Be prepared for something you haven’t seen before: a tablet like no other! Don’t trust me, just look at it. It is Sony’s new S2 4G tablet and it will be available at AT&T “later this year”.
The design is totally unique: the clamshell tablet actually has two 5.4 inch displays with a resolution of 1024×480 pixels. When they are opened, they form a larger display with a black bar running down in the middle. Smooth! Besides these, the S2 will be powered by a Tegra SoC, features two cameras and can make use of one screen for game controllers. That’s right! This baby will be PlayStation certified and it will also come with support for DLNA media sharing. Unfortunately, there are no specific details about the processor speed, or about how good the cameras will be, nor the storage or other such important info.
In what concerns connectivity, the S2 will come with both WiFi and 4G but there is a trick. The 4G is actually HSPA+, so probably speeds up to 21Mbps or lower if we come from the real world and are not tricked by the ads. In case the HSPA+ network doesn’t work, AT&T is counting on its more than 20,000 WiFi access points in hotels, airports, restaurants. Anyways, 4G (or something that resembles it is much better, but it’s not so bad to have a back-up system). Of course, the tablet will be running on Android.
“With its unprecedented, completely portable form factor, the ‘Sony Tablet’ S2 offers tablet enthusiasts a convenient and unique entertainment experience,” said David Haight, vice president of business development, in a statement. “Users will be treated to exceptional graphics and the touch-screen capabilities will enable a fast and efficient website experience.” Sony’s trying to convince us that this tablet has more than an exceptional design. However, some specific details would have been better than the classical PR talk. All we know is that the S2 (which by the way is only a codename, who knows how they will name it after all), will be released somewhere in the fall. Maybe it will bump nose to nose into the iPad 3.
Source: Information Week
