From Sony Japan comes news of Sony’s latest and most impressive Android tablets. Apparently, the Tablet Z wasn’t quite ready for CES earlier this month, but it is, at 6.9mm thin, svelter than Apple’s iPad mini while using a “Bravia”, “Retina” 1080P display. Also a high point for a tablet, Sony will incorporate an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor.
The Z is no slouch in the CPU department, with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM, and it will somehow support NFC and LTE within its 6.9mm thick constraints.
It will also come with Android 4.1, but hopefully Sony gets more serious about updating its Android devices here. Prices and shipping times are still not determined.
9to5Google played with Sony’s official James Bond smartphone, the Xperia TL, last month at a media event in New York City, but now the rest of the world can experience the 007 action starting Nov. 2.
Sony just announced the ICS-powered smartphone would land on AT&T for $99.99 with a two-year contract. For a reminder as to what this 4.55-inch LTE and NFC-capable device boasts, check out our brief hands-on. More information regarding the phone’s Bond connection and upcoming AT&T debut is in the press release below.
Oh, and Sony previously promised a Jelly Bean upgrade would come “soon.” Yeah, not too specific.
LG might not be the only manufacturer to release a device sporting the pure Google experience and Nexus branding. Today, we get shots of a yet-to-be-announced Sony smartphone, posted by XperiaBlog (via The Verge), that looks to carry-on the design aesthetic of the company’s Xperia Ion hardware. Unfortunately, there are not any details to go along with the photos. However, we can see “Google” and Sony branding on the back of the device. According to XperiaBlog, the device in the image is called the “Sony Nexus X”. Oddly, there is no visible Xperia branding.
They could very well be fakes; but with LG, this would only make two of the five OEMs that The Wall Street Journal said would release Nexus devices with Jelly Bean. Others likely to join the Nexus device launch party include past Nexus makers Samsung and HTC. Unfortunately, there is a good chance the images above could just be a new Sony/Xperia device with a more stock Android experience. We will wait for a little bit more information before filing this as confirmation of a Nexus phone from Sony.
After announcing the new ICS-powered Xperia lineup last month, Sony shared some details today on the new sensor-on-lens touch screen tech being built into the Xperia V. Sony described the tech as providing the same benefits to smartphones as in-cell and on-cell touch technology, which Apple is rumored to be including in the next-generation iPhone. In a blog post on the Sony Mobile Developer blog, the company explained exactly how the sensor-on-lens technology works and some of the benefits it provides to the Xperia V. Some of those benefits include better image quality, less haze, 5 percent better display luminance, and a lighter and thinner device due to an extra layer of glass being removed:
Sensor-on-lens touch technology means that the number of physical layers in the touch panel (handset stackup) is reduced, as the sensor layer is actually part of the lens itself. This in turn means that you will get better image quality, as there is no interference from the touch sensor component. There is one less layer of glass and one less layer of glue, compared to conventional touch panels… This technology also moves the image plane closer to you as a user, which makes it feel like you are actually touching the image itself. With this direct touch experience, you will get less parallax issues compared to a conventional touch panel, as the image and the point of touch are closer together in the sensor-on-lens touch screen technology.
German news website Mobiflip appears to have leaked slides of the Sony Experia tablet.
The images depict a device, called the “Xperia Sony Tablet”, featuring a Tegra 3 processor, Android 4.0 or later, up to 64GB of built-in storage, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, 6000mAh battery, and a 8.8mm aluminum shell that is 42 percent thinner than the Tablet S.
Perhaps most interesting is the new super-thin keyboard that resembles the Touch cover keyboard that Microsoft announced earlier this year with its Surface Tablet. The Sony Experia’s keyboard cover seals the entire tablet and doubles as a kickstand.
One slide assigned the keyboard cover a $99.99 retail price tag, while the tablet is $449.99 for the 16 GB model, $549.99 for the 32 GB, and $649.99 for the 64 GB. A release date is notable absent.
Sony announced this morning that it is bringing its Xperia NXT Series to the United States with all three devices, including the Xperia S, Xperia P, and Xperia U, now available unlocked through Sony stores across the country and sony.com/NXT, Newegg.com, and various other online retailers. While we do not get LTE with any of these devices like AT&T’s Xperia Ion, they are compatible with both AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks. The lineup of devices originally unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.
The flagship model of the series is the $560 Xperia S with a 4.3-inch 1,280-by-720 display, 12 megapixel main cam, 1GB of RAM, a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Dual Core processor, and it is available in black and white.
As for the Xperia P: $480 will get you a 4 inch, 960-by-540 display, 8 megapixel camera, 1GB of RAM, and a 1GHz dual core processor. The Xperia P is available in the silver, red, and black models that can be seen in the videos above and below. Xperia U is $300 (black or white), and it provides decent specs for the price point with a 3.5-inch 854-by-480 display, 5-megapixel camera, 512MB of RAM, and a 1Ghz dual core processor.
The entire NXT lineup comes with Android 2.3, but it is already upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich. The two high-end models, Xperia S and P, also have built-in NFC, HDMI with BRAVIA Sync, as well as Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine display technology.
Sony’s full press release and intro videos for the NXT lineup are below:
