | .5" | 10.1" | 16:10 | 1.5 lb. |
| Motorola Xoom Family Edition | 9.8" | 6.6" | .5" | 10.1" | 16:10 | 1.4 lb. |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 | 10.1" | 6.9" | 0.38" | 10.1" | 16:10 | 1.3 lb. |
| Sony Tablet S | 9.5" | 6.8" | 0.3" | 9.4" | 16:10 | 1.3 lb. |
| Toshiba Thrive | 10.8" | 7" | 0.6" | 10.1" | 16:10 | 1.6 lb. |
The iPad/iPad 2's 4:3 screen is deliberately sized to mimic a pad of paper. Conversely, we have yet to see an Android-based tablet with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Google and its hardware partners all seem focused on video content, as you can see from the 16:10 displays on all of the other tablets in the chart above.
Due to its placement of the Wi-Fi and GPS antennas, Sony is forced to issue recommendations on holding the Tablet S. We have our own thoughts on them, naturally.
- In landscape mode, hold the tablet so its front camera lens is at the top. This should be obvious, considering turning the tablet upside-down won't re-orient the screen anyway.
- In portrait orientation, hold the tablet so its front camera lens is on the left side. Be careful not to block the ambient light sensor (to the right of the front-facing camera). This sounds like another orientation limitation to us. But hey, whatever it takes not to block the antenna, right?
- Be careful not to hold or cover the antenna shown in the figure above while using the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or GPS functions. Because this is something we all want to have to think about as we're using our mobile devices.
Sony doesn't include drivers that support the native Android Debug Bridge for Android's SDK, though, which means you need to perform a manual modification for Windows to recognize the tablet (a necessary step if you want to take screenshots on it).
- Turn on "USB debugging" in Sony Tablet S
- In Windows, put following device descriptions into the [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64] sections of extrasgoogleusb_driverandroid_winusb.inf:
SONY Sony Tablet P
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USBVID_054C&PID_04D2&MI_01
SONY Sony Tablet S
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USBVID_054C&PID_05B4&MI_01 - Add 0x54c into the .android/adb_usb.ini file in the Home directory by using following command from the shell prompt.
In Windows:
echo 0x54c>>%HOMEPATH%.androidadb_usb.ini
In OS X:
echo "0x54c" >> $HOME/.android/adb_usb.ini - In Windows: Restart. Plug in the tablet, and when driver installation fails, select "Have Disk" under "Device Manager." Select the driver named "Composite Adb Interface."
Getting back on topic, all of the tablet's buttons are located on the right side. Sony wisely chose to recess them on the groove's upper lip, which prevents them from getting pressed accidentally. Our only quibble is with their small size, since it's difficult to know whether turning the volume up or down while looking at the screen.
| Camera | Front-Facing | Rear-Facing | Flash | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPad 2 | 0.3 MP (640 x 480) | 0.7 MP (960 x 720) | None | |||
| Acer Iconia A500 | 2.0 MP (1600 x 1200) | 5.0 MP (2592 x 1944) | Single-LED flash | |||
| Asus Transformer | 1.2 MP (1024 x 768) | 5.0 MP (2592 x 1944) | None | |||
| Motorola Xoom | 2.0 MP (1600 x 1200) | 5.0 MP (2592 x 1944) | Dual-LED flash | |||
| Motorola Xoom Family Edition | 1.3 MP (640 x 480) | 5.0 MP (2592 x 1944) | Single-LED flash | |||
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 | 2.0 MP (1600 x 1200) | 3.0 MP (2048 x 1536) | Single-LED flash | |||
| Sony Tablet S | 0.3 MP (640 x 480) | 5.0 MP (2592 x 1944) | None | |||
| Toshiba Thrive | 2.0 MP (1600 x 1200) | 5.0 MP (2592 x 1944) | None |
Thankfully, Sony put some thought into its virtual keyboard layout. The left and right arrow keys are particularly helpful because they give you an easy way to select a mistyped letter within a word or URL.
Graphics Performance: Tegra 2
As we’ve mentioned in the past, mobile devices like smartphones and tablets use highly integrated logic referred to as SoCs to minimize physical footprints and power consumption, all the while optimizing for performance and functionality. By putting execution resource, graphics processing, system memory, and several other subsystems in a single ASIC, data transfers can be achieved more efficiently without soldering a bunch of separate chips onto a PCB. Incidentally, the same SoC term applies to modern desktop processors like Intel's Sandy Bridge- and AMD's Bulldozer-based chips, which combine cores, cache, memory controllers, and other capabilities.
Tegra is Nvidia’s SoC brand, and it represents the company’s effort to tap into the mobile market beyond its desktop-derived GeForce graphics processors. For those unfamiliar with Tegra 2, read page eight of our Motorola Xoom review for a full discussion of GPU architecture. On the CPU side, Tegra 2 shares the same dual-core Cortex-A9, which offers a substantial boost from Cortex-A8 used in the first-generation iPad. Read Apple's iPad 2 Review: Tom's Goes Down The Tablet Rabbit Hole for a full discussion of Cortex-A9 performance.
