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Sony Tablet S Review: The Media Enthusiast's Dream Tablet
By ,
1. DLNA Certification And A Remote Control Catch Our Eyes

Do you want to win a Sony Tablet S of your own? We're giving away two of these tablets along, with a Jambox and $25 gift card for our first-place winner. Special thanks to the TegraZone team for providing the prizes!

Read through our review and, on the last page, follow the link to fill out our entry form on SurveyGizmo. Good luck, Tom's Hardware readers!

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:

Sony Tablet S (Official 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.

Based 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.

2. Meet Sony's Tablet S (SGPT111US/S And SGPT112US/S)

Click to View Picture GalleryClick to View Picture Gallery

The asymmetric thickness of the Tablet S makes it difficult to size up next to the competition. Somewhat deceptively, Sony selectively specifies a single thickness, which of course is the thinnest 0.3" measurement at the lip of the tablet. At the other end of the wedge, you're looking at a 7/8" (0.875") measurement.

Thickness Compared to AA Battery (right) and iPad 2 (bottom)Thickness Compared to AA Battery (right) and iPad 2 (bottom)

As a result of Sony's design decisions, the Tablet S obviously isn't as thin or as attractive as some of the products competing against it. However, it turns out to be incredibly functional. The tablet's wider end is very natural to hold in portrait mode, almost like a real book. Other solutions we've tested are either too thin or afflicted with a sharp edge. Consequently, you end up with a hand cramp after a while. This isn't the case with the Tablet S.

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.

Unlike the competition, however, the Tablet S employs a 9.4" LCD. This makes it more comparable to the iPad 2's 9.7" 4:3 display in that you getting roughly the same horizontal space, but less vertical room to work.

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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?
  3. 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.

The entire tablet is covered in ABS plastic, but the back features a glossy finish with a slight, dotted texture to help with grip. Otherwise, the silver surfaces are completely smooth.

3. Tablet S: The Layout

Left Side: Headphone, microUSB, SD card, SpeakerLeft Side: Headphone, microUSB, SD card, Speaker

On the left side of the tablet, you'll find ports for your headphones and USB devices. Though, if you want to connect an external hard drive or thumb drive with a full-sized USB port, you need a cable that converts microUSB to the standard USB A plug. Without that adapter, the port only serves to enable USB debugging mode in Honeycomb.

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).

  1. Turn on "USB debugging" in Sony Tablet S
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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."

Right Side: Speaker, Volume & Power ButtonsRight Side: Speaker, Volume & Power Buttons

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.

The power adapter is a disappointment. Many competing tablets (A500, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Transformer, and Xoom) employ a power brick that plugs straight into a wall wart. Sony instead uses a power adapter with a built-in extension cable. Though not a big deal if you come back to a docking cradle every night, the power supply is less convenient to pack away for a business trip. Moreover, the dock doesn't even add any additional connectivity to the Tablet S.

BottomBottom

It's difficult to see in the picture below, but the microphone is a pin-sized hole in the center of the back-side. The IR data port is just to the right of it (the left, if you're looking at the picture). And thus, the remote control functionality will only work with the thick end of the tablet pointed away from you. Remember that infrared communication requires line-of-sight.

TopTop

The front-facing camera on the Tablet S is similar to the iPad 2's. But the rear-facing hardware is substantially better. Unfortunately, it's missing a flash, limiting its utility in dimly-lit environments. That's a bummer because Sony's tablet is nearly on-par with other compelling competitors. Acer's Iconia A500 is a good example; the Acer at least gives you a single-LED flash, though.

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
4. Sony's Android Skin: An Aesthetically-Clean Design

Home ScreenHome Screen

Like Samsung, Sony skins its Android-based user interface. It doesn't have a catchy marketing name for it, which we can appreciate, but the overarching theme is plenty of contrast, explaining the transition from a dark home screen to the bright white application background.

App MenuApp Menu

File TransferFile Transfer

FavoritesFavorites

Social FeedsSocial Feeds

5. Tablet S: A Keyboard With A Number Pad

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.

On other tablets, you're forced to precisely tap the screen to drop the cursor into the right place. From experience, this can be frustrating enough that it's easier to simply delete everything you just wrote back to the error and start all over again.

When you're prompted for a password, the keyboard automatically expands to include a number pad, similar to what you see on a full-sized desktop keyboard. Many passwords contain (or should contain) at least one number or special character, almost always forcing us to toggle back and forth between keyboard screens using a function key. The number pad makes this process less painful, and it goes away once you navigate away from the password field.

