Sony Xperia Tablet Z Review

We’d warn you not to mistake the Sony Xperia Tablet Z for just another Android tablet, but set eyes on it, and you'll see there’s little danger of that. This model is unique among its full-size Android kin, with a slim, light design that blows away weight and thinness records for the screen size, a brilliant display, and water and dust resistance, too. With the Xperia Tablet Z$436.99 at Amazon, Sony returns to its design and innovation roots in a big way. Each of this slate’s distinguishing features tangibly enhance where and how you can use this tablet.

That said, innovation seldom comes cheap. The Xperia Tablet Z starts at $499.99 for a 16GB model, and you’ll have to pony up another $100 to boost the internal storage to 32GB. Those prices are in line with what Apple charges for its same-capacity Retina display-equipped iPads, but it also feels a bit steep considering that the Google Nexus 10$372.21 at Amazon starts at $399 for the same capacity, and 7-to-8-inch Android tablets now start at about $150 (and, in a few cases, even a smidge less).

That said, with the Xperia Tablet Z, it's evident from the start that the premium you're paying has gone straight into this tablet's design and components. A wildly thin, lightweight, and waterproof chassis and a gorgeous display immediately distinguish this tablet from the Android pack.

When the Xperia Tablet Z was first announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this past February, it became the thinnest and lightest 10-inch-class tablet to date. Upon its release, the Xperia Tablet Z still maintained that crown. You can only tell it’s more than a quarter-inch thick with a micrometer, and at 1.1 pounds, it's the lightest tablet with a 10-inch-class display. That makes it about a tenth of a pound lighter than the previous lightweight champ, the Toshiba Excite 10 LE$505.00 at Amazon.

The real surprise to us, though, was that Sony managed to work water resistance into a design this slim, seeing as most water- and dust-proof tech tends to have a bit of bulk. If you’re planning to hit the pool with the Xperia Tablet Z in hand, there’s no need to fear; Sony maintains that its tablet meets the IP55 and IP57 standards. That means you can submerge it in up to three feet in water, for up to 30 minutes, and not worry that you’ll end up with the world’s priciest glass serving platter.

On the inside, the Xperia Tablet Z stands alone in a different way, at least for the moment. This is the first tablet we've tested that's equipped with Qualcomm's 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. Paired with 2GB of RAM, the chip helped propel the slate to strong performance in our benchmark tests.

If you're in the market for a 10-inch Android tablet today, the Xperia Tablet Z is one of the best you can buy, and it boasts a dual distinction. For the cost of entry, you get a unique set of features—and, they're compressed into an impressively lightweight design that we'd laud even if this were a more ordinary tablet.

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX (7-Inch) Review.....

Since the launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets in 2011, Android and Apple purists may have been excused for dismissing them with some condescension. After all, the Kindle Fires had weaker features and (due to their reliance on Amazon.com for access to Android apps) a much smaller selection of apps than Apple's App Store or the Google Play store. Granted, the prices of the Fire tablets were competitive, but there was something limiting about them: fine tablet tech geared a bit too much toward selling content inside the gates of Amazon. (Any fair-thinking outsider will point out that Google and Apple take the same approach, in their own ways, but the impression was stronger with the Kindle Fires.)

Now, in the fall of 2013, the Kindle Fire HD line of 2012 has morphed into the HDX—“Beyond HD,” as it says on the box. The two HDX models, with 7-inch and 8.9-inch screens, have the screen resolution, processing speed, and competitive pricing to go toe-to-toe with Google’s 2013 Nexus 7$225.00 at Amazon and Apple’s 2013 iPad Mini with Retina Display. Granted, the Amazon Appstore is about one-tenth the size of Google Play or the Apple App Store (at about 100,000 apps) but the convenience and breadth of Amazon’s content and service ecosystem should satisfy most consumers.

In this review, we're tackling the 7-inch, Wi-Fi-only version of the Kindle Fire HDX, which was released in October 2013. (Expect a review of the 8.9-incher to follow shortly after.) The 7-inch model has a gorgeous 1,920x1,200-pixel (323ppi) display resolution, a Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor (running at 2.26GHz), and 2GB of memory—base specs that stack up handily next to the 2013 Google Nexus 7, which has been our favorite compact tablet since midyear. Amazon says the Kindle Fire HDX’s graphics processing is four times better than the 2012 Kindle Fire HD's, and the computing performance three times better. And we believe it. In our tests and our anecdotal use, this tablet runs and feels like it takes no prisoners.

