Though Sony’s Tablet S has been known about for months now, today they finally unveiled official specifications for the device. While weight isn’t the spec that everyone jumps at immediately, it’s certainly an important factor for a large 10 inch tablet. Sony says that their Tablet S is just 595 grams, which makes it the second lightest of the top 12 tablets, right between the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Apple iPad 2 (with the Tab 10.1 being the lightest) quite impressive considering that the Tablet S design isn’t as thin as many of the other tablets on the market because of it’s interesting folded shape, though it should count itself lucky to be considered a 10″ tablet when the screen is actually only 9.4″. Have a look at how the top 12 ten inch-category tablets compare:

I would love to be able to say that tablets are getting lighter as time goes on, but as you can see, there are four Honeycomb tablets that were released after the first (the Xoom) that are actually heavier (though the Eee Pad Slider sort of has an excuse!).

The Tablet S is only about 1% lighter than the iPad 2, but Sony designed it with that funky shape specifically to make it feel lighter in one hand by grouping the weight on one side and reducing leverage again your hand. I’d be curious to see how much torque the iPad 2 puts on a hand vs. the Tablet S.

Though Sony’s Tablet S has been known about for months now, today they finally unveiled official specifications for the device. While weight isn’t the spec that everyone jumps at immediately, it’s certainly an important factor for a large 10” tablet. Sony says that their Tablet S is just 595 grams, which makes it the second lightest of the top 12 tablets, right between the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Apple iPad 2 (with the Tab 10.1 being the lightest) – quite impressive considering that the Tablet S design isn’t as thin as many of the other tablets on the market because of it’s interesting folded shape, though it should count itself lucky to be considered a 10″ tablet when the screen is actually only 9.4″. Have a look at how the top 12 ten inch-category tablets compare:

I would love to be able to say that tablets are getting lighter as time goes on, but as you can see, there are four Honeycomb tablets that were released after the first (the Xoom) that are actually heavier (though the Eee Pad Slider sort of has an excuse!).

The Tablet S is only about 1% lighter than the iPad 2, but Sony designed it with that funky shape specifically to make it feel lighter in one hand by grouping the weight on one side and reducing leverage again your hand. I’d be curious to see how much torque the iPad 2 puts on a hand vs. the Tablet S.

Following the official unveiling of the Tablet P and Tablet S (formerly the S1 and S2) at IFA this morning, Sony now has official pricing and release dates available online. Right now you can go to SonyStyle.com and pre-order the Tablet S (the single-screened one) in its 16GB flavor starting at $499 (to match the iPad 2, no doubt), while the 32GB version goes for $599.

Sony is running a promotion through October 1st which will provide you with $100 off of the Tablet S if you’re willing to trade in an old tablet.

On this page you can enter your old tablet’s details and see if Sony considers it valid for the promotion. At the moment, Sony lists the following tablet manufacturers as those which would be valid:

• Apple
• Archos
• Dell
• HP
• Motorola
• Samsung
• Viewsonic

Once you select a brand you need to specify the model, so not every old tablet may work, but it won’t hurt to give it a try if you want to trade up to a newer device.

Pre-ordering reveals that the device will become available on September 16th, a little more than two weeks away. It’s nice to finally see Sony get their tablets to market, but I don’t think they represent the bar the Sony had once set for handheld devices.

The dual-screened Tablet S is not immediately available for pre-order alongside the Tablet P, and the release date has not been indicated on Sony’s site.

‘Proving that it’s not who makes it first but who makes it better’

Kazuo Hirai announced two tablets at their IFA press conference today. We were at the announcement and watched the presentation.

Availability IN Europe should later this month and the prices were announced as follows.

Tablet S €479 (9.4″ Tablet)

Tablet P €599 (Dual screen)

‘Tablets that fit in the hand and in the pocket’

Offering Sony Playstation compatibility, film and music stores this is something quite unique, especially for Europe. The prices are obviously set to be competitive and to bring as many people.into those stores as possible.

[ Posted via the Galaxy Tab. Ultra-Mobile at IFA 2011. For more IFA coverage, follow me on Twitter. @Chippy ]

Today I went snooping around Sony’s support site where I was able to uncover some support documents for their upcoming S1 and S2 tablets that have gone public before they were supposed to.

From the leaked documents, I’ve found that the S1 and S2 will most likely be shipping with Android 3.2 as opposed to 3.0 or 3.1:

The same screenshot also shows us that the model of this particular tablet is called “Sony Tablet 5 (or maybe S?) inch which is likely an internal codename.

