Sony to Launch Two Android Tablets Later This Year

Sony will make its long-hoped-for entry into the pad PC market later this year with 2 models based on the latest version of Google's Android in operation system.

The tablets, which carry the development names S1 and S2, will be launched worldwide from the fall, Sony said connected Tuesday.

The company didn't announce pricing details or specific launch dates, only it did offer some basic specifications and demonstrate prototypes of the two machines at a Yedo press conference. (Video of the hot tablets is available on YouTube.)

The S1 is a slate design and has a 9.4-inch screen with 1,280 by 800 pixels resolution. At first sight it looks similar to most competing tablets, but look more closely at its profile and you'll see it's shaped like a wedge. The upper portion of the tablet is thicker than the lower lot and that makes it easier to hold, said Sony.

The S2 is a foldable device well-appointed with dual 5.5-inch screens, each with 1,024 aside 480 pixels resoluteness. It has a rounded designing and is small enough to consort the inside sack of a jacket. Unveiling the tablet at the Tokyo word conference, Kunimasa Suzuki, deputy president of Sony's consumer products group, reached inside his jacket and pulled it out.

Both tablets will run Android 3.0, the so-called "Honeycomb" version of the operating system, and can connect to Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular networks. Sony is building support for its Qriocity online audio and video services into both tablets, and users will also be able to browse and bargain physics books.

They are both based on NVidia's Tegra 2 processor and apiece has advance and rear cameras.

Sony has built an infrared frequency sender into the S1, so it commode be accustomed control gadgets around the house, much as a television or Blu-ray Disc player. It also supports the DLNA (Digital Keep Network Alliance) consumer electronics networking standard and canful send audio and picture content ended a WI-Fi network to be played on other devices. Victimisation this engineering science, for example, a picture could be purchased connected Qriocity and streamed to a DLNA-equipped television (from some manufacturer) through the tablet.

Happening the S2, the dual screens can live used for gaming. The top screen will evince the game and the worst display will have on-screen controls that can be manipulated with the touchscreen. The lozenge will be PlayStation Certified — a new program from Sony Computing device Entertainment that extends the PlayStation gaming platform to other devices.

Sony appears to have a lot of hope that developers will find interesting and unusual shipway to use the dual screens along the S2. The party hopes away announcing the tablets now, software engineers will produce applications that will help sell the S2 tablet to a consumer base that's become used to the iPad physical body-ingredien.

While non disclosing a launch schedule, Sony did pronounce that launch timing might differ from grocery store to market. The way the device is sold-out, bundled with a 3G connection operating theater non, might also differ from country to country.

Martyn Williams covers Japan and pandemic technology breaking intelligence for The IDG News Overhaul. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com