When Sony makes the company a new product, trying to capture the aura of uniqueness and surprise for the hardware, plastics, and advertising. This is what happened to the movie from Sony, which is not part of the sell-branding, "VAIO", but the brand "Sony".
If "Vaio" refers to laptops, "Bravia" TV and "PlayStation" for game consoles, why not "Tabea" or "Bronko" for the new category of Tablet PC? Marketing as "Sony Tablet" could be considered the high range that Japan attaches to the tablets.
However, it is likely that the reputation of the trademark "Sony" is that it shines directly on the tablet. Later, when sales figures bear fruit pills and products vary (screen sizes, scopes, etc), a brand could be created.
Sony is wise to enter the market well tablet. The early adopters among our customers, with the exception of those already fans iPad has a buffer Optimus, a Xoom Motorola or Samsung Galaxy. IPad these alternatives are available from autumn 2010.
Sony S-Series now encounter a compressed mature market divided between Android and Apple iOS. WebOS market has disappeared in the meantime. A prime example that reinforced the decision of Sony Android (by 3.1). Sony has developed its own tablet OS so late in the day, he would quickly put the series on the S key.
We would like to introduce the Tablet Sony S and its hardware and software, and answer the question: 'just another tablet Android or an alternative to "established" tablets.
Specifications Sony S1 SGP-T111DE/S :
- Processor : NVIDIA Tegra 250 1 GHz
- Memory : 1024 MB,
- Graphics adapter : unknown
- Display : 9.4 inch 16:10, 1280x800 pixel, LP094WX1 SL A1, capacitive multi-touchscreen, glossy: yes
- Harddisk : 16GB SSD, 16GB
- Connections : 1 USB 2.0, 1 Infrared, Audio Connections: line out, Card Reader: SD full size: SD, SDHC,
- Networking : 802.11 b/g/n (bgn), 2.1+EDR Bluetooth
- Optical drive : -
- Size : height x width x depth (in mm): 10.1 x 241.2 x 174.3
- Weight : 0.591 kg Power Supply: 0.139 kg
- Battery : 18.5 Wh Lithium-Ion, 3.7V 5000mAh SGPBP02
- Price : 479 Euro
- Operating System : Android 3.0
- Additional features : Webcam: 5.0 Megapixel Rückseite, 0.3 Megapixel Vorderseite, 30 watt power adapter, wrist strap, Crash Bandicoot, Pinball Heroes, 24 Months Warranty
We have to admit: the search for Sony for a single tablet has been helpful. It certainly was not easy to plant the size of the tablets bore, 9.4-inch here, a new way. The chassis was inspired by a folded the magazine. The asymmetrical shape, jam a gap between your fingers and offers plenty of room for different and varied as the positions remain. The image is tilted position.
The Sony S is made of plastic, but is very stable and firm. The battery is composed, as usual, but not soldiers. We could not resist and remove many screws to remove the battery cover. The first and most important step is to remove the two screws under the feet together.
On the way to the battery, we realized the plastic case that offers good resistance to twisting structure stable as a sub-screen in combination with the mounting plate (relatively heavy). We do not recommend taking the device apart. The battery is the only party that can be exchanged.
591 grams of S Sony is not particularly light compared to other tablets. IPad 2 (9.7-inch, 601 grams) is almost as heavy, but lighter power supply (95 grams or 139 grams). Optimus Pad LG V900 (8.9-inch, 623 grams), weighs a little 'more. Galaxy Tab 10.1v (10.1-inch, 574 / 65 grams) weighs a little 'less and is very lightweight power source.
In general, we found the tablet easier to hold. 9.4-inch device is very comfortable to hold, because the holes on the sides. It gives your fingers a piece of non-adherence anywhere. The positive side points resists fingerprints very quiet, unlike the glossy screen surface, which - as unfortunately common for tablets - a sea of tracks to accumulate fat. The power button is easy to find and the adjacent volume controls need a little practice.
Connectivity
"Gates only ruining the show," Sony's designers seem to believe. For this reason, only the analog headphone / microphone combo port (headphones) are visible. Micro USB and an SD card reader are hidden behind the cover-extracts. The SIM card slot for a 3G version is scheduled for launch in November is also hidden here.
Card Reader SD format (32x24x2.1 mm) is the highlight, because most of the tablets only microSD (11x15x1 mm, for example, Xoom Motorola, HTC Flyer 7 ") or a card reader is not at all ( IPAD 2, Galaxy Tab 10.1v, V900 LG Optimus pad).
