Key Difference: Sony has recently announced its revamped smartphone and tablets line. Along with the new flagship phone Sony Xperia Z, the company has also added a new tablet, the Sony Xperia Z Tab. The tablet supports a 10.1 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen and is created using the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 technology. The Nexus 7 is a tablet computer running Android 4.1 (also named Jelly Bean) operating system. It was developed in collaboration with Asus.

A little while back we only used mobiles. The latest trends were smartphones, such as an iPhone or a Blackberry. Then, Apple launched the iPad, a new device that led to the rise of tablets. Tablets are somewhat of a cross between smartphones and laptops. They became popular as laptop replacements. They allowed users to carry smaller and lightweight objects for basic purposes of gaming, surfing, chatting, etc.  There are varieties of new tablets that are being launched to allow easier connectivity on the go. They are many tablets that also border between smartpones and laptops, which enable users to use the tablet for calling purposes; these are known as phablets (phone + tablets).

Tablets are mainly used for multimedia, watching videos, reading e-books, and surfing the internet. They feature a full virtual keyboard which is useful for online chatting, social networking and sending emails. Tablets also tend to have dual cameras, which can be used to take pictures, while the front facing camera can be used for video chatting and video calling. Basically, tablets are like a mini computer. They are able to perform most tasks that one uses a laptop for, such as surf the net, take pictures, chat with friends, send and receive emails, as well as use it as an e-Book reader. One can also use a tablet for basic computing functions, watching videos and listening to MP3 songs on the internet. Also, tablets are much more portable and lightweight than most laptops, notebooks or netbooks.

Sony has recently announced its revamped smartphone and tablets line. Along with the new flagship phone Sony Xperia Z, the company has also added a new tablet, the Sony Xperia Z Tab. It shares many features to its little brother, but is also different in many ways. The Xperia Z tab has already seen the light of day in Japan in January, while it was recently unwrapped for global availability. The company’s claims the tablet to the lightest and the slimmest LTE tablet available in the market. The tablet supports a 10.1 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen and is created using the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 technology. Similar to its little brother, the phone is water-resistant and dust proof. The phone can be submerged about 1 meter for 30 minutes without any damage (However, all the ports and slots should be firmly closed). The phone can also withstand water jets and the screen is coated with shatter-proof film coating. The borders of the tablet have been designed in a way to not obstruct side viewing.

The tablet houses the 1.5 GHz Krait Quad-core processor and the Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 chipset. The tablet runs on 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and can be upgraded to 4.2 Jelly Bean. It is available with 16/32 GB internal memory, which can further be upgraded up to 64 GB. The company has maintained the camera technology on the tablet. The tablet houses 8.1 MP Exmor R primary camera and a 2.1 MP secondary camera for video chatting. The phone offers features such as Superior Auto, geo-tagging, Exmor R for mobile image sensor, HDR for both picture/film, continue burst mode, scene recognition, sweep panorama, smile detection, face detection and touch focus.  Superior Auto automatically adjusts the shooting profile depending on the shot that is being taken. Additional features include face unlock, screenshot capturing, wake-up mode, screen mirroring, throw feature, TV side view and remote control application. The throw feature allows users to automatically connect and play mobile content on any devices that can be connected to the phone via screen mirroring, DLNA or Bluetooth. Face Unlock allows users to place their face in front of their phones to unlock the photo. The company has not yet announced pricing of the tablet.

One of the most popular operating systems for smartphones and tablets is Android. Android is a Linux-based operating system owned and operated by the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 84 leading firms, which includes mobile handset makers, application developers, some mobile carriers and chip makers. The consortium is lead in part by Google, as well as HTC, Sony, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, Nvidia, and Wind River Systems.

A number of these companies’ smartphones and tablets run on Android. Android is an open source software, which means that the code is freely available for modification and distribution by device manufacturers, wireless carriers and enthusiast developers. Among the number of various companies, Google has also launched its own line of smartphones based on Android, called the Google Nexus. Each device in the Nexus line is produced via collaboration between Google and a leading original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner. The Nexus devices in general have an advantage over other devices in that the Android in the Nexus devices is pure. I.e. the Android does not have any manufacturer or wireless carrier modifications to it, such as a custom graphical user interface. The Android also has an unlockable bootloader to allow further development and end-user modification, all of which is usually blocked on other Android smartphones.

The Nexus 7 is a 7-inch tablet computer running Android 4.1 (named Jelly Bean) operating system. It was developed in collaboration with Asus. It was the first tablet in the Google Nexus series and features a 7-inch (180 mm) display, an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core chip, 1 GB of RAM, and 8, 16 or 32 GB of internal storage. The 8 and 16 GB models were Wi-Fi only, and the 8 GB was eventually discontinued. The 32 GB models are both Wi-Fi and 3G compatible. The Nexus 7 was marketed effectively as an entertainment device. The tablet has been designed with gaming purpose in mind and has received high resolution display and various sensors to make it the ultimate gaming tablet. The tablets has dropped the rear primary cameras in the tablet and instead focus on place a 1-2 MP front-facing camera for video chatting purposes. The company has also eliminated the Camera app, so users will have to download an app from third-party developers from Google Play. According to Techradar, the images from the camera were a little grainy, but video calling was seamless, with no lag during calls. The low price of the Nexus 7 makes it a good and cheap companion. The 32 GB is available for USD 199 from the website.

The information for the detailed table about the two tablets has been taken from Sony Mobile website, Google website, and GSMArena.com.

Image Courtesy: sonymobile.com, androidheadlines.com