Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact - Hands On
37When Sony introduced the Xperia Z2 Tablet during Mobile World Congress, it instantly became one of our favorite Android slates, thanks to a stunning screen, a water proof body, and a super slim chassis. After spending some quality time with the device, it became clear it was one of the very best examples you can buy. Sony has now followed the full-size Z2 Tablet with a smaller version, keeping up with the market trend, and announced the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact. Can it possibly live up to our expectations?
We won’t know for sure until we try it out for an extended period of time, but early impressions are very positive, and we’re confident the Z3 Tablet Compact is another winner. There’s a good reason smaller tablets are popular, they’re just so portable, and the Z3 Tablet Compact goes one step beyond being perfectly formed, it’s also perfectly proportioned.
The body is just 6.4mm thick, that’s around the same as a current generation Apple iPod Touch, and a millimeter thinner than the iPad Mini Retina. It’s another example of Sony’s beautiful OmniBalance design philosophy, meaning it’s completely flat, all the ports are hidden by tiny flaps, and only the cool, chromed, over-sized power button breaks up the super thin edging finished with stainless steel corners. It’s striking, attractive, and almost unfeasibly slim.
Pick it up, and it’s the lack of weight that really strikes you. The Z3 Tablet Compact is a mere 270 grams, more than 60 grams less than the iPad Mini Retina and the LG G Pad 8.3. It’s easy to imagine carrying the Z3 Tablet Compact around with you all day. For a tablet, it’s astonishing how easily it can disappear in a pocket. It slipped inside my colleague Caleb Denison’s inside jacket pocket while we shot some footage of the new Xperia Z3 smartphone. It stayed there for sometime, and never once did I see him shift it around, or feel the need to remove it and place it on a desk. Try that with a 10-inch Android tablet.
The swish looks are only half the story. Fire up the 8-inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel screen and you’re presented with Android 4.4 KitKat, along with the usual Sony user interface tweaks. They’re not intrusive, and far from extensive, which is a good thing. Like other Z-series smartphones and tablets, the Triluminos Display is gorgeous; vivid, bright, and colorful. Swiping through the menu screens reveals it to have the same degree of smooth and fast performance as its larger cousin, thanks to the Snapdragon 801 processor and generous 3GB chunk of RAM.
There are two standout new features built-into the Z3 Tablet Compact. The first is PS4 Remote Play, where you can link the tablet up with your PlayStation 4 games console, so it becomes a remote screen where you can continue to play using a DualShock controller, or remotely watch your friends’ play games through the PlayStation App.
Secondly, the tablet supports Hi-Res Audio files, will happily play just about any music file you throw at it, and even upscale lesser quality files using Sony’s DSEE-HX technology.