Sounds good. Now the 16/32 GB internal memory (versions) can be improved with an additional capacity of 32 GB (SDHC compatible, Go 64 SDXC not!). Then just copy movies and music on it and the media player is ready to use on the road. But it is not easy, because media files can be played directly from SD card.
The files must first be copied to internal memory. The memory capacity is too small for a lot of movies in high definition and the user has to delete. At home, the application "VLC live" addresses this issue and video clips directly on the Tablet PC.
The four foot 30-watt power supply is connected to Sony's S through the connector. The link shows a little 'difficult (hard to find without looking). Magnetic solution without the two pins had to be really useful.
Communications
Sony PSC T111DE S1 / S review (from 479 €) is only equipped with a Draft N wireless and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. 3 G version of Wi-Fi (€ 599) includes a UMTS / HSDPA modem for mobile Internet access. Both versions are the A-GPS (assisted GPS), which uses a wireless communication network, in addition to the satellite (subject to interference, especially indoors) localization.
Sony built-in camera and out. Resolution of the anterior chamber is very low (0.3 MP, 640x480), but turn the camera on the back is very high (5 MP, to 2592x1944, 4:3). Users can choose between 4:3 and 16:9 in the web camera application and use of an optical zoom up to 8x. The following figures show the results of artificial light. Exmor image sensor is to ensure great pictures in low light.
The S1 tablet can be used as a universal infrared remote control. The sensor is invisible on the black top of the device. According to Sony, the remote is also compatible with products from third parties adapting to the world of Sony.
With regard to media consumption could DLNA option could be important. This standard is to ensure that the tablet can play movies from a NAS DLNA or camcorder via DLNA media around. However, users should not expect that each file format can be read from any DLNA device. For example, the standard does not support WMV9, H.264 and MP3.
Software
S1 is a "certificate for the PlayStation." This does not mean that S1 can be used as a control. It just means that there are a number of PlayStation One games, such as Crash Bandicoot or Heroes Pinball (pre-installed), which may be enough to play the game controller.
Sony has installed the Android 3.1 Honeycomb. This is a free operating system specifically optimized for the requirements of tablets. It can be upgraded to version 3.2 (IFA Convention unit 3.2). Pre-installed software includes an email client (and other Google mail), personal space (content sharing), Reader Store (books), social or feed reader Zinio (the client in the newspapers). Other applications for download on the App Store (Android Market).
Supplies
No option apart from the power adapter, cleaning cloth and wrist strap.
Guarantee
Sony released 12 months manufacturer's warranty. But the box label. As many of Vaio notebooks, which extends to 24 months warranty included. The device must be registered online within 90 days from date of purchase to use this.
Input Devices
Keyboard
The Sony S1 is operated solely on the touch screen of 9.4 inches. Besides the volume control and power, no hardware buttons on the device. As is typical for Android, the three icons at the bottom left, which often causes back, menu and task manager. The fourth icon is faded and then there are options available for applications.
When entering text (for example, by typing an address in the browser), a virtual QWERTY keyboard will automatically decrease the keyboard for almost half of the screen visible. Other signs and German umlauts can be selected via a key. Typing is as typical for Android, very smooth (no delay). But it is getting used to when writing longer texts, because there is no pressure point. The machine vibrates slightly to confirm entries.
If a tablet with a true "integration" is the preferred keyboard, the Asus Eee or Acer Iconia Tab cursor pad Keydock W500 might be useful to take a look. "Lazy" typists use voice input to select web addresses or short phrases came anyway. When the keyboard is faded into a microphone icon is available for this purpose (upper right). Even more Internet addresses has been entered correctly on the test.
Sensors
As in almost all platforms, there are a number of sensors that are used by applications or operating system. The motion sensor detects the position of the tablets in three directions. Games can be used to control the cars and characters of the game.
The operating system used to determine the position of the content displayed. A light sensor in the camera to determine the ambient light and adjusts the screen brightness automatically (can be disabled).
Display
Sony uses a contrast of the display rich IPS (In Plane Switching) with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. The manufacturer boasts "TruBlack" and "Bravia Engine" on the site of the product. A guarantee of good contrast and brightness? We measured and determined an average of extremely intense luminance 334 cd/m2. The rich, deep blacks and vibrant colors of our images are already showing signs of good contrast. The contrast is also very good about 879:1.
