Europe’s largest consumer electronics expo, IFA 2011, is just about to kick off in Berlin, and both Sony and Samsung have jumped the gun and announced three delicious slabs of Android-powered goodness. From Sony there is the S (slate) and P (portable) tablets, and from the other side of the East China Sea, Samsung has outed the Galaxy Tab 7.7 — a 7.7-inch (!) Super AMOLED Plus 1280×800 tablet that replaces the original Galaxy Tab.
Spec-wise, the Sony tablets sport dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 CPUs clocked at 1GHz — and judging by some benchmarks, they are certainly not the fastest tablets on the block. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 has a 1.4GHz dual-core Cortex-A9-based Exynos 4210 SoC — a faster version of the chip found in the Galaxy S II smartphone — which should be very fast indeed. All three tablets have 1GB of RAM and plenty of expandable, non-volatile flash storage, 3G (HSPA+) connectivity, and they all run Android 3 Honeycomb (with highly customized interfaces). Both the Sony S and P are PlayStation-certified, too, meaning it can play PS games like the Xperia Play — but neither device has hardware gamepad buttons, so…
Design-wise, it is Sony that — as always — is pushing the boat out with some interesting and unconventional shapes and use-cases. The S tablet at first glance is just a standard me-too iPad killer — but you’ll notice in the image below that it’s actually curved along one horizontal side. Apparently this is to mimic the feel of a folded magazine or newspaper, a shape and weight distribution that is easier to hold with one hand. Having one raised edge will mean that it can prop itself up on a flat surface, too. The P tablet, of all things, is a clamshell with two 5.5-inch 1024×480 screens (view larger); kind of like a jumbo Nintendo DS. Just like clamshell phones of yesteryear, this rather odd form factor will allow the P to go where no other tablet has gone before: the jacket pocket and the purse. The Sony S, incidentally, has a 9.4-inch screen at 1280×768; higher resolution than the iPad 2.
Price- and availability-wise, the Sony S 16GB will be $499, and 32GB will be $599 — the same as the iPad 2 — and it doesn’t sound like it will be a carrier exclusive. The Sony P doesn’t have a US release date yet (and it will be an AT&T exclusive), but it should be available in Europe for around 500 euros in November. Both pricing and availability are unknown for the Galaxy Tab 7.7, though it will probably arrive before Christmas and cost around $400.
For Sony, these devices represent its first foray into Android tablets — and presumably, judging by its uncharacteristic lateness to the party, it is hoping that these radical designs are enough to divert some attention away from the massively successful iPad 2. The ability to play PlayStation games could certainly help things along, and the P’s weird form factor (and thus a different target demographic) mean that Sony could enjoy a lot of success — but on the other hand, it might just fade into obscurity like many of Sony’s wackier designs.
In other news, Lenovo and HTC have also used IFA to announce two more Android tablets — the ThinkPad Tablet and the Jetstream — and when the IFA kicks off in earnest tomorrow, we can guarantee that there will be dozens more to sink your teeth into. Be prepared for a slew of ultrabooks, too.
Sony announces jumbo Nintendo DS tablet, Samsung shows off Galaxy Tab 7.7
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