Sony finally sent through the Z2 tablet for IHAG to give the once over, and I must confess that once over hasn't really stopped because I cant put it down.
The reason being is that its such a sexy device its ridiculous; its stupidly thin and light which has given many of my iPad owning friends the green eyed, head turning treatment and for once an Android OEM has got the UI just right - something Sony have slightly missed on the handhelds but here on this tablet Sony have nailed it. I'm pleased to say bloat is kept to a minimum - my only axe to grind is why oh why oh why does Sony have to install Facebook as a baked in app. I don't use it or even want it installed due to the level of permissions it wants. Sony repeatedly do this with all its Xperia handsets, only a root can remove if you feel that way inclined, personally I disable it and place all bloat into a folder left at the back of the app try. Anyway...Oh That Screen
Screen is lush and a much better experience than the out going Z tablet, which was by no means poor, did suffer crispless display and low light emitting levels - something mostly rectified in this unit. It does seem to ignore the very odd tap, especially round the top right where the icon for viewing the app tray is kept, a double tap seems to wake it up but that's my only compliant around the screen - this might be because I still have the protective layer on the screen too, there is a similar problem with the "Home" button at the bottom, doesn't seem to respond too well but I'll update once I get a proper screen protector for the device. I haven't seen anyone else complain about it mind.
Round the back the white plastic feel rear doesn't attract finger prints but if you go for the black version you can expect it will show up plenty. The camera (I don't understand why a tablet needs one but hey ho that's just me) sits flush on the back and could be scratched easily with careless use. Shame Sony didn't put some kind of protection round it and put a flash on as well - camera with no flash is no camera at all.
You can control your TVs and other home entertainment equipment using the IR emitter mounted in the top edge of the tablet and Sony’s remote app, turning the Z2 Tablet into a universal remote for many devices, and its great fun to use too.
Sony Z2 Tablet has the same flap action over the ports to keep water at bay as its Xperia brothers and sisters, which is great for the looks but I would highly recommend getting an adaptor for the static external power port or get the docking port for it. Means those flaps can stay closed and charging is quick and simple. Talking of charging, do yourself a favour and get a 2mah charger - the 1.5 charger you get included takes forever.
That extra 1Gb of RAM helps the tablet no end (up from 2Gb to 3Gb), XBMC for example is a joy to use and any game as you would expect absolutely rips on the Z2 tablet. So if you are just someone who surfs or uses social media then I expect your experience here will be one of joy.
More Tablet Apps Please
What we do need from the Google Play Store are more tablet apps, now it doesn't bother me too much there isn't many (around 500) but I get by with Plume for Twitter which is Tablet optimised, Google+, and Google News Stand again tweaked to run on a tablet, IMDB, YouTube, Email apps, Calendar and BBC iPlayer. Having many others made for a 10 inch plus display is much needed, and now there is a good reason for devs to do so, I hope they jump on very soon.
Battery Life, Longer than UHT Milk
The battery does have great life, make sure you enable "Stamina Mode" in the battery settings to really make it last the day - I managed to get around 7hrs+ screen time of non intensive workload. I know I would make it through a business day with it no problem, or a long flight or even to keep the kids quiet on evenings in and out.
Business Use
The office apps that come pre-installed like Office Suite Pro (tablet optimised) compliment Google Drives offerings and it does plug into any of the other cloud based services you might use like Box, Dropbox and including Google Drive - making this Z2 tablet perfect for business. Typing and editing is great using the Sony default keyboard which this is the first time an OEMs keyboard hasnt sent me to the Play Store to download Googles own. Something that cant be said for the Z1, Z2 and Z1 Compact. You can of course download the new Google Docs apps for each media type, Spreadsheet, Documents and Spreadsheet which work even better than before.
The Z2 Tablet has been written about in many places on the internet and I'm sure you have seen the positive reviews, and here we have said little different. What Sony have created is a stella device which totally gives the iPad a run for its money and in many areas destroys it.
For home and business this slate, is one of the if not the best out there. Browsing is quick, and email apps are spot on, coupled with awesome looks and hardware internals, buying won't disappoint.
If you are an iPad owner looking for a change then this Sony Z2 Tablet is your answer.
The Z2 tablet I have is the white 32Gb WIFI only variant. You can get the Z2 in black with LTE plus 16Gb or a combination of.