6. Multimedia Applications

Music Player

Sony's music player is much cleaner than the implementations we've seen on other Android-based tablets, but we especially like the unique cover art view. At first glance, it might seem more cluttered, but once you get use to the arrangement of CD covers, the interface is incredibly easy to use.

Video Player

Most tablets don't come with a native video player. Instead, you're forced to lean on Android's very restrictive Gallery app to play movies, trailers, and video clips. Fortunately, there are plenty of third-party players freely available on Android Market. Some of them are pretty darned good. But the video player app included on the Tablet S is integrated with Sony's DLNA interface, sharing the same bright white background theme.

Sony Tablet S: Music Video Player Tour


Unfortunately, we couldn't screenshot video playing on the tablet due to Sony's protected video path. However, the video tour, provided by Sony, does a decent enough job of covering navigation and functionality.

7. The Universal Remote Control

Sony Tablet S: Remote Control

One of the Tablet S' coolest features is its ability to serve as a universal remote to control your entire home theater. The end result is reminiscent of a Logitech Harmony device with a much cleaner setup process and user interface. 

We managed to get the Tablet S working on multiple TVs, Blu-ray players, and stereo receivers. In a nutshell, so long as you own relatively common brands, you'll likely be able to pull up pre-programmed configurations for your devices. If not, you can still configure the IR signals manually using an existing remote.

8. DLNA (UPnP) And "Throwing" Media

Sony Tablet S: Throw & DLNA (How To)

As mentioned previously, the Tablet S uniquely offers Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support through DLNA. This allows you to direct content from one source to another.

Sony Tablet S: Throwing Videos & Music, DLNA Live Demo


For example, in our demo (above), we stream a Blu-ray rip of Iron Man from a laptop onto the Tablet S. What's really cool is that we can also "throw" the movie from our laptop to a desktop using the tablet. Hence, we see the desktop play the movie in Windows Media Player 12, since it supports the DLNA protocol. This opens up a world of possibilities to HTPC owners (provided you enable DLNA for WMP12). If your TV natively supports DLNA as well, you can also push directly to the TV.

Whether you store all of your videos in one place or across multiple sources, the Tablet S is able to direct the stream from one source to another. This is a fire-and-forget process; once you throw a video, you can go back to browsing or using other apps on the tablet. And the feature isn't specific to video content. You can also throw music and pictures.

To be fair, this capability isn't exclusive to Sony. It's possible to achieve with an iPhone armed with mediaCTRL or an Android-based device using ArkMC. The difference is that the Tablet S is certified to work with all DLNA devices, and its user interface is integrated with the music and video app. We've encountered glitchy behavior in ArkMC, whereas the DLNA app on the Tablet S performs flawlessly.

The Tablet S' interface could still use some work. Ideally, we'd like a single master list for music and videos. This would help circumvent the need to browse for specific content on different media servers.

9. Sony's On-Demand Services: Music Unlimited And Video Unlimited

Music Unlimited

There are two on-demand services for music and video. On-demand music is available from two subscription plans: basic ($3.99 per month) and premium ($9.99 per month). These are comparable to what Rhapsody offers. You get access to six million tracks from Sony Music Entertainment, Universal, EMI, and Warner, and the product is available on Sony's own devices, including the PlayStation 3, its Blu-ray players, Bravia televisions, and Vaio PCs. If you're loyal to Sony, you get one subscription for all of your devices at a reasonable price.

Video Unlimited

Video Unlimited is a pay-as-you-go service. You select the shows you want and buy them outright or rent them. This is functionally equivalent to services like Amazon Video. If you're already a Netflix subscriber, that's completely different because you're already paying a fixed fee per month for video access. Really, the only reason to bother with Video Unlimited is if you're using multiple Sony devices, as its availability is the same as Music Unlimited.

10. PlayStation Store: Unimpressive Tablet Games

PlayStation Store

Sony Tablet S: Gaming Tour

The Tablet S is the first Android-based device certified for the PlayStation Store, giving you access to many original PlayStation games. The interface is familiar to PlayStation users, but the game quality is pretty bad overall.

All of the games in the PlayStation Store cost $5.99. Given those prices, your money is better spend more modern titles like Riptide GP, Galaxy of Fire 2 THD, or Shadowgun.

