Friday, September 23, 2011

Cradle for Sony Tablet S. My Review.

Sony's S Tablet includes the Chumby app, an alarm clock app,  as well as a great TruBlack screen for movie and photo viewing. When you put your tablet on the dock it pops up the choice of Desk Clock, Chumby app, or Gallery.  Laying flat on a table isn't the best position for taking advantage of these features, so Sony has now released a dock to hold the S upright and charge it at the same time. My dock arrived the Sept. 20.  I've had a chance to use it a few days now. 
Desk Clock/Alarm
It doesn't come with an AC adapter of its own. You have to commit the one that came with your tablet or purchase a spare from Sony.  A shame, really, as I had intended to keep the dock at home and take my charger to work so I could top my S off when I wasn't using it.
high angle
low angle














The dock also allows two slightly different support angles. One best for passive viewing functions and the second a better angle if you'll need to tap on the screen repeatedly. Made of a stiff plastic and all black except for the rear support, it does a fine job of holding up the tablet in landscape with the thin edge down. The tablet's charge port aligns with the connection on the dock. You plug your adapter into the bottom. There is no way to use this cradle with the tablet in portait (vertical) mode.  There are no other ports or outputs.
Bottom cable jack.
For $39 this cradle/dock is a useful accessory and fairly priced compared to docks I have purchased for other tablets. I wish it had been more capable (HDMI-out perhaps?) and had come with its own power supply. If you need a cradle for the Sony Tablet S though this is your only choice at the moment, and it is considerably better than a picture stand.
My recommendation?  If you need it get it. It works as advertised. Best recommended for your bedside table.  A great alternative and improvement over the standard alarm clock.

4D


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5 comments:

  1. Mine is not charging the tablet, though thetablet charges when connected directly with the charger.

    When charging thru the cradle, it keeps on beeping and keeps toggling between the home screen and the clock (which I chose as default)

    Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like the contacts need cleaning, or there is a minor short somewhere between the contacts and where the charge cable plugs in. I'm not affiliated with Sony in any way, and not technical support for them. You could try cleaning the contacts. I've had luck in the past using the eraser on the rear of a #2 pencil. Good luck.

    4D

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    ReplyDelete
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    4D

    ReplyDelete