Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet: A serious iPad Air competitor

Sony’s Xperia Z2 tablet is a significant update to its first real iPad challenger, the Xperia Tablet Z. Now slimmer, lighter and much, much faster Sony has a true Android competitor to the iPad Air on its hands.

While most Android tablet manufacturers stick to the smaller, roughly 7in screen sized tablets like Google’s Nexus 7, which are cheaper and do not attempt to directly compete with Apple’s bigger iPad, Sony is aiming at the premium end with its new tablet computer. The one drawback is that there aren’t a lot of Android apps available optimised for full-sized tablets when compared with the iPad – especially when it comes to apps that are exclusive to Android and not made by Google. It is a chicken-and-egg scenario. There aren’t many good, full-sized Android tablets available, so there’s no draw for developers; so there isn’t the wealth of optimised apps on offer to draw consumers to buy full-sized tablets, so there’s no draw for developers…

 Super slim and feather-light

 Sony has clearly used its “omni-balance” design principle for the Xperia Z2 Tablet, mimicking the design of the company’s latest smartphones. But the rear of the tablet is not a slab of glass. Instead it’s covered with a soft-touch texturised plastic, offering a reassuring amount of grip. It makes the tablet easy to hold, which its slim line 6.4mm thick and 426g frame certainly aid. For comparison, the iPad Air is 7.5mm thick and weighs 469g. Though light, the Z2 Tablet is solidly built, with minimal flex in the body when twisted. The rest of the tablet is essentially a slab of glass with metal edges. It is simple and understated, and has at least a passing resemblance to Sony’s line of premium televisions – and that is no bad thing.

 All of Sony’s high-end smartphones and tablets have been waterproof for the past couple of years; so is the Xperia Z2 Tablet. Its IP58 rating means it will resist a 1.5m submersion for up to 30 minutes, rather than simply immersion to 1m like its predecessor. The waterproofing comes with a few design compromises. While the headphones port is open (and awkwardly positioned in the bottom edge of the tablet), the micro-USB charging port and the microSD slots are protected by rubber-sealed doors.

The gaskets fit snugly, but charging the device every night will inevitably lead to wear and a break of the seal over the lifetime of the tablet. Opening the door and plugging in the connector is also quite fiddly – but like the Z2 phone the tablet has Sony’s magnetic charging port, for those that want to avoid having to hook up the phone via micro-USB each night. You can slot the tablet into a charging dock, removing the need to fiddle with the door – but you have to buy it separately. The Xperia Z2 Tablet has a big, bold and bright 10.1in full high definition screen with great viewing angles. The screen is of lower resolution than the iPad Air’s (1920×1200 pixels v 2048×1536, 224ppi v 264ppi), although it is impossible to tell the difference in general use.

 he front-facing speakers are very directional, clear and quite loud. Unsurprisingly they lack bass. They bracket the screen, making sharing videos with others enjoyable. Most tablet speakers are quiet and placed on the back, so having them mounted on the front makes a real difference. They aren’t a patch on HTC’s BoomSound speakers like those mounted on the HTC One M8, though.

 Powerful and it vibrates

The Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet uses the same chip from Qualcomm (the Snapdragon 801) as its smaller brother the Xperia Z2 phone, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8, making it just as quick as the current crop of flagship smartphones. That means the Z2 Tablet is powerful, fast and lag-free. 

Graphically intensive games run smoothly on the large screen and apps launch almost instantly. It is also relatively easy on the battery, which is important because that’s clearly where Sony has cut back to slim down. The battery capacity is 6,000 milliampere-hour (mAh) battery, compared to 8,827mAh for the iPad Air and 8,220 for Samsung’s 10.1in tablets. But looking past the numbers, I found the Xperia Z2 lasted a good day (about 15 hours) on a single charge under continual usage (continual push email, a few hours’ browsing, perhaps an hour of video) without activating any of the power-saving modes.