If there was one company that was conspicuous by its absence at the tablet orgies at both CES and MWC this year, it was Sony. While all major consumer device manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG were jumping all over each other trying to get their tablets noticed, Sony fans had to make do with its new Android smartphones – theXperia Arc, Play and Neo.
However, we soon learned that Sony was busy working on the Sony S1, a Playstation certified Android tablet powered by Honeycomb, which comes with a 9.4 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display and is powered by the Nvidia Tegra 2 platform.
Today, Engadget uncovered some more information about Sony’s tablet plans. Apparently, the S1 is not the only tablet Sony is working on. It is also working on another Android tablet – the Sony S2 and a Windows 7 slider tablet.
The Sony S2 is a clamshell tablet powered by Android 3.0 Honeycomb which will pack a pair of 5.5 inch displays. It will be more like a book and will have specifications similar to the Sony S1. Sony will heavily modify Honeycomb to run on the S2, and we also don’t know if it’s Playstation certified. It will likely retail for around $699.
The other tablet will be a Vaio branded slider powered by Windows 7 with a 9.4 inch display. It is supposed to launch around October and will be priced at around $800.
While the Sony S1 seems genuinely interesting and full of potential, the Sony S2 seems like it is doomed to failure from the very start. Sony’s history with customized Android UIs hasn’t been very encouraging, and if I had to choose between the S1 and the S2, I would definitely go with the S1.
0 comments:
Post a Comment