Sony Tablet S. My Review.

Sony took their time entering the Android tablet race.  At first glance their patience was not wasted.  This Sony S Wi-Fi Tablet (16GB)  has some clever features and an original look that makes it stand out from the pack.

Mine arrived the 14th of September. Well packaged.  The box includes a Quick Start Guide,  A pictoral guide to the power switch, unlocking the screen, calling up the onscreen keyboard, signing in for the first time, and swiping between home pages. The AC adapter appears straight from one of Sony's laptops with a long AC cord, a power brick, and a long cord from the brick to the proprietary charge point on the bottom edge of the S. I'm not a fan of the dock connection used, as it is snaps in and is a challenge to get out.   You also get a wrist lanyard, but there was no USB/syncing cable in the box.  Lastly there was all the usual boilerplate of warnings, licenses, and disclaimers.

Hardware features:
 - Universal IR remote/transmitter
 - Battery Type : Li-Ion 5000mAh
       + Battery Life when browsing web with Wi-Fi - 6.2 hours
       + Battery charge time - 5.0 hours.
 - Camera : Front – 0.3 Megapixel Rear – 5.0 Megapixel
 - Bluetooth version 2.1 +
 - Wi-Fi : IEEE802.11b/g/n
 - Full-size SD Card slot
 - TruBlack 1280 x 800 9.4" screen.
 - Internal, Monaural microphone
 - Internal, Stereo speakers
 - Dimensions: 9.5" x 6.87" x 0.82" (thick end), and 1.29375 lbs (by my scale, no SD card inserted).
 - User manual available here: PDF Link

Left Edge

Right Edge

SDHC & microUSB port

A bit smaller than the 10.1 tablets out there, it looks like Sony didn't want to have to compete for 10.1 inch screens in case this tablet was a hit. Their 9.4" screen is still 16:10 wide screen rather than 4:3 like the iPad.  It is better for movie playback and any other wide-screen media (like PlayStation games). I personally like the size. Lighter than the iPad2 and Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet I have, the weight plus the shape makes it almost delightful to hold.  Sony also looks to have considered ergonomics in their design, and I'm very appreciative. None of the large tablets I've reviewed so far have been easy to hold up long enough to watch a movie or read a book. They tend to cramp the hand that holds them by the edge. It's not natural or comfortable.  I've suggested adding a handle mount to the center back.  Sony may have a better solution though, and it comes from a simple redistribution of weight.  I have the thick end at about 55% of the weight and the thin end 45%.  The wedge shape makes it obvious how to hold the S for best results as well.  The back also has a texture and a friction coating to eliminate any slipperyness.

Video Frame

Media capability seems to be thorough. The TruBlack screen is beautiful.  Mine has played WMV, MP4, M4V, 3GP video files with no problem.  Other formats/codecs are playable with downloadable apps.  MP3, WMA (including WMA lossless), FLAC, OGG, WAV, MID, XMF music files played with no trouble.  Sony has also thrown in access to it's own Entertainment Network.  There are apps for Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited. Plus the Crackle app where you can view full-length Hollywood movies and TV series for free and on demand.  Finish it off with the Reader™ Store from Sony for ebooks galore.

YouTube App

Camera: The 5.0 megapixel rear camera doesn't include a flash.  It takes sunlight or photo lights indoors to coax a good picture from it, but it can be done.  Like all my other tablets with cameras you shouldn't consider the cameras on the S a replacement for even an inexpensive pocket camera. The S's cameras are better than those on my iPad2, but about the same as what came on any of my other tablets. Below are samples from my yard taken with the rear camera.  The front camera is best used for video chat.

Build quality is typical Sony.  This tablet is light but solid. No flex or squeaks in use. The rear surface has a texture to it that is less slippery than most. Ports and buttons hide inside the crease on the sides, and visually keep the look clean.  They are a bit more challenging to press or plug into though, although not enough to be an ongoing challenge.   The screen appears to roll right around to the back surface.  A nice affect.  The edge is undercut and gives the appearance that this tablet is thinner than an iPad from the front.  Under a flap on the left edge there is a micro-USB and full-sized SDHC card slot.  You'll also find the headphone jack on the left.  There are speaker vents on both edges. There is also a reset hole, which I've had to stick a paper clip into once so far.

Applications Screen

Apps: The included app assortment is impressive.  Most of my android tablets have had less than one page worth of apps to start with. There looks to be 45 or so apps on the S.  You can sort them newest first, A-Z, or a custom way. The downside?  The remaining memory space is only about 9gb.  So much for thinking I could get six or seven 2gb movies on board.  There were a few music, photo, and video samples included though. Roughly 430mb's worth.  When you get tired of those you can move them to your PC to clear up some of that used storage space.

AC Charger Connection Point

Problems?   Sony's Music and Video stores aren't ready at the time of this post.  The screen won't rotate with the thick (heavier) end down. I've also had off and on WiFi connectability problems.  The AC charger is a lump to deal with