Sony Announces the Xperia Z4 Tablet
by Brandon Chester on March 2, 2015 1:01 AM EST
Although much of the focus on Sony's work in the mobile space is on their smartphones, they have been a player in the tablet segment of the market for quite some time. In fact, Sony has been responsible for some of the more unique tablet designs, such as the Sony Tablet P which had two displays and folded much like a Nintendo DS.
When focusing on what we traditionally think of as a tablet, one will see that the flagship device in Sony's lineup has always been their 10.1" tablet offering. These devices are usually named in the same "Xperia Z" format as Sony's flagship smartphones, and although the tablet released last year was the Xperia Z2 Tablet, the release of the Xperia Z3 Compact Tablet late last year means that this year's release moves ahead to Z4. The Xperia Z4 tablet is Sony's flagship tablet, and the first of 2015's high end Android tablets. To give an overview of the Z4 Tablet on paper, I've laid out its core specifications below.
| Sony Xperia Tablet Z2 | Sony Xperia Tablet Z4 | |
| SoC | 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801 (APQ8074AB) with 4 x Krait 400 + Adreno 330 | Snapdragon 810 with 4 x Cortex-A57 at 2.0GHz and 4 x Cortex-A53 at 1.6GHz + Adreno 430 |
| RAM/NAND | 3GB LPDDR3 + 16/32GB NAND + MicroSD | 3 GB LPDDR4 + 32GB NAND + MicroSD (SDXC) |
| Display | 10.1" 1920x1200 LCD | 10.1" 2560x1600 LCD |
| Network | WiFi only or 2G / 3G / 4G LTE SKU | WiFi only or 2G / 3G / 4G LTE SKU |
| Dimensions | 266 x 172 x 6.4 mm, 426g | 254 x 167 x 6.1mm thick, 389g WiFi, 393g LTE |
| Camera | 13MP Rear Facing with F/2.0 aperture and OIS, 2MP FFC 4K video recording |
8MP Rear Facing, 5MP Front Facing |
| Battery | 6000 mAh (22.8 Whr) | 6000 mAh (22.8 Whr) |
| OS | Android 4.4.2 KitKat | Android 5.0 Lollipop |
| Connectivity | 2x2 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, MHL, NFC | WiFi + BT 4.1, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, ?, NFC |
Inside the Xperia Z4 Tablet we have Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 SoC, which has four Cortex-A57 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores running at 2.0GHz and 1.6GHz respectively, along with Qualcomm's new Adreno 430 GPU. The internal battery remains the same capacity as the Z2 Tablet at 6000mAh (22.8Wh), but the tablet has been slimmed down to 6.1mm which puts it on par with Apple's iPad Air 2.
Moving to the outside of the tablet, we see that Sony has placed an 8MP camera on the rear, and a 5.1MP camera on the front. The front of the device is also home to the 10.1" 2560x1600 LCD display. Like many of Sony's recent devices, the Z4 Tablet is both dust and water resistant. It has an IP68 rating for which Sony specifies an immersion depth of up to 1.5 meters for up to thirty minutes, which goes a bit beyond the typical 1 meter for 30 minutes IP67 rating on many other mobile devices
According to Sony, the Xperia Z4 Tablet will be launching globally in June. It will come in both WiFi and LTE variants, with pricing yet to be revealed.
Source: Sony
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JoshHo - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Apologies, we did not receive a spec sheet until after launch. The article has been updated.keitaro - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Thinner than the previous generation? No. Just no. I still say the final frontier and key feature should be battery capacity. The Nexus 9 houses 6700mAh battery and this one 6000. And no SD card expansion? That's also a downer. And here I was hoping that this may be the tablet that could replace my now-dead Nexus 7 2013.wintermute000 - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
I agree, I have a Z2 Tablet and its thin / light enough. I would also have rather they bumped the battery size than shave another few mm or grams. Make it HEAVIER/THICKER for all I care lol if it means awesome battery life.phoenix_rizzen - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Article has been updated with correct spec list, which include microSD slot.ET - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Never thought I would say it, but it's possible that one day I'll end up with a 10" tablet. I though that my 7" Nexus 7 2012 was great, but my current 8.4" is under 300g and is comfortable to hold while giving me a much better reading screen. Seeing that 10" is dropping below 400g makes me think that I might actually give this form factor a look next time I want to buy a tablet (which will be more than a year from now).Lolimaster - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
So its know a shi*tty 16:9 for a tablet. 16:10 or FAILNo SD card support. FAIL
GJ Sony, now you have another excuse to leave the mobile market. An they really got phd's on their company, people earning tens of thousands? Is this really a company or some kind of gang ruled by a chimp?
kyuu - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
There is SD card support.phoenix_rizzen - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Article has been updated with the correct spec list, which includes MicroSD support, and the correct screen resolution (2560x1600 aka 16:10 aspect ratio).jjj - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
If it was 300$ i would wonder why the year 2010 bezels but it's Sony so it's won't be reasonably priced.Wish they would just give up or get a board member that lives on this planet not in their imaginary world where Sony still has the reputation they had 20 years ago.
wintermute000 - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Having used a multitude of droid tablets of varying sizes/quality and wife has always had ipads, I reckon that bezels are important on a tablet as you need something to grip. The Z2 tablet is almost perfect for me, just wish android slates were 4:3 not 16:9 (and no N9 was not out when I bought my Z2 tab, and I still prefer Z2 overall due to build and SD card).Sony's mobile products of late (since the OG Xperia Z phone basically) have been top notch quality, and their software doesn't approach touchwiz/sense levels of re-skinning - in fact its pretty darned close to stock. And they all have SD card support. But as you note, shame about the price, people aren't going to pay Apple prices.