It’s good to know that the S1 and S2 will ship with 3.2 as many tablet owners are still waiting to get their 3.1 updates!

Sony will also be including a ‘Wi-Fi Checker’ app which will presumably help people connect properly to the web, perhaps with more complicated enterprise connections in mind:

Screenshots of the app launcher also indicate that Sony will be including a Chumby app. Chumby is a sort of internet companion that’s designed for a bedside table. Sony’s Dash ‘Internet Viewer’ is powered by the Chumby OS, so it makes sense that the S1 and S2 will be able to use the Chumby app to fill a Dash-like role, though the redundancy between Chumby and the ‘Dash Dock’ is perplexing.

Along with the Chumby app, other screenshots show Zinio, indicating that this will likely come pre-installed as well. Zinio is a digital magazine publishing platform with apps available for iOS and Android.

According to one document demonstrating how to charge the S1, the device will be using a proprietary adapter, which means you’ll be out of luck if you need a charge and didn’t bring your adapter with you! And you definitely won’t be able to fit that adapter on a keychain.

Another screenshot shows us how the keyboard looks, and it will apparently have a number pad, though it can’t be determined if this will be there all of the time or just some of the time (or perhaps it can be toggled?):

There’s also a look at Sony’s Music Player app which will include Sony’s creepily named SenseMe mode which seeks to play music based on your mood.

And just for good measure, here’s the homescreen:

The S1 and S2 are due out this fall, though Sony keeps reminding us that the names are unofficial and may be changed! We’ve got a close eye on these two interesting devices, even if I’m still not convinced that they represent better value than Archos’ awesome new tablets.

Sony is steadily releasing short videos showing some pretty awesome Rube Goldberg machines involving their upcoming S1 and S2 tablets to build hype for the devices.

The tablets, which were recently previewed for the press, are expected to hit the market this Fall. I suppose Sony hopes to keep our attention with these videos until then, but by the time that Fall rolls around, we might begin to see Kal-El devices which will likely blow these tablets out of the water.

We may as well enjoy these interesting videos for the time being. Have a look!

What do you think, will it be too late for these tablets come Fall?

We’ve seen game controller and plenty of other great mods before for the loved but unfortunately canceled VAIO UX-series UMPC, but it looks like one person has taken the game to a whole new level by mounting a PS3 controller directly to the device.

Some members of the media were granted access to a Sony event held in Germany yesterday. Front and center at the event were the Sony S1 and S2 Tablets (which were first announced back in April), both of which take a differentiated approach to the tablet solution. Quite a few sites got some hands-on time, so let’s go through some of the general impressions.

As one would expect, Sony seems to have nailed the hardware design. The S1 is a “full-sized” 9.4 inch tablet running Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Most of the press seem to feel that its design invokes the feeling of a folded newspaper or magazine. One item of note is that the rear of the device is textured, which should result in better grip. I think a lot of tablet manufacturers fail to recognize the importance of grip in a tablet device. Good grip can compensate for a device that might otherwise be deemed too heavy.

In stark contrast to the S1’s design, the S2 features two 5.5 inch screens, and folds into a clamshell position for transport. It also currently runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb. I suspect that the actual OS version at launch might be a step-up of the 3.x-series by the time the S1 and S2 ship. Sony was mum on specs today. However, they did announce that the S2 will launch running on AT&T’s 4G network. AT&T has an HSPA+ network now, and is deploying LTE networks this summer. No one from the press appeared to get specific word on which variant the S2 will support, or if it will support both.

While most 10-inch Android Tablets are deploying with 1200 X 800 displays, the S1 has a 1280 X 768 screen. Despite the slightly lower resolution, the report from Germany is that viewing angles were good from both side and overhead perspectives.

Both devices are Playstation Certified. The jury is stil out on whether or not this feature is truly value-added. It certainly has not hepled reception of the Xperia Play, which debuted to lukewarm reviews.

This Is My Next caught a solid video of the S1 and S2 in action:

All-in-all, the hands-on reports seem to indicate positive interest. Of course, the proof will have to wait until the actual launches. No one is really certain how the Sony proprietary customizations of the Android OS (Quick View and Quick Touch) will be received. Sony’s Android solutions have not been hits so far, neither have they been complete failures. We’ll definitely let you know if these devices hit the mark or not when they release later this year.