Today I am going to cover off the key specification of the Z tablet. For earlier posts click here.

For such a thin profile it certainly packs a suitcase of specifications. So here is a summary –

-Headset jack -Yes
-Memory Card SlotMicro SD memory card x1 – Supported microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC2
-USB type – microUSB-AB
-USB version -2.0 High Speed (480Mbps)
-HDMI – Yes via MHL support
-Processor – Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro,speed 1.5 GHz
-Memory – 2GB
-Display Type -TFT Color LCD
-Display Size – 25.6 cm or 10.1 inch
-Resolution – WUXGA 1920 x 1200
-Colours 16,777,216
-Surface Treatment- Anti-Fingerprint
-Backlight LED Touchscreen using Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2
-Storage 16gb or 32gb in WiFi. WiFI and Cellular is only 16gb and lacks micro SD card
-Connectivity – WLAN Type IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n , WLAN MaxData Rate 150 Mbps, WiFi Direct, WiFi Miracast™, Bluetooth v4.0, GPS , LTE, NFC, DLNA
-Sensors – Accelerometer 3-axis, Gyro, Digital Compass, Magnetic field, Ambient Light Sensor
-Infra Red – included with Multi Function, Learning Function and Pre-loaded remote control codes
-Audio – Speaker 2x Internal, Stereo speakers, Microphone Monaural microphone, Audio Technology S-Force Front Surround, Clear Audio+ mode and it has a FM Radio
-Front Camera – 8.1mp rear CMOS Exmor R for mobile with Auto Focus and lots more modes and Macro
-Rear Camera – 2.2mp CMOS Exmor R for mobile
-Codecs and Formats- Audio -AAC, HE-AAC v1, HE-AAC v2, MP3, MIDI – Video Codes H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, VP8 – Supported Formats JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, WEBP
-Dimensions – 172mm x 6.9mm x 266mm
-Weight – 495g
-Android 4.1.2 at present. Will be upgraded to 4.2.2.
-Battery – Battery Lithium polymer, Charging time 6.5 hours, Standby time Up to 890 hours, Music listening time 110 hours, Video playback time 9 hours 50 mins
-Durability – IP55/57 and IP5X – that is waterproof and dustproof

As you can see some very respectable specification. However, the specs don’t always mean a great user experience, but in this case Sony has done themselves proud. The Z tablet is a blast.

So how do the specs stack up against lets say the iPad Mini and iPad.

Well obviously the iPad run iOS 6 and soon in a few months iOS 7, whereas the Sony Z tablet runs android 4.1.2. The biggest complaint about android tablets is not having enough apps or games tailored for the larger screens versus the iPad. And that is a fair point, meaning that you get the phone app experience on the tablet with some apps. Twitter is one culprit, but strangely it isn’t that bad. With the official twitter app you get the whole 140 character post on one line. Using the tablet in portrait mode you get one long list. See screen shot below.

In fact even using the web browser which is Chrome, and only Chrome (at long last I have an android device that only comes with one web browser) you can get a vast amount of info on the screen.

So looking at the weight differences, the full size ipad comes in at a monstrous 662g, the Mini at 312g vs the Z at 495g. 150g lighter than the full size iPad is a big difference. I did a comparison with a friends iPad and we both agreed how light the Z felt. Obviously the Mini is lighter, but then it only has a low res 7.9 inch screen. The full size iPad has a higher pixel density and resolution of 2048×1536. The Mini is considerably lower at 1024×768. All 3 tablets have about 10 hour run times. The Z tablet cameras are on a different league to the both iPads and the Z offers far more camera options too. Neither iPad is waterpoof or dustproof like the Z. NFC is also missing from the iPads. Miracast support is present in the Z, meaning with newer TV’s you won’t need a special Apple TV box to send what’s on your screen to your TV. The audio output is of a much higher quality via the headphone jack on the Z. The max memory available on the iPad is 128gb which is bigger than the Z. The Z has 32gb expandable for media/documents upto another 64gb.

And then there is the Infra Red blaster that comes with the Z and a FM Radio. And if you need another reason to top everything else, you can use your Playstation Dual Shock Wireless Controller with the Z. It is native and works out of the box. You also have the ability to connect USB peripherals. None of these features exist on the iPad.

All in all the hardware makes the Z a very compelling device. Tomorrow, I will look at the hardware in more detail. Then there is all the software Sony have wrapped around this tablet. Over the coming week or weeks I will look at all the other aspects of the tablet features. And there are so many 🙂