The Sony S1 is at a good level of these two types in a comparison. The brightness is lower than in the iPad2 (368), LG V900 (381), but better than W500 Iconia tab (306), Galaxy Tab 10.1 (305) and Motorola Xoom (304). The contrast is almost equal to the IPAD 2 (843:1), LG V900 (778:1), Tab Iconia W500 (881:1) and Galaxy Tab 10.1v (805). Just Xoom Motorola (1491:1) made a significant leap forward in terms of contrast.
Brightness is adequate enough to see on the screen, both inside and outside. Reflecting surface, which spoke of a wheel, though. More or less intense reflections generated in the light of the sun. All tablets are a consumer in this negative trait, without exception.
As is typical IPS screen, viewing angles are good to very good in all positions. But this is nothing special in the world of high-end tablet. Side views from all directions, without color distortion are also possible with the iPad2, LG V900, Motorola Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Xoom.
Only Acer Iconia Tab W500 is a small exception. These viewing angles of first order are not comparable with the laptop as the viewing angle and color are particularly low consumption TN built in 95% of the time. One of the few exceptions is Lenovo Thinkpad X220 with IPS screen.
Performance
Meanwhile, most tablets of brand A, are equipped with two Nvidia Tegra (1 GHz). Its compact design and performance to enjoy great popularity. We find the A100/A500 Tab Tegra Iconia Acer, Asus Eee Cursor Pad / transformer, the streak of seven Tab Dell, LG Optimus Pad V900, Motorola Xoom, Toshiba AC100-10V, and Galaxy 10. The Apple iPhone 2 A5 (0.9 GHz) is an exception.
Nvidia Tegra 2 is a "system on a chip" (SoC). That means dual-core Cortex A9, the CPU, the GeForce (Ultra-low performance), RAM and sound card are combined together in death.
The two Tegra has a maximum speed of the system clock of 1000 MHz. This clock remains at this level of stress-induced or 720p video games. The highest rate clock lasted only 1:30 hours in our test case (16 hours) with a lot of idling, Web browser, CPU / GPU benchmarks, and some waiting (4 hours of deep sleep ). The clock was below 216 MHz (09:30 hours). The Tegra 250 used high clock frequencies of 760, 608 and 456 MHz is very rare. The advantage of the clock variable is that it saves energy and thus extend the battery life in laptops.
Sony S1 reached a good position in Google V8 benchmark (JavaScript, the speed of web browser). LG and Motorola V900 Optimus Xoom is slightly faster. Linpack Pro (floating point operations per second) only consider the CPU speed. Most systems Tegra 2 is online here, and S1 is no exception. Just Galaxy Tab 10.1 broke a rate significantly higher here.
Our S1 suddenly behind all Tegra 2 and other platforms in the reference quadrant (CPU, GPU test). We can not explain this decrease because the hardware is the same. S1 and the productivity index are playing at a high level Smartbench 2011 (CPU, GPU test). However, Sony can not reach the level of Xoom Motorola really good game.
In return, the result is very good Browsermark (JavaScript / HTML capabilities of smartphones). His 89,600 points are very close to the best scores Optimus LG V900, Xoom and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The SunSpider test (JavaScript only) ends up with the Optimus LG V900, Xoom, and A100 Iconia Galaxy Tab 10.1 with about 2,100 points. The S1 slight advantage from 80 to 140 points is only marginal on this scale. Benchmarks Sony tablet proves a good performance expected Tegra 250, combined with the Android 3.1.
Gaming Apps
The label "certified PlayStation" sounds like a heavyweight entertainer. But before that there is and there will be a number (base charge) PS1 games can be played perfectly on the virtual controller. Crash Banicoot Pinball Heroes is preinstalled and as aperitifs.
However, it is not necessary to play the games of the old saw that "Tegra Zone" is a fairly wide range of games for the Android system interval (fee-based/free). Nvidia graphics card strong enough mini-installed with the Tegra 250 chips.
Process 8 cores (4 pixels, 4 vertex shaders). For comparison: the new entry-level gaming GPU, like the 540 GT, it has 96 unified shaders. The only exception is the film based on the AMD Fusion for Windows Iconia W500 Acer system with the Radeon HD 6250 (80 shaders), which is actively cooled.
We tried the following games and consider them all to be playable smoothly. The games are not always fit the screen size of the tablet. While air strikes and HD Lane Splitter only be played in widescreen mode the picture.
The tablet could not change the alignment of the image in the game either. The reason: Currently, many games are still optimized for smartphones. As in the past, PC games to be the first tried in the demo version to verify their functionality before purchasing.
