Sony reveals details of S1 and S2 tablets

JAPANESE ELECTRONICS GIANT Sony revealed it has taken so long to produce a tablet in order to get it right and make it unique.

We popped out of The INQUIRER towers to Sony's Christmas Crackers event where it spoke to us about its upcoming tablets. The devices still have the codenames S1 and S2, which it appears to be sticking with for now.

Unfortunately the two tablets were stuck inside a glass case at the event and are still prototypes, so we didn't get to use them but we got some close up photos of each.

Sony plans to launch both tablets this Autumn, which we already knew, but we were told by Chris Trewhitt, product manager at Sony that they "won't necessarily be launched at the same time".

The devices will be running Android 3.x Honeycomb and Sony will aim to launch the pair with whatever the latest version is at the time. When asked why it had taken so long to produce a tablet Trewhitt said, "It's taken so long in order to get it right and make them unique."

Android is the operating system of choice for Sony, rather than developing its own, because of Android's "awareness and momentum", added Trewhitt.

The music and video services that were a possibility when we reported on the tablets in April are now features that definitely will appear on the gadgets. Sony also confirmed that they will include its Playstation Suite, which will allow users to do things like move and resize controls.

The S1 will be able to be used as an infrared remote control and both tablets will have DLNA technology, which Trewhitt confirmed will work with any brand rather than being locked to Sony products. A unique 'flick' gesture will magically make content that you're viewing on the tablet appear on your TV.

Both Sony tablets will have microUSB connectivity but no HDMI. We assume that the lack of HDMI ports is down to the inclusion of DLNA technology. Unfortunately we weren't able to wheedle any other information out of Sony on prices or any more detailed specifications. µ