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Pros : Powerful and feature packed. The Xperia Tablet Z supports 4G and can survive a bit of water. Cons : Build quality could be better. Verdict : The Sony Xperia Tablet Z is one of the best Android tablets on the planet. It’s not perfect but then nor is any of the competition. 
The Sony Xperia Tablet Z is certainly an exciting prospect. It’s a high end Android tablet bearing the Xperia Z moniker and mostly living up to the expectations of that name, particularly with regards to being dust proof and water resistant. Couple that with high end specs and you’ve got a tablet to be proud of.
Where’s the glass?
One of the only areas where the Xperia Tablet Z arguably doesn’t live up to the Xperia Z name is in its build quality. As while the Xperia Z smartphone has a stylish glass back, the Xperia Tablet Z settles for rubberised plastic. Perhaps this makes it lighter and it almost certainly makes it more durable, but it lacks the premium sheen we’d expected.
Performance
Thankfully the Sony Xperia Tablet Z is a lot more impressive on the inside, as it has a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. While those aren’t remarkable specs in and of themselves they’re decidedly high end and among the best you’ll find in a tablet. It feels powerful too, easily zipping through most tasks and very rarely showing any hint that it’s struggling.
Coupled with a 4G data connection this thing can really rocket through web pages and downloads too and will stream songs or videos with no noticeable buffering.
Screen sheen
The Sony Xperia Tablet Z has an impressive screen too. It’s a 10.1 inch 1200 x 1920 display with a pixel density of 224 pixels per inch and it uses Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 for sharp images with great contrast.
At 10.1 inches it’s more than big enough to enjoy movies and games on, making it an ideal portable media solution.
Camera
Cameras tend to be an afterthought on tablets and in many ways the Sony Xperia Tablet Z is no exception. It has an 8.1 megapixel camera, which isn’t bad, but there’s no flash so its usefulness is limited in anywhere but brightly lit locations.
However we’re okay with this as we can’t envisage a scenario where we’d use a 10.1 inch tablet to take photos anyway.
More importantly it has a 2.2 megapixel front facing camera which can shoot 1080p video at 30fps and can be used as a webcam- something which we can see a use for on a tablet.
Other features
The Sony Xperia Tablet Z has just 16GB of built in storage, but it also has a micro SD card slot so there’s no need to be limited by that. It has Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, NFC and even an infrared port, so all the features you’d expect are covered.
It has a 6000 mAh battery, which should be enough to get you through a movie marathon, but it will need charging after a day of heavy use.
4G.co.uk's verdict
There’s a lot to like with the Sony Xperia Tablet Z, from its high end specs and high quality screen, to its wealth of connectivity options and blazing fast 4G. We wish it had kept the glass of the Xperia Z smartphone, but it’s slim, light and durable so even that’s not a big deal. Ultimately it’s a top flight tablet and as it’s available from under £400 it’s not extortionately priced either.
Weight : 495 grams Dimensions : 172 x 266 x 6.9 mm Operating System : Google Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) Processor : 1.5 GHz Qualcomm APQ8064+MDM9215M Quad Core Adreno 320 Camera : 8.1 Megapixels 16x Digital zoom Front-facing camera : 2.2 MP, 1080p Display : 10.1 inches TFT, 16,777,216 colours, 1920x1200 pixels Durability : IPX5/7 (Water-resistant) & IP5X (Dust-proof)
