Netbooks
didn’t have a lot going for them, but they had a clear purpose. Their cramped
keyboards, dull displays, and feeble processors couldn’t detract from their
eminent usefulness as fast note takers and convenient web browsers on the move.
Sony’s XPERIA tablets — and tablets in general — have the opposite problem:
they’re blessed with all the advantages of high design and precise engineering,
but none of the purpose of the humble netbook. This year, Sony is addressing
that issue by pairing its latest XPERIA Z4 Tablet with a keyboard dock and
essentially creating the netbook of the future. It’s a 10-inch ultraportable
machine that runs Microsoft Office and promises long battery life, and it has
the potential to serve as Android’s answer to Apple’s MacBook and Microsoft’s
Surface computers. Can the addition of a keyboard give real meaning to the
existence of yet another splendidly thin and powerful Android tablet?
In
spite of its name inflation, the XPERIA Z4 Tablet is actually the successor to
last year’s XPERIA Z2 Tablet, and very little has changed in the way it looks
and feels. This is still one of the best-engineered electronic devices on the
market, feeling featherweight and durable at the same time. That’s an important
and powerful combination, as it allows you to toss the tablet around like a
literal notebook, not having to worry about the added fragility of it being a
piece of high-tech equipment.
Waterproof
once again, the Z4 Tablet has evolved to now also include a capless USB port,
removing the annoying flappy cover of its predecessor. Sony has also taken out
its engineering razor and somehow found a few spare millimeters and grams to
shave off the tablet’s weight and thickness. In response to user feedback
bemoaning the vastness of the bezels around the screen, Sony has shrunken those
down as well. Such a tale of small incremental improvements is characteristic
of Sony’s XPERIA development history, and it’s how we’ve arrived at excellent
devices like the XPERIA Z3 and Z4 smartphones and the present Z4 Tablet. I look
all around the device, investigate every edge and surface for imperfection, and
find none. But I also don’t find anything (other than the more convenient USB
port) that I couldn’t get from last year’s model.
Sony
will tell you that the Z4 Tablet’s biggest upgrades are contained within, with
a new 2560 x 1600 display stepping up the resolution from 1920 x 1200, and the
Snapdragon 810 processor replacing the earlier 801. Good luck trying to
identify where those changes make a difference, though, as I sure couldn’t. As
much of a believer as I am in high-resolution displays, Sony’s upgrade here is
from high to very high, and, like the mountaintops of Everest obscured by cloud
cover, I just can’t see the difference. Performance is similarly unremarkable:
this is a fast and responsive Android device, but that’s no longer a novelty
like it once was.
The
new processor and higher-res screen may, in fact, have led to something of a
downgrade as I found myself disappointed by the Z4 Tablet’s battery life. The
actual battery is no smaller (6,000mAh) than in the XPERIA Z2 Tablet, but I
have to recharge the newer device more often. I have to top up the Z4’s charge
every couple of days, whether I use it or not. That’s somewhat unusual for
tablets, which can last for multiple days when left idling. The Z4 Tablet still
has decent battery life, but it’s not as impressive as, say, Google’s Nexus 9
or Apple’s latest iPads. The keyboard dock doesn’t help matters, either, as it
has a tiny power reserve just to keep its Bluetooth radio going and doesn’t
give the Z4 Tablet any extra juice.
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