Sony Tablet P in the flesh, first impressions

Announced back in September 2011 at IFA in Germany, the Sony Tablet P is yet to be launched in the Philippines. I spotted this foldable touchscreen Android tablet at one of the Duty Free stores at a Taiwan airport.

I almost got one for myself considering it was only selling for around NT$16,000 (~Php23k) but didn’t have time for my connecting flight.

The Tablet P looks cool at first but once you get a closer inspection, the apparent weight (0.82lbs) and thickness (0.53″ when open and 1.02″ when closed) of the device might turn you off (it’s more like the thickness actually).

The dual-screen works flawlessly although when you flip it wide open and flat, there’s still some noticeable gap between the edges where the screen supposed to merge.

The specs is standard specs for first-gen tablets (this was September 2011) but might already be considered a bit old once it is released in the Philippines this year (if ever it will be).

Sony Tablet P specs:
Dual 5.5″ display @ 1024×480 per screen (1024×960 pixel total)
NVidia Tegra2 1.0GHz dual-core
1GB RAM
4GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD (2GB included)
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
HSPA+ 21Mbps
Bluetooth 2.1
5MP rear camera
0.3MP front-facing camera
Android Honeycomb
Li-Ion battery 3080mAh (up to 7 hours)

For the retail price of about Php23k, it’s not that bad considering you also have 3G and cellular functions (HSPA+) instead of just WiFi.

Nevertheless, the unique design and form factor might attract a few folks who’d fancy a clutch-bag type Android tablet. This reminds me of the Vaio P netbook Sony released a couple years ago.