Crash Bandicoot

Crash BandicootCrash Bandicoot

Crash BandicootCrash Bandicoot

This one is actually a freebie. But although it sparks a bit of nostalgia, its image quality isn't updated to take advantage of Tegra 2's GPU.

Jet Moto 2

None of the games we purchased from the PlayStation Store are even remotely satisfying when it comes to image quality. Truly, we're spoiled.

11. 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.

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 Cache640 KB
1 MB1 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.

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.

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/s35 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.

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.

12. Display Quality: Color Gamut

In our opinion, the Tablet S' viewing angles are excellent; they're at least as good as competing models like Asus' Eee Pad Transformer and Apple's iPad 2. That's to be expected, though, since all three tablets employ IPS technology.

Sony Tablet S: LCD Color Gamut (IPS Panel)

Even though mobile operating systems don't honor ICC color profiles, native color management does occur at the hardware level. When a GPU sends 10 different hues of blue to an LCD only capable of displaying three, the subpixels display the closest matching color. So, in a way, smartphones and tablets behave as if they’re using relative colorimetric rendering. For more information, read Tom's Hardware Benchmarks Inkjet Printer Paper!

Most tablets still deliver less color quality than the cheap TN panels seen on the desktop, which is why the Tablet S' performance falls in as expected. Overall color gamut is extremely close to the Thrive, while the Galaxy Tab 10.1's Super PLS panel still sets the standard when it comes to display quality. There isn't a tablet we've seen able to match it.

These gamut measurements are accompanied by a couple of caveats. First, we disable dynamic brightness because it doesn’t allow us to get an accurate (or reproducible) measurement of the display’s potential. Second, brightness is set to the highest value. If you don't use the same settings, your color gamut is going to look smaller than what we show here.

The tablet's IPS display is near the standard 6500 K. But many of its colors appear slightly washed out due to a relatively low gamma.

Understand that gamma doesn't affect black or white performance, but it does affect midtones. If gamma is set too high, the midtones appear dark. If it's set too low, they're pale. Adobe, Apple, and Microsoft all recommend a gamma of 2.2. It's an arbitrary value carried over from the NTSC standard, but it was originally chosen because it allows colors to appear more natural in slightly dim environments. 

13. Display Quality: Black And White Uniformity
Sony Tablet S
White Luminance cd/m^2
370.7619383.9723376.637
354.5963355.394351.2161
345.1147330.988339.3538
Black Luminance cd/m^2
0.47060.54980.5081
0.50930.51030.4849
0.48150.46440.5202


White luminance is higher on the top edge, and that's an expected result, since we know that's the location of the LED backlight. Black uniformity is a better, though the corners seem unable to achieve deep blacks. The margin of difference is so small that it's not discernible to the naked eye, though.

14. Camera Quality: Shooting Indoors And Outdoors

Camera Quality: Rear-Facing, No Zoom

The rear-facing camera on the Tablet S is probably closest to Asus' Transformer in terms of quality. Both lack a flash, so you need good lighting to achieve nice-looking pictures. Be careful of strong light sources; lens flare can be a major problem.

Camera Quality: Rear-Facing, Max Zoom

The Tablet S yields zoomed-in shots similar in quality  to other tablets equipped with 5.0 MP cameras.

Camera Quality: Rear-Facing, Macro

Macro shots turn out surprisingly well.

Camera Quality: Front-Facing

Poor LightingPoor LightingGood LightingGood Lighting

The Tablet S' real weakness is its low resolution (640x480) 0.3 MP front-facing camera. Nearly other every competing Android-based tablet offers better image quality. Overall the front-facing camera has a hard time compensating for low light. If you plan to use a VoIP app like Skype, make sure you're in a well-lit room first.

15. Benchmark Results: Real-World

Real-World Benchmarks

Early on, we discovered how difficult it is to benchmark tablets.

Apple iPad: Input Lag Benchmark

Benchmarking responsiveness with a camera is the easiest approach. Of course, normal cameras don't cut it, since they only shoot at 29 FPS. That's unacceptable if you're trying to measure precise time differences. Going the stopwatch route is no better, due to human-introduced errors. As a result, we're using a 1000 FPS high-speed camera to measure performance. Since one frame equals one millisecond, it’s possible to measure timing with a high degree of accuracy.

Compared to the competition, Sony's interface enhancements only seem to slow down the time it takes for Android to boot.

