Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet Review

Introduction

After nearly an entire year of using the Sony Xperia Z2 smartphone as my daily driver, I reached out to the company to see if I could secure the Z2 Tablet and review it. A few days later it arrived at my house, and ever since, it has been my tablet of choice.

I'm not the type of person to use a tablet around the house, but when I travel, it is my main accessory. I load up the slate with TV series and movies, and watch those hours tick by enthralled in the on-screen action. Being based in Australia means I travel to the US for work quite often, so having a 10.1-inch Full HD tablet with a microSD expansion slot is heaven to me.

Sony has made quite the splash in the smartphone and tablet world of late, but has recently recalled these efforts in order to push ahead in other markets where it performs stronger. I'm disappointed with the news, as it means we might not see many more smartphones or tablets from the Japanese giant in the future.

Specs

There are three different models of the Xperia Z2 Tablet, starting with the 16GB Wi-Fi only model, moving up to the 32GB Wi-Fi only model and finishing with the 4G + Wi-Fi model. All three versions of the Xperia Z2 Tablet feature the beautiful 10.1-inch TRILUMINOS display from Sony, and the rest of the goodies inside.

Depending on the market, you'll get a different processor inside. We're using the "International" version since I'm based in Australia, so we have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, which is a 2.3GHz quad-core chip. We also have 3GB of RAM, 32GB (depending on the version you buy) of storage, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, a microSD slot, built-in stereo speakers, and more.

We also have the beautiful 10.1-inch 1920x1080 display with TRILUMINOS, which is powered by Sony's X-Reality engine for the best picture possible.

On the back, there's a 8.1-megapixel rear-facing camera using Sony's Exmor RS sensor, while around front, we have a 2.2-megapixel selfie shooter using the Exmor R sensor. Sony says you'll get around 11 hours of web browsing on the Xperia Z2 Tablet, while video playback extends this to around 13 hours. Charging up the battery will take a little under six hours.

Something that deserves its own praise is that Sony has made the Xperia Z2 Tablet fully waterproof and dustproof, which means you can use it anywhere - something we really did, in many different places, that we'll talk about later on in the review. On the software side of things, we have Android 4.4 KitKat, as well as Sony's own adjustments to the UI.

Availability & Price

You can grab the Xperia Z2 Tablet from Amazon for around $500, with the 4G LTE + Wi-Fi model with 32GB of storage currently selling for $499.99 locked to Verizon. The 16GB Wi-Fi only model, without the LTE chip and Verizon lock is $575 right now.