Hands on: Sony Tablet S review

Hands on: Sony Tablet S review
IFA 2011: 9.4-inch Android Honeycomb tab due September

Sony has officially launched its new Tablet S here at IFA 2011

The new 9.4-inch tab is powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2 processor and features the Android Honeycomb operating system. It's version 3.1 which will be upgradeable to 3.2.

The Sony Tablet S UK release date is September. A Wi-Fi/3G version of the Tablet S has a UK release date of November 2011 - this will ship with Android 3.2 from the off.

You can check out video of all the best Sony products on show at IFA below:

VIDEO

It's clear that the Tablet S is a slick implementation of Honeycomb - there are some rather un-Sony design points as we'll explain, but overall this is is an impressive first stab at a tablet.

We're not saying this is a world-beater - but it might be, given that Sony has competitively priced the Tablet S against the iPad 2 starting at £399.

Sony was keen to talk up the tablet as an entertainment hub, interacting with your Bravia TV as well as being a PlayStation-certified tablet. Content can be shared between the devices (this may or may not be via DLNA), while there's also a built-in universal remote.

The tablet is surprisingly lightweight and clocks in at 598g for the Wi-Fi version. That's lighter than an iPad 2 - by three grams.

* Also check out Sony Tablet S: what you need to know

The most unfortunate element of the Tablet S design is this nasty rubberised flap for USB and SD card access. It's horrid and really takes away from the overall design, which Sony calls asymmetric. The idea is that the screen gently slopes towards you when the tablet is flat.

Clearly the intention has been to hide nasty-looking ports away, but all it has served to do is to make the tablet look cheap.

Other external controls are classically Sony.

The front of the slate is attractive, even if you'd be hard-pushed to immediately distinguish the brand. There's the familiar black bezel that Apple likes to claim as its own, with a front-facing camera.

The screen itself is impressive in terms of colour, but it's extremely hard to tell under show lights, so you'll have to wait for our full Tablet S review to hear our judgement on that. It's a TruBlack display, designed to alleviate glare.

The back is a slightly odd-looking affair which carries on the curved design. Note the rear-facing camera. The square in the bottom right of the black plastic is a PlayStation certified logo.

We also spied the tablet inside this docking cradle. It's a good dock, but expect to be able to buy cheaper peripherals from third parties - we suspect it will be expensive.