Sony Tablet S

[miffed]

I've noticed these knocking around for �300 or thereabouts, while I never took much notice before and lumped them in with every other Android tab, I actually stumbled across a review and noticed a few features that I found interesting.
First things first, the ergonomic design - When I first saw on of these I thought the wedge shape was a fashion statement, but in the review it was explained that this was done purposely to shift the centre of gravity to one point - thus removing any kind of "torque" in your hands and making the thing more comfortable in you hands (or hand) - makes perfect sense !
Then there is the Universal Remote feature - the S is equipped with an IR port, so it can be used as a fully configurable Universal Remote for all your Appliances - Now that is a bloody good,innovative idea for a tablet , hats off to Sony on that one IMO - all too often manufacturers cram technology into these devices without really giving a second thought to how, or even if at all it will be useful ! So its great to see Sony put an extra bit in in such swell thought out and obviously useful manner.

Also, although I'm no real gamer ... I did like the fact I could play PSX games on the Xperia play without having to mess around with Emulators etc , only a tiny thing , but like the fact the S does this out of the box too , and my son will like it too.

Anyone got any thoughts or experience on Sony Tabs ?

[Ben]

Mhm, I remember playing with one while I was wondering around a shop in Belgium... I was entirely underwhelmed to be honest, but then I am with Android tablets in their entirety to be fair. You might love it!

[Sajjad Rahman]

No experience on Sony Tabs.

[Hands0n]

I have a fairly healthy mistrust of all things Sony these days. To me they've gone from champ to chump in many ways like dear old Nokia have.

Android tablets have to be running ICS to be anywhere near as capable as iOS. But even then, they leave iOS streets ahead in terms of the overall supporting ecosystem and capability. My own observation is that ICS remains buggy on tablets - the ASUS experience seems to be repeated elsewhere if the forums and Twitter are to be taken into account. Its all a bit of a damp squib, although I do hold out hope that Google, with their latest cloud developments around apps and storage, begin to make up some of the ground that they badly need to gain.

[gorilla]

I played with the S in store and found it heavy in the hands, although it did feel well constructed. For £300 I'd say you'd be mad to buy one over an iPad 2. I'm more bullish on ICS (in general) than Hands0n but I'm not sure what the story is on getting the S upgraded or rooting. I'd find the S more compelling if it was less than £200.