A tale of tablets – the evolution

As I wrote in my previous post A tale of tablets – the beginning, I have now severed the ties to all of my Apple mobile devices. The last thing to leave through my front door was my pretty iPad Air from November 2013.

Day 1 – uninstall everything from Cupertino

The first sensational feeling was today when I could FINALLY uninstall iTunes, Bonjour, Apple mobile drivers, etc. on my computer. Never again will I have to wait forever when pluggin’ in an iPad, with the “Syncing” message running. Also not having do to all kinds of Ninja tricks to play my local media files on my iPad, media files that haven’t been purchased from the iTunes Store.

People who know me, know that I have liked (even loved) most of my Apple products but despised iTunes from my very first encounter in 2008. Actually I’m a bit baffled that Apple haven’t fixed that terrible piece of s… ehhh… Software. Anywho!

Admittedly – the whole thing about transferring my own media content such as DVDs, CDs etc. is in the year of 2015 a virtually non-existing problem, due to streaming services such as Deezer, Spottify, Netflix, HBO and the likes. Nevertheless, very much an annoyance in the past.

Ahoy – an Android tablet awaits in the future

Today was also the day when the 2-week countdown started to my iPad replacement will arrive, and I can’t wait. I think I finally found an Android Tablet that will last 1-2 years, like my iPads have done in the past

For the first time since the lauch of the iPad, an Android based tablet seem to be able to match and beat the iPad. And that is my own humble oppinion, if you were wondering.

And the new contender, that I pre-ordered today is: Sony Xperia Z4 tablet, here is a picture of the pretty little fellow (from Sony’s webstite)

By the way – I chose the WiFi only model. I had LTE in my iPad and never ever used it (use Wifi Tethering with Xperia Z3 Compact whenever needed, so decided to use that learning to save some bucks on my Z4 tablet.

So why the Sony Xperia Z4 tablet?

Actually for several reasons – all of which I haven’t really found another replacement until now.

1. Size matters! The Z4 tablet has the right one for me. It has a 10.1” display, and at 389 grams it’s close to perfect. Big screen and small weight – whats not to like?
2. The display form factor. I use my tablets a lot for streaming video – and the iPad 4:3 aspect ration is a little annoying in that regard, with big black bars on the top and bottom of the video. The Z4 has a 16:10 aspect ration, which is very close to normal 16:9 used in TV shows and most movies.
3. With an 2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 64-bit Octa Core processor under the hood, combned with 3Gigs of RAM I’m fairly sure that performance won’t be an issue. As in – at all.
4. High resolution display. Lesson learned using the iPad Air – 2560×1600 pixels provides an crisp experience.
5. Long battery life. Apparantly up to 17 hours of video watching. When travelling, I need long battery life. Usually manufacturers tend to exaturate heavily on this parameter, but I have to admit that the amaing battery life of my Sony Xperia Z3 Compact has given Sony some extra bonus points here – hopefully the Xperia Z4 tablet will do the same. (Whatch and learn Samsung…)
6. It’s pretty and super slim. I like the design, and with 167 x 254 x 6.1 mm dimensions it’s super compact.
7. Micro SD expansion. SHAME ON ALL MANUFATURERS that decided to skip the Micro SD expansion option. No excuse here – just saying!
8. No “flaps” covering the Micro USB charging. Not a fan of them on my Z3 Compact.
9. The other stuff: Waterproof, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 etc. yadi yadi yadi yadi… It’s all good.

Source: Sony Global website for the Z4 tablet

Is there anything I don’t like about the Z4 Tablet?

Yes. I basically have the some of same issues with the Z4 tablet as my Xperia Z3 compact. Remember that I haven’t actually seen the Z4 yet.

1. No QI wireless charging. Come on SONY – you create an amazing waterproof device, and yet you do not include QI charging? A little disappointed here
2. USB 2.0 connectivity, and not USB 3.0. Moving large video files back and forth would be so much faster with USB 3.0. Simple solution is obviously a snappy Micro SD card in a USB 3.0 cardreader – but still. USB 3.0 should be in a premium device like the Z4 Tablet
3. SONY’s modding of the Lollipop user interface, and bloatware. No – I actually haven’t triet it yet, but I imagine that this won’t be entirely different.
4. 32 GB storage including the OS is a bit on the low side.

Check out all of the specs here on SONY’s webpage

So what’s next?

Well – easy really. SONY needs to actually start selling the Xperia Z4 tablet, go through the pre-orders, find my order, pack it very very well – and finally pyt it in a massive canon and shoot the parcel in my direction!

Or… Just tickle have Amazon DHL a little bit as promised, and have the package delivered asap.

According to SONY the should start shipping on May 29^th, so I should have it here in Denmark in early June. When that happens, I’ll be back with an actual hands-on review.

Is it early June yet? Tic-toc… Tic toc..