Sony announced the Xperia Tablet Z a little over a month ago but this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) is where they are showing it off.
Calling it the “world’s thinnest 10.1-inch tablet”, a claim that Sony is able to back up as the device is only 6.9mm thick, the Xperia Tablet Z will also be dustproof and, apparently, waterproof to a depth of a metre for up to 30 minutes.
The specifications for the device haven’t deviated significantly from the original announcement. The Xperia Tablet Z will be hosting a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, 2GB of RAM and a choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. This can be expanded further by up to an extra 64GB via microSD.
The 10.1″ 1,920 x 1,200 display which will feature Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine 2, 8 megapixel Exmor R rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera are all present and accounted for but Ars Technica reports that there will not be a 4G LTE version of the tablet just yet.
What it will feature is an IR blaster that will work with a Sony app called TV SideView that will allow users to browse television content and actually use the tablet as a remote. Whether such a feature would see use locally if the Xperia Tablet Z were to launch here is unlikely but chances are that some intrepid Android programmer can design a slighty more simplistic universal remote app instead.
The pricing for the 16GB version of the tablet has been placed at $499 (R4,400) and the 32GB version at $599 (R5,300) but the launch date and availability have not been confirmed yet.
Source: Ars Technica