If it wasn’t for Sony’s huge booth at MWC 2015, you could almost be forgiven for thinking they weren’t here at all. But, they did announce a couple of new products, and arguably the most interesting of those is the Xperia Z4 Tablet.
The first thing I noticed after picking up the Xperia Z4 Tablet was how ridiculously light it is. It weighs just 392 grams (under 14 ounces). Compared to the iPad Air 2, it’s exactly the same thickness at 6.1mm, but is wider and longer despite being considerably lighter than Apple’s tablet. That’s mostly thanks to using plastic as the primary material on the back.
Like many other Xperia products, the Z4 Tablet is water and dust-proof and carries an IP68 certification, meaning it should stay alive after 30 minutes in water up to 1.5 meters deep. And that’s despite the fact that its USB port and 3.5mm jack are completely exposed.
The back of the Xperia Z4 Tablet is devoid of distraction. All that's there is an 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting 1080p video.
From a design perspective, it’s clear Sony prioritized landscape use when planning where logos and components go. The Sony brand name on the front only looks good one way and the camera is in the center. You’ll find the power button and volume rocker on the same edge — as you’d expect — on the left, if you’re holding it with the 5.1-megapixel front facing camera at the top. It almost feels wrong holding it in portrait. The buttons, logo and camera are in the wrong place if you do.
With a resolution of 2560x1600 pixels, the 10.1-inch IPS LCD display boasts a pixel density of 299ppi. But it is surrounded by some thick-looking bezels.
Saying that, the Xperia Z4 Tablet is equipped some great specs. It has an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB RAM and 32GB of built-in storage with the ability to expand up to an extra 128GB with a microSD card. Keeping it going all day is a 6000mAh battery, and there's also LTE to keep you connected if you leave a Wi-Fi network. It also has stereo speakers for audio.
All in all, it looks like the Xperia Z4 Tablet could be fantastic. It runs Android 5.0 without a sweat and it’s fast and fluid. Add that to the awesome lightness and thinness, and you have an incredibly powerful and nimble full-sized Android tablet.
It’ll be out in June, so be sure to keep an eye out for when it hits the market.