Hasta La Gadget!

This week we’re seeing no lack of Sony on the mobile front, with a relatively massive component leaking from what its sources say is a plant creating a 6.44-inch phablet for this Summer season. This machine, if proven real, would be a real competitor for not just the Samsung Galaxy Note, but the LG Intuition as well, complete with 1080p or higher resolution, extremely thin bezel coverage around the display, and a teeny-tiny Sony logo up top. Of course when you see a photo like this isn’t not exactly drowning in details, but what’s obvious is obvious – Sony appears to be getting into the giant smartphone business.

This device would also look to be taking on the 6.1-inch beast known as the Huawei Ascend Mate, a machine we got to see for ourselves at CES 2013. This component photo you’re seeing above comes from the form known as Digi-Wo and also makes it appear as though Sony is going the Motorola DROID RAZR M route with a “near-borderless display”. With such a device the user is meant to feel like they’re holding one massive touchscreen rather than a machine that just so happens to have a display in and on it.

Sony also revealed their new Xperia Tablet Z in the past 24 hours, this device appearing very much to be coming in with many of the same design cues. Have a peek at the rather sharp corners and you’ll see what it’s all about for Sony’s mobile hardware for 2013; no cutting down for this manufacturer! Does it look like they’re on-point to you?

Meanwhile we’re expecting the Sony mobile team to be bringing the heat to Mobile World Congress with a variety of offerings, even if this rather sharp looking component is not included amongst them. Have a peek in the timeline below to get an idea of what Sony’s been showing off in the past few weeks and see if you can get a handle on what’ll be appearing in Barcelona. Follow us soon and very soon in our massive MWC 2013 portal!

[via Engadget]

Sony smartphone display photo leak tips Galaxy Note competitor is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sony has announced a new high-spec Android tablet, the Xperia Tablet Z. It offers up some meaty internals—but the most exciting news is the svelte package into which the hardware is crammed. More »

Today Sony has made a bit of a soft announcement of their next-generation hero tablet, that being the Xperia Tablet Z: complete with a quad-core processor and a rather thin body. This machine is just about as strait up rectangular a tablet as we’ve ever seen with extremely tight (but not quite square) corners and what appears to be a slightly odd aspect ratio bezel around its 10.1-inch display. The Sony Xperia Tablet Z is also set to bring on none other than Sony’s own “S-Force” virtual surround sound system – strange stuff!

The reason we’re not exactly 100% solid on the specifications as we’d normally be with a release straight from the manufacturer is the fact that this is a bit of a third-hand sort of situation. While we see Engadget posting it from Blog of Mobile, they in turn are getting it from Sony Mobile‘s Japan-based hub. This means that even though this tablet will be hitting shelves in Japan with these specifications, we’ll likely see more than a couple changes by the time we see it in the USA (or outside the islands, for that matter).

This tablet is set to come in at least two color combination – on the back, anyway – and it’ll be coming with no less than the excellent Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 quad-core SoC clocked in at 1.5GHz. This will be paired with 2GB of RAM, 4G LTE connectivity (and a wi-fi only edition we must assume) as well as an 8.1-megapixel camera on the back. This back-facing camera works with Exmore R technology and will likely be a star in Sony’s promotion of the unit overall.

The display on this machine is not quite as massively dense with pixels as the Google Nexus 10, but it’s tight nonetheless: 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution working with Mobile Bravia Engine 2 technology – we’ll see soon what kind of display it is, be it IPS or AMOLED – with the jumps we’re seeing here over previous model Xperia tablets, there’s no knowing what the Sony team is bringing forth. This tablet also works with NFC, has a microSD card slot for memory expansion, and the whole package is both waterproof and dustproof (though the exact amount of both we’re still waiting on, too).

Inside the machine you’ll find a 6,000mAh battery and the whole unit will be coming in at a super thin 6.9mm and 495g in weight. This machine is a rather large leap forward for Sony from any of their previous tablets – have a peek at our recent review of the Tegra 3-toting Xperia Tablet S to see how far the company has come in a relatively short time. Note the software there too, because we’re quite likely going to be seeing something rather similar soon!

Expect to see this at Mobile World Congress 2013 next month – we’ll be there with bells on!

Sony Xperia Tablet Z revealed with not-quite-Nexus specs is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sony Mobile’s top-tier Xperia Z may have been one of CES’s most pleasant non-surprises (seriously, is there anyone Sony didn’t brief about that thing?), and it turns out that the company’s future efforts may be more of the same. According to a recent CNET interview with Xperia Product Manager Stephen Sneeden, Sony is contemplating leaving the entry-level smartphone market to other companies.

“We’re ready to be a premium smartphone provider, logically then, at the very entry level is where you lose the ‘Sonyness,’” Sneeden told CNET.

Should Sony really give this plan a go, they’ll be treading on well-worn ground. HTC announced its own intention to focus on producing a smaller number of quality smartphones nearly one year ago exactly, though it hasn’t been without its problems. The Taiwanese company’s strong hardware releases belie its recent sketchy financial performance. Motorola Mobility also intimated that it would take a similar route, and these days murmurs of a high-end X Phone currently under development at MM continue to make headlines. We’ll soon see if CEO (and former Googler) Dennis Woodside sticks to his guns, as the company makes its transition, but in any case, it may be that Sony’s potential plans may end up doing more harm than good if enough companies decide to take a similar tack.

If all goes according to plan, Sony hopes to be uttered in the same smartphone breath as Samsung and Apple within the next two years. I’m not entirely convinced that Sony would be able to make strides that great even if these two years go off without a hitch, but perhaps the company is owed the benefit of the doubt. After all, they’re clearly pretty damn good at crafting great smartphones when they feel like it; I was generally fond of the Xperia ion, and devices like Z have managed to excite some people in ways Sony has rarely been able to do with a smartphone. This move could be just what the doctor ordered, but I have a feeling it’ll be some time before Sony officially makes up its mind.

Yesterday at CES, Sony introduced its flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z, a beautifully crafted Android Jelly Bean device that features a 5-inch Full HD 1080p Reality Display with the new Sony Bravia Mobile 2 engine and it also runs on a powerful quad-core 1.5 Ghz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. The new Xperia Z is packed with high-end features including a 443 ppi display and the new 13-Megapixel Exmor RS sensor that records HDR videos. I got a demo and I briefly tried the Xperia Z on the show floor, read my first impressions in the complete article and watch the video.

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