The Wi-Fi version of the Kindle Fire HDX also matches the Google Nexus 7 on price. Both come in at $229 (for a version with 16GB of onboard storage) and $269 (for the 32GB version). For buyers who want the most possible local storage, Amazon also offers a 64GB Wi-Fi model, at $309.

That said, you'll see competition on the high end and the low end for this slate. While the cheapest iPad Mini with Retina Display isn't really close in price (the $399 16GB/Wi-Fi model, costing $160 more), you can find some decent Android competitors for $75 to $80 less, such as the Hisense Sero 7 Pro and the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7$149.00 at Amazon, albeit both with much lower-res screens. With the Kindle Fire HDX, though, some users will find the base $229/$269/$309 prices artificially low. That's because you'll need to add $15 to each to remove Amazon's “Special Offers” (i.e., ads) from the Kindle Fire HDX's lock screen. The ads will bother some buyers; others won't care. Know, though, that the Kindle Fire devices are engineered to push Amazon's commerce, and that a mere $15 won’t make the Kindle Fire HDX wholly noncommercial. Whether you pay the extra or not, make no mistake: The Kindle Fires are tablets designed to leverage Amazon's content ecosystem.

For those who will frequently need Internet (or Amazon download) access outside of Wi-Fi zones, Amazon also offers versions of the Kindle Fire HDX with 4G LTE from AT&T or Verizon. At $329 (16GB), $369 (32GB), or $409 (64GB), you'll be adding $100 at each capacity level, and again, tacking on $15 atop those prices if you want to kill the lock-screen ads.

Compared to the 7-inch HDX, the 8.9-inch version of the HDX costs $150 more at each memory and connectivity configuration. Meanwhile, Amazon continues to sell last year's models, too: The 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX’s older brother, the 2012 7-inch Kindle Fire HD, has a dual-core processor and no camera, and starts at $139. One of our favorites from 2012, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch, was on sale for $229 when we wrote this in late November 2013, the same price as the 2013 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX. While it sports only a dual-core processor, has a lower pixel density, and weighs twice as much as the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX, it may tempt those desiring the extra screen size for watching movies. Plus, that screen is a 1,920x1,200 panel. Movie buffs may have mixed feelings about watching blockbusters like The Hobbitand Skyfall on any such screen—7-inch or 8.9-inch—but having true high-def movies on a tablet can be a godsend for frequent travelers or buyers with long, sedentary commutes.

Back to the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX, though. Amazon matching most of the 2013 Google Nexus 7’s specs in this tablet was a feat, we’re sure, but the company upped the ante by adding a unique form of tech support to its HDX models, which it calls Mayday. Imagine tapping your tablet and starting a one-way video chat with tech support, at any hour of the day, within 15 seconds. That’s Mayday. Techies may not need Mayday, but they’ll love referring their advice-needy relatives to it. Paired with Amazon’s FreeTime software (which lets parents create profiles for children on the tablet that limit access to content and features, or limit sessions by time), the Kindle Fire HDXs were built with families in mind.

Despite some hardware shortcomings—notably, the lack of a rear camera, an HDMI port, or a MicroSD card slot—the Kindle Fire HDX is a slam-dunk for current Amazon customers, especially those with Amazon Prime accounts hooked on the video function. (Amazon Prime, for those not in the know, is an Amazon-specific subscription service that nets you free two-day shipping on many physical products sold by Amazon, plus access to extensive video streaming and e-book-borrowing.) For those who aren't wedded to Amazon’s ecosystem, though, the Google Nexus 7 keeps its place at the top among compact Android tablets, and the iPad Minis hold sway as the only compact tablets for iOS, at $160 more for an equivalent Retina display model or an extra $70 for the basic, much-lower-res 2012 iPad Mini$299.00 at Apple Store. Indeed, the choice here is really all about exactly how much you're tied—and want to be tied—to the world of Amazon.