Emissions
System noise
Since Sony is not a fan of the film, it is absolutely quiet. Each tablet of this forum was able to work without the fan until the Tegra 250 is due to a TDP of just one watt. The exceptions are compressed Windows, such as Acer Iconia W500, which operate the netbook platform.
Temperature
The overheating of internal components spread over the area of the touch screen on the top left and bottom cover on the bottom. Thus, the screen becomes warm during normal use. The temperature rise selectively to almost 40 degrees (104F) when filled with 720p and benchmarks.
It 'a movie very hot, especially if we look at the diagram, "blue" thermal Motorola Xoom (the load of more than ~ 25 ° C/77F), Galaxy Tab 10.1 (against more than ~ 26 ° C/79F) and Acer Iconia Tab W500 (load more than ~ 28 ° C/82F). Only the LG V900 is similar to high temperatures.
However, the user will not notice much of the residual heat when holding the tablet in the shape of the box. The toes are well protected from the hot zone of the holes on the sides.
Speakers
Two stereo speakers are responsible for audio output. Are in the box on the right and left, and emit their sounds small, visible breaking. Because these small openings are recessed sides, the hand is not covering them. The volume is adequate, but the sound is a midrange-heavy. So, headphones would be recommended for music lovers. Headphones or a headset can be connected to a combo.
Since Sony is not a fan of the film, it is absolutely quiet. Each tablet of this forum was able to work without the fan until the Tegra 250 is due to a TDP of just one watt. The exceptions are compressed Windows, such as Acer Iconia W500, which operate the netbook platform.
Battery life
We measure the energy of the Sony S1 with a voltmeter that is connected to the rack adapter 30 watts. The battery charges fully in all measurements. S1 needs 3.1 to 6 watts at idle. This is a broad enough range that is very close to the power load of 6.3 watts. This is a typical value of a two Tegra: LG V900 (7.0 W), Galaxy Tab 10.1 (8.2w), Motorola Xoom (6.3 W).
Striking and relevant for practical use is the relatively high standby consumption of 1.6 watts. On the other hand, Motorola Xoom (0.1W) very economical. Consumption of a Galaxy Tab 10.1 (0.6 W) and an LG V900 (0.15 W) is still reasonable. The result of this "leak" was under the battery capacity has dropped from 75 to 69% within seven hours of sleep.
A 18.5 Wh Lithium-ion is responsible for the battery life of up to just under seven hours. This ability is very low compared to other tablets: iPad2 (25 Wh), Acer Iconia Loss (35 Wh), Motorola Xoom (24.5 Wh). It has provided the battery seems low in comparison.
S1 administers 5:30 pm in the mixed test (WLAN test) with an average brightness. This test is a mixture of site navigation and watch videos. Galaxy Lose 10.1v (9:35), leaving all others far behind in this test. LG V900 (7:15) iPad2 (7:30) Xoom and Motorola (7:26) also last longer.
S1 turns out to be a little more efficient when playing a video (DVD) test. 6:28 hours is possible when the wireless module is disabled. The stress test consisted of a loop video (720p), a large number of games opened, and the maximum brightness in the case of S1. Sony tablet is removed after hours of 3:52.
Verdict
With S1, the Sony is a tablet that can remain in the range of the best restaurants in the Android Market. Multitasking with Tegra 2 is a fast and stable, even dozens of open applications. A honeycomb multi-touch is fun to use, and the Android Market, respectively Tegra Zone offers a (growing) load applications and games.
S1 and meets the expectations we place on the Tablet PC based on Android - and is capable of more. The color and viewing angle powerful IPS screen is very bright. The display is only characterized by reflections in the sun. Mobility slightly lower low, but a shortage in terms of battery life. 5:30 hours is a long time for laptops, but a good tablet should last almost 10 hours until 7:30 (WLAN test). Competition makes this possible.
The total size of SD card reader seems worthwhile (not Micro!). Unfortunately, the benefit of an additional 32 GB memory is less because the videos and music can not be played directly from SD. These files must be copied first to the small internal memory (16 GB).
Finally, the price of € 479 for Sony S Tablet WiFi (16 GB). It is very competitive, as the opponents of the request about the same. Motorola Xoom is available to start at € 450, as second iPad Galaxy Tab 10.1, not currently available in German retail sales due to the pursuit of Apple, were available for 450 €. Even Eee Cursor Pad with built-in keyboard is available to start at € 499.
If the optimal battery life is not a problem, the buyer is wise with the Sony S-tablet. The customer can get Android feel other manufacturers, but no cases have such a unique shape.