Sony revealed before the Mobile World Congress what could be its last tablet, if the company's handsets continue to under-perform and it decides to sell off the division. The newly unveiled Xperia Z4 tablet appears to make a strong case for Sony sticking with mobile devices, as early impression of the 10.1-inch tablet are warm.
In revealing his company's slimming efforts, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai recently acknowledged that the sell of Sony's mobile devices and TV business are on the table. If the situation is right, Sony will consider selling, he stated.
The Xperia Z4 may make Sony's mobile devices division an even more attractive buy to potential suitors. But the Z4 tablet seemed to have been designed to cut into the iPad's stake in the market.
Form Factor
Sony shaved about 392 g off of the Xperia Z4's weight, which brings the tablet to 6.1 mm thick and 0.3 mm thinner than its predecessor. While its thickness ties with that of the iPad Air 2, the Xperia Z4 is about 45 g lighter.
While praising the Xperia Z4's lightweight build, Digital Trends' Simon Hill says that the tablet almost feels too light.
"I wouldn't like to try, but it feels as though you could bend it in half if you took the notion," he states.
Power and Processing
The Z4 is driven by an octo-core, 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and fueled by a 6000 mAh battery that Sony says can serve up 17 hours of video playback. While that claim about the Z4's battery life will take some time to check, Gizbot's Anuj Bhatia was impressed with the tablet's responsiveness.
"All-in-all, there's a lot here to be impressed by. The device felt crazy fast in our testing, which makes it one of the fastest tablets you can buy right now in the market," states Bhatia.
Camera and Display
As revealed in the leaks and suggested in the teases leading up to the officialshowing, the Z4 has enjoyed a buff in resolution and brightness. The tablet has a resolution of 2560px by 1600px and 500 cd/m2.
The Z4's 2K resolution puts it well ahead of its predecessor's 1920px by 1200px output. Its pixel density of 299 also puts its ahead of the iPad Air 2's 264 ppi.
Apparently, not looking to impress too much in the photo and video department, the Z4 features an 8.1 MP Exmor RS camera on its rear and a 5.1 MP chat cam on its face.
Software
Sony didn't do much to Android 5.0 Lollipop that is baked into the Z4 tablet, offering only its customary collection of pre-loaded apps and a tweak to the notifications menu. Essentially, it runs on a vanilla version of Lollipop that has a few Sony sprinkles on top.
