When you press the big circular power button on the left, the screen will switch on and you’ll get to see the best of Sony’s display technology come to life.
Bright and colourful, dynamic, and very easy on the eyes, the 10.1 inch Full HD screen on the Tablet Z2 is one of the best screen we’ve seen on a tablet that wasn’t manufactured by Apple, with excellent viewing angles, plenty of detail, and strong vibrancy.
It’s excellent work, and appears to be very responsive too, which is good since this is the touchscreen you’ll be touching and prodding on everything you’re doing.
Over to performance and basically, we’re getting a preview of what Sony’s Xperia Z2 smartphone will be like, with the same specs as pretty much all other flagship phones coming out right about now.
We’ve mentioned what they are in the specs, but to quickly jumpstart that memory, that includes the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 3GB RAM, 16GB storage, and a microSD slot.
That is more or less a Sony Xperia Z2 smartphone, and the performance we’ve experienced on this tablet has been excellent. Applications loaded without any issues, and multitasking was something we could do quickly and effortlessly, which was nice too.
Games flew on this, and battery life — while not as critical on tablets — provided us with around a day or two of life. The more we played games, the more we had to charge the tablet, but general use should survive two days.
Android is also easy to use, thanks in part to Sony’s continued use and development of an Android overlay that doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, but makes it look closer to Sony’s other products. You’ll find multiple homescreens, a sortable apps menu that can be configured by swiping from the left edge in that screen, and even some of the micro apps we’ve seen previously on Sony’s devices.
Also of note is the water and dust resistance, a staple feature on Sony’s recent devices, which is present on this tablet, too.
Indeed, you can take the Tablet Z2 poolside or into dusty places and provided the body caps are closed up and sealed, you’ll find your tablet isn’t afraid of a splash or even a dive. Try getting the iPad to do that without a case.
There’s also a camera here, but we didn’t spend too much time going over the 8 megapixel rear shooter on this body, mostly because we find taking pictures with a 10 inch camera can make you look a touch silly. That said, the images out of it aren’t bad, but with no flash on the back, we’d probably recommend you stick with your phone camera or something a little better suited to taking photos, like maybe even a real camera.
In fact our only real complaints for the Xperia Z2 Tablet tend to air on the side of audio, with one of the advertised features not really being a feature, and the other part just not being as amazing as the rest of the unit.
We’ll go in that order, and if you read our initial heads-up pieces on the Z2 Tablet, you may have heard that it’s the first tablet to support noise cancellation. That’s not to say that you haven’t been able to use active noise cancellation headphones with every tablet or smartphone to date — you can totally do that, getting a pair of Bose QC20s working on an iPad or Nexus — but Sony’s answer in the Tablet Z2 (at least how it was advertised) was to include the noise cancellation tech in the tablet, making it possible to plug in a pair of headphones and let the tablet do all the work.
The idea has merit, and is one we’ve been scratching our heads trying to work out if it was possible for a while (and if so, why no one had implemented it). I mean, if you have a pair of headphones that you love, why not let the tablet do all the heavy lifting and cancel repeating hum and noise while you enjoy all the quality your cans have to offer.
Unfortunately in the Xperia Z2, the feature doesn’t quite work how Sony implies it should.
There is support for noise cancellation in the tablet, but it only works if you plug in a specific pair of headphones. That specific pair is the MDR-NC31EM, which are made by Sony and include microphones specifically developed for being used with the noise cancelling feature of the tablet. That’s not really the same thing as having “noise cancellation” built into the tablet, because it requires a specific set of headphones engineered for this specific purpose.
It doesn’t help that the headphones aren’t included in the box — we’d be a little more forgiving if they were — and that they’re an optional purchase carrying a $100 price tag.
You can, as we mentioned before, still plug in a pair active noise cancelling headphones, but you’ll be relying totally on the technology used in the headphones, not in the tablet.
Also weak in the sound front is, well, the sound on the front of the Xperia Z2 Tablet, with some of the lightest front-facing speakers we’ve ever come across.
To Sony’s credit, the speakers are loud and reasonably bright and detailed, but it lacks any impact with some weak bass, even when the built-in equaliser is switched to provide more. Sony’s ClearAudio+ setting helps to work out where to add more, but it’s not always perfect, so if you’re finicky over your sound and prefer a touch more oomph, plug in those headphones or grab a Bluetooth speaker you like.
Conclusion
Consider us impressed, because there’s a lot to love about Sony’s Xperia Z2 Tablet. A lot. To love.
Manufacturers take note: this is how you make a tablet when you’re competing with perfectionists like Apple. You make it simple, clean, and easy to use, and that’s exactly what the Xperia Z2 is.
You also give it some interesting points of difference such as the dust and water resistance, which borrows over from Sony’s similarly named mobile handset. And you make it a delight to use, and that’s precisely what the Tablet Z2 is.
We do wish the noise cancellation was an actual feature and not just a way to sell a specific type of headphone, but outside of that, Sony’s Z2 is excellent.
Seriously, Sony has created a top tablet here, with a product that is thin, light, capable, and totally worth your time.
