Sony launched the Xperia Tablet Z, its latest Android slate, in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress show on Monday. The device is the thinnest and lightest 10-inch tablet produced by any hardware maker thus far at 0.27 inches thick and a weight of 1.09 pounds. And it also is making its debut just six months after Sony's last Android slate, the Xperia Tablet S.
We got to spend a bit of time using the tablet last week, ahead of its unveiling in Spain, and the sleek build of the device was mightily impressive. As was the Tablet Z's 1920 x 1200 pixel display. And, like the Xperia Z smartphone Sony showed off at Las Vegas' Consumer Electronics Show in January, the Tablet Z is water resistant -- which might make it a great choice for use in the kitchen. Sony says the Tablet Z can survive being submerged in water as deep as 3 feet for as long as 30 minutes.
Powering the Tablet Z is Google's Android Jelly Bean operating system (it'll ship on 4.1 and later be upgraded to 4.2), Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core CPU, clocked at 1.5GHz and 2GB of RAM. Storage comes in at 16GB for $500, or 32GB for $600 -- placing the pricing square against Apple's iPad. Each model of the Tablet Z will sport a microSD card slot, which can handle up to an additional 64GB of storage, as well as an 8-megapixel rear camera, that can shoot up to 1080p video. And up front, it'll have a 2.2-megapixel, 720p camera. NFC connectivity (which Sony will be marketing under the name One-Touch for some odd reason) will be built in as well.
Like the Tablet S, the Tablet Z features a built-in IR blaster and an app that will allow owners to use the device as a universal remote for TVs, Blu-ray and DVD players, and home theater receivers. No official release date has been announced as of yet.
