SONY Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact(New)

SONY Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact

THE SONY XPERIA Z2 Tablet has long been our favourite Android tablet, thanks to its stunning thin design and superb performance. The Z3 Tablet Compact fortunately shares a lot in common with its larger predecessor.

Sony has yet to announce a 10in Z3, so it may concentrate on 8in models from now on. We find 8in models are becoming increasingly popular as a good compromise between portability and screen size, but some may still prefer the 4:3 aspect ratio of an iPad or Google Nexus 9, which makes a tablet feel more natural to use in portrait mode.

There’s no doubt the Z3 Compact looks great. It’s amazingly slim at just 6.4mm, and weighs 270g, which is 140g less than the 8in Tesco Hudl 2. The difference in weight can easily be felt: the Z3 Compact is supremely comfortable to hold in one hand thanks to its thin chassis and even weight distribution.

The Z3 Compact is waterproof and resistant to dust, so you can safely use it to take snaps in fresh water for up to 30 minutes at a time, although only to depths of 1.5m and as long as you close all the port flaps.

Impressively, Sony has done away with the need for a flap to seal the headphone connection. Forgetting to close such a flap could well be the cause for your tablet’s watery demise, as it’s so regularly used and easy to forget about. There’s also a magnetic charging dock connector on the side, which disrupts the Z3 Compact’s clean lines.

The Z3 Compact is available with 16GB (£329) or 32GB (£379) of storage. You can also buy the 16GB version with LTE (4G) for £429. Each model is available in black or white.

Like the Xperia Z2, the Z3 Compact has a display resolution of 1,920x1,200 pixels, although these are packed into a smaller 8in screen. This gives it a pixel density of 275ppi to the Z2’s 224ppi, making the pixels even less discernible and text and images incredibly sharp. Colour accuracy is one of the Z3 Compact’s strong points, with the display able to produce an astonishing 98.2 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut. This is one of the best readings we’ve seen on a tablet, eclipsing the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9’s 88.7 per cent accuracy and the Google Nexus 9’s 93.8 per cent. To our eyes, however, the Z3 Compact has a subtle blue cast that gives the screen a slightly cold colour temperature. This didn’t affect our enjoyment of the tablet, though.

Although colour accuracy is impressive,the Z3 Compact’s black levels don’t quite reach such dizzying heights. The tablet managed black levels of 0.62cd/m², which isn’t as deep as we’d like. We were similarly disappointed with its contrast ratio of 875:1, which isn’t as high as the Google Nexus 9’s. The Z3 Compact does have an exceptionally bright screen, however, with our calibrator measuring white levels at a searing 546.8cd/ m², meaning the display is easy to see even when outdoors.

Sony has yet to announce a 10in Z3, so it may concentrate on 8in models from now on. We find 8in models are becoming increasingly popular as a good compromise between portability and screen size, but some may still prefer the 4:3 aspect ratio of an iPad or Google Nexus 9, which makes a tablet feel more natural to use in portrait mode.

Although the Z3 Compact shares the same resolution screen as its predecessor, it has received a substantial performance upgrade through its quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 system-on-chip running at 2.5GHz – a 200MHz speed increase for each core. This is paired with a very generous 3GB of RAM. The tablet felt highly responsive when we were navigating around Android 4.4, with apps and menus opening in a swift manner and the tablet never stuttering under the load of image-heavy or complex websites.

Gaming performance is strong, too. The Z3 Compact maxed out our Ice Storm Extreme test and managed a respectable 18,077 in Ice Storm Unlimited, which runs at a fixed 720p resolution to help compare different chipsets. This isn’t as high as the Google Nexus 9’s or Nvidia Shield Tablet’s figures, which are the Android gaming power champions, but the Z3 Compact will certainly handle graphically complex games such as Assassin’s Creed: Pirates with high detail levels. All this power doesn’t come at the expense of battery life; in our video playback battery test, the Z3 Compact managed 16 hours, 51 minutes, which is one of the best scores we’ve seen.

The tablet’s gaming credentials don’t stop there. If you own a PlayStation 4 you can use the Z3 to play PS4 games over your network using the Remote Play service. This means you can use your PS4 controller to play games all over the house on your tablet, helping avoid arguments when the TV is in use. You’ll need both the PlayStation 4 and Xperia Z3 connected to the same wireless network.

Sony has its own Camera app for the 8-megapixel rear and 2.2-megapixel frontfacing cameras. This app has features such as Background Defocus, which replicates the background blur effect from DSLR cameras. There’s also AR Effect, which uses augmented reality to add virtual characters such as Spiderman to your shots. This is fun but probably not something you’ll use often once the novelty wears off. The Panoramic Sweep and Manual modes are much more useful.

Photo quality is only average; the camera captures a decent amount of detail in good light, but images are still grainy and lacking in sharpness, and colours are subdued. Low-light performance is also poor, with a lot of noise.

The Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact is a premium tablet, and it has the price to match. Its build quality is fantastic and it’s razor thin, and the water- and dust-proofing is useful. Its performance is also top-notch, and Sony has said it will upgrade the Z3 Compact to Android 5 Lollipop early in 2015.

If you want a compact Android tablet, the choice comes down to this or the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (Shopper 320). The Galaxy Tab S has a superior higher-resolution screen, but can’t match the Sony’s build quality, 3D performance or battery life. We think the Samsung’s amazing screen makes it just pip the Z3 Compact overall, but Sony’s tablet is a better bet to use on the move. However, bear in mind that Apple’s iPad Mini 2 has dropped in price to £239, making it a strong 8in alternative to the Z3 Compact.

Specifications :

• PROCESSOR -----------  Quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801
• SCREEN SIZE -------- 8in
• SCREEN RESOLUTION ------------ 1,920x1,200
• REAR CAMERA -------------------------  8.1 megapixels
• STORAGE ---------------------------------- 16/32GB
• WIRELESS DATA ------------------- 4G +£100 (16GB model only)
• SIZE -----------------------------  213.3x6.4x123.6mm
• WEIGHT -------------------  270g
• OPERATING SYSTEM -------------------- Android 4.4
• WARRANTY -------------------- One-year RTB
• PART CODE ---------------------------- SGP621GB/W.CEK