While we've already covered Tegra 2, it's important to examine the graphics performance of each tablet. Sy Choudhury, director of product management at Qualcomm, once stated, "There is a misconception that the same processor and operating system gives the same performance." Why is it wrong to expect the same performance from all Android-based Tegra 2 tablets? Hardware vendors get access to the same optimizations from the SoC developer, but not all of the software-based tweaks are enabled by OEMs.
The ULP GeForce has a maximum operating frequency of 300 MHz, but device vendors can tweak this setting to save on power. Nvidia provides less information on the Tegra 2 than it does for its desktop GPUs, so it’s best to move on to benchmarks. As in our iPad 2 review, we're turning to GLBenchmark. However, since the publisher of this benchmark recently released version 2.1, our scores are different from what you've seen in the past.
The Tablet S offers performance typical of a Tegra 2-based tablet. It's better than the iPad, but worse than the iPad 2. However, the standard Egypt and Pro tests only measure performance at a tablet's native resolution. On Android-based tablets, this is always 1280x800 (compared to the iPad/iPad 2's 1024x768).
GLBenchmark 2.1 introduces a new off-screen test, which standardizes performance to 720p. Based on the new tests, we see a smaller gap between the Tegra 2 and PowerVR SGX543MP2, but the latter still outperforms the former by ~50%. As a result, it's not surprising to hear that Sony will employ a quad-core PowerVR SGX 543MP2 on its PlayStation Vita, the PSP's successor.
| SoC | Apple A4 (iPad) | Apple A5 | Nvidia Tegra 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tablets | Apple iPad | Apple iPad 2 | Acer Iconia Tab A500 Asus Eee Pad Transformer Motorola Xoom Motorola Xoom Family Edition Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Sony Tablet S Toshiba Thrive |
| Processor | 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 (single-core) | 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 (dual-core) | 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 (dual-core) |
| Memory | 256 MB 333 MHz LP-DDR (single-channel) | 512 MB 1066 MHz LP-DDR2 (dual-channel) | 1 GB 667 MHz LP-DDR2 (single-channel) |
| Graphics | PowerVR SGX535 (single-core) | PowerVR SGX545MP2 (dual-core) | ULP GeForce (single-core) |
| L1 Cache (Instruction/Data) | 32 KB / 32 KB | 32 KB / 32 KB | 32 KB / 32 KB |
| L2 Cache | 640 KB | 1 MB | 1 MB |
Tegra is Nvidia’s SoC brand, and it represents the company’s effort to tap into the mobile market beyond its desktop-derived GeForce graphics processors. For those unfamiliar with Tegra 2, read page eight of our Motorola Xoom review for a full discussion of GPU architecture. On the CPU side, Tegra 2 shares the same dual-core Cortex-A9, which offers a substantial boost from Cortex-A8 used in the first-generation iPad. Read Apple's iPad 2 Review: Tom's Goes Down The Tablet Rabbit Hole for a full discussion of Cortex-A9 performance.
| GPU (System-on-Chip) | PowerVR SGX 535 (Apple A4) | PowerVR SGX 543 (Apple A5) | ULP GeForce (Tegra 2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SIMD | USSE | USSE2 | Core |
| Pipelines | 2 (unified) | 4 (unified) | 8 (4 pixel / 4 vertex) |
| TMUs | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Bus Width (bit) | 64 | 64 | 32 |
| Triangle rate @ 200 MHz | 14 MTriangles/s | 35 MTriangles/s | ? |
The ULP GeForce has a maximum operating frequency of 300 MHz, but device vendors can tweak this setting to save on power. Nvidia provides less information on the Tegra 2 than it does for its desktop GPUs, so it’s best to move on to benchmarks. As in our iPad 2 review, we're turning to GLBenchmark. However, since the publisher of this benchmark recently released version 2.1, our scores are different from what you've seen in the past.
Battery Life
Testing a tablet’s battery life is full of variance unless you control the entire experience from beginning to end. Cumulatively, touch gestures don’t have a great impact on battery life. The biggest factors are CPU/GPU processing, screen brightness, volume, and Wi-Fi use. In order to accurately measure battery life, I coded a script that automatically plays MP3s at 50% volume while browsing different Wikipedia pages every 12 minutes. This benchmark is probably overkill, but it gives you an idea of a worst-case scenario.
Recharge Time
Charging times are a double-edged sword. Ideally, you want a nice slow charge so that your battery lasts more than a few hundred cycles. Fast charge times keep you away from a wall wart longer, but in the long run, they cut down on the health of the battery. Usually, the rate of charge starts to slow down somewhere in the 80% to 95% range, which is why the charging time from 0% to 10% is faster than 90% to 100%.
source:http://www.tomshardware.com
Testing a tablet’s battery life is full of variance unless you control the entire experience from beginning to end. Cumulatively, touch gestures don’t have a great impact on battery life. The biggest factors are CPU/GPU processing, screen brightness, volume, and Wi-Fi use. In order to accurately measure battery life, I coded a script that automatically plays MP3s at 50% volume while browsing different Wikipedia pages every 12 minutes. This benchmark is probably overkill, but it gives you an idea of a worst-case scenario.
source:http://www.tomshardware.com
