Acouple of years ago, Sony launched the Xperia Tablet Z, a very powerful, slim and lightweight 10" tablet that was ahead of its time. Since then, the Xperia range has grown to include the Tablet S, Z2 (which we’re reviewing now), Z3 Compact and the top-of-therange Z4.
Clearly, the Xperia range is here to stay, and it’s not difficult to see why. The 10.1" IPS screen has a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1200 and features the coveted TriLuminos display engine for great clarity and colours. Added to that is the quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor running at an impressive 2.3GHz, and a huge 3GB of memory. It’s available in 16GB or 32GB models, with Android 5.0 Lollipop installed.
Furthermore the Xperia Z2 tablet features a rear 8.1MP camera, along with a front 2.2MP camera, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, micro-USB, mini-HDMI, MHL and 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac.
The Xperia, though, isn’t just a tablet with one of the most powerful mobile processors and a huge lump of RAM installed. This model has an interesting trick up its sleeve.
This 266 x 172 x 6.4mm, 439g tablet is exceptionally light and can be held comfortably in one hand when reading – even in the bath. Indeed, Sony has blessed the Xperia Z2 tablet with the ability to be submerged in fresh water up to a depth of 1.5 metres for 30 minutes. You’ll have to close up the flaps that hide the ports, but once sealed the Z2 is quite happy to get as wet as you are in the bathtub.
It’s an amazingly responsive tablet, incredibly quick and able to play any game in the Play store without any trouble. It also comes with a preinstalled remote control app for Sony TVs, Walkman music player app and the ability to act as a second screen for PS4 users. Sadly, we don’t have a PS4 to test this with or a Sony TV to use the remote function on, so you’ll need to read up on the compatibility of your model and just how well it works with a PS4. The Walkman app is quite good, though; for £9.99 per month you can access the Sony Music Unlimited store and play the immense catalogue there.
The battery life on the Xperia Z2 tablet is also pretty impressive. With the mixed tests we ran through, from a full charge, we managed to clock a good nine hours of use before needing to plug it in for a recharge. Incidentally, the recharge only took just under an hour, thanks to the Quick Charge 2.0 fast battery charging technology.
Prices for the Sony Xperia Z2 tablet vary, but the majority seem to lean toward the £329 mark, which means it costs slightly less than the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. It's nearly twice as expensive as the Archos 101 Oxygen, but this is by far the best performing tablet of the group. And you get to use it in the bath,
which is always a bonus feature in our view.