Android's Chrome browser definitely seems more bloated than iOS' Safari, which is what we've found time and time again.

Input lag is the time it takes from pressing a key to text appearing on the screen. This tells you how fast a tablet is registering an action. Ideally, you want low input lag so that you don't feel like the tablet is stuttering as you type or click buttons.

16. Battery Life And Recharge Time

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%.

17. Wireless Performance

We've overhauled the evaluation of Wi-Fi performance. For background information, check out page 10 of Acer Iconia Tab A500: A Tablet With Honeycomb 3.1. If you're not sure how throughput, latency, processing time, and response time all tie together, we go over that on page 10 of Apple's iPad 2 Review: Tom's Goes Down The Tablet Rabbit Hole.

Two scenarios are being tested here:

  • Five feet, line-of-sight: The wireless device is set five feet from the router without any obstructions. 
  • 20 feet, no line-of-sight: The wireless device is set 20 feet from the router and there are three drywall obstructions in our testing environment that reflect the possible degradation you might see in an indoor environment.


All devices idle for two minutes before testing in order to prevent power-saving rules in the OS from affecting wireless performance.

The Tablet S' wireless performance is very similar to what the competition offers. However, it's disappointing that we can't connect to 5 GHz networks. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 and original Xoom seem to be the only Android-based tablets with that ability.

18. Sony's Tablet S: The Multimedia Enthusiast's Best Bet

In our view, tablets continue to be a luxury, and the Tablet S is no exception to that rule. Sony, like Samsung, did not see fit to launch with a lower price. Both companies seem determined to match Apple's pricing. As such, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Tablet S are expensive relative to the other Android-based contenders.

Tablet Pricing
8 GB
16 GB
32 GB
64 GB
Apple iPad 2 (Wi-Fi)
-
$499
$599
$699
Apple iPad 2 (AT&T 3G/Verizon 3G)
-
$629
$729
$829
Acer Iconia Tab A500 (Wi-Fi)
-
$399
$499
-
Asus Eee Pad Transformer (Wi-Fi)
-
$399
$469
-
Motorola Xoom (Wi-Fi)-
-
$499-
Motorola Xoom Family Edition (Wi-Fi)-
$379
-
-
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Wi-Fi)
-
$499
$599
-
Sony Tablet S
-
$499
$599
-
Toshiba Thrive (Wi-Fi)
$379
$399
$479
-


We still think that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the closest thing to a clear iPad 2 competitor. Its design is clean and sexy, while its Super PLS display looks great.

As it jumps into the tablet market alongside several other prominent brands, Sony's approach differs. It's not trying to do everything that Apple or Samsung do well. Instead, it's delivering a more media-oriented approach, folding the Tablet S into an existing ecosystem of hardware where it can simply coexist and complement.

In that context, the Tablet S is an attractive device. You get the functionality of a universal remote in a tablet form factor, first off. That can be a $200 value right off the bat. And though the DLNA app isn't exclusive to Sony's tablet, it's guaranteed to work with any DLNA certified TV, Blu-ray player, stereo receiver, speaker set, and so on. A relevant combination of features makes Sony's tablet a cool living room companion.

It's not locked in there, either. Let's say there's someone who isn't interested in what's on TV. Even with the Tablet S operating as the room's control center, that person can still pick it up and surf the Web, too.

Although, at its widest, it's thicker than any other tablet, the Tablet S defies the idea that a daintier design is better. In fact, the product's dimensions especially make it comfortable to hold over longer intervals. If it weren't for the LCD display, we might even say that reading on the Tablet S works better than on a Kindle.

While much can be said about its ergonomics, the Tablet S doesn't fare as well outside of the connected home concept, making it less desirable for traveling. To begin, the form factor isn't as easy to drop into a laptop bag's side pocket. Also, the power adapter is a little less convenient to pack away.

Especially in a more mature market, each tablet is going to lose points in one category as it seeks to differentiate in another one. We're learning that the best tablet for one person won't fit the needs of another, and our hope of finding one tablet that does everything right is waning. To that end, Sony comes up short in some categories where other models excel. When it comes to the multimedia enthusiast, specifically, though, Sony unquestionably sells the best tablet you can buy.

Enter to win a Sony Tablet S of your own. Our grand prize also includes a $25 AMEX gift card and Jambox! Simply read the rules and then fill out our SurveyGizmo contest form.