If you were interested in picking up the Sony Tablet S but were scared off by the pricing, you’ll be happy to know that Sony has instituted a $100 price drop.
That means you can get the Android Honeycomb-powered tablet for about $400 and $500 for the 16 GB and 32 GB models, respectively. While the Android ecosystem is not as robust as the iPad, Sony has done a lot of neat things with the Tablet S to make it very appealing. In our official review, Simon Sage was gushing about the device’s ability to be a television companion.
I would deign to call the Sony Tablet S the ultimate TV companion gadget, but among tablets, it’s the best currently available, even if it’s only because of the built-in infrared remote control. HDMI-out, more robust DLNA capabilities, and more reliable local video playback would help the Tablet S do better as a stand-alone multimedia device, but a dearth of Sony services means a wide variety of content is always in reach. I’d love to see some firmware updates that open up the infrared capabilities to third-party developers, which would in turn introduce a fresh breed of apps the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Palm’s pre-webOS days. For dedicated couch potatoes, it’s hard to suggest any other tablet, but if you don’t watch a lot of TV, then the bulk of the appeal of the Sony Tablet S compared to other Android tablets might be lost on you.
Any of you going to pick this up?
[Via eWeek]