The Xperia Tablet Z is powered by a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2GB RAM. This is the first tablet we've tested with this setup, and it didn't disappoint—the Tablet Z scorched our benchmarks, recording some of the highest scores we've seen across the board. The 20,218 overall Antutu benchmark score handily beat the 16,604 notched by the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0Best Price at Amazon and approached the 23,000-25,000 marked by the Samsung Galaxy S 4$199.99 at Let's Talk and HTC One, which use Qualcomm's even newer Snapdragon 600 processor. High Browsermark and Sunspider JavaScript scores confirmed anecdotally speedy Web browsing performance during day-to-day use, while GLBenchmark frame rates were among the best we've seen. From rapidly switching between multiple running apps to playing graphically intensive games like Real Racing 3, the Tablet Z handled everything we threw at it easily. Sliding between widget-loaded home screens and scrolling down media-heavy websites was smooth, with very rare choppiness. This is one seriously fast tablet.
Sony's Android skin falls between Asus's minimal modifications and Samsung's heavy-handed skinning. Luckily, beyond the cosmetic adjustments
The back is made from rubberized plastic, a departure from the glass-clad Xperia Z, but the curved corners and flat edges mimic Sony's smartphone design. The Tablet Z is also fully waterproof, with flaps that cover the 3.5mm headphone jack, micro USB port, and microSD card slot around the tablet's perimeter. There are speaker grilles on the bottom two corners right where your palms naturally rest, making them easy to cover up. I dunked the Tablet Z in a bucket of water and it was completely unaffected, even playing a video while fully submerged.
The tablet's 10.1-inch 1,920-by-1,200-pixel TFT LCD is surrounded by a somewhat large 1-inch bezel. The full HD resolution and 224 pixels per inch means everything is incredibly crisp and detailed, on par with the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity$438.00 at Amazon and a big improvement over the 1,280-by-800-pixel display on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The display also features inky blacks that give AMOLED panels a run for their money, without the blue tint to whites. Viewing angle is excellent, but the screen doesn't get all that bright—outdoors, in bright light, the screen is barely discernible behind the fingerprint-magnet glass.
This is a Wi-Fi only tablet that connects to 802.11b/g/n networks on both 2.4 and 5GHz frequencies. Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC are also on board. Sony offers two models, a 16GB for $499.99 and a 32GB for $599.99, and our 32 and 64GB SanDisk microSD cards both worked fine.