Watch out Apple, Sony raises the bar with tablet offerings

Sony has today announced two long-awaited tablet offerings that they hope will distinguish them from other Android tablets on the market. The Sony Tablet S and Tablet P will be available in Ireland from mid-September and November respectively.

The Tablet S certainly looks different than any other tablets. Sony claim its wedge shape makes the device easier to hold by shifting its centre of gravity closer to the user’s hand. This also makes it look a lot less like the iPad (and helps Sony avoid those nasty Apple lawsuits).

The Sony Tablet P is also distinctive with dual 5.5” screens and folding design – the perfect ebook reader. Both tablets run Android Honeycomb.

Sony do offer a unique set of features and services that may help them succeed where other Android tablet manufacturers have failed to excel. Sony tablets are the first such devices capable of running certain PlayStation Certified games, including original PlayStation games.

Sony will offer a “huge range” of movies and TV episodes and over ten million songs on Sony cloud-based entertainment services known as ‘Video Unlimited’ and ‘Music Unlimited’, albeit subscription-based. Staying with the cloud theme, Sony will also offer a ‘Personal Space’ service for free, allowing users to backup and access their content on other devices.

Sony tablets can even act as universal remotes and control non-Sony devices. With such a unique set of features on offer, Sony tablets could become the Apple iPad’s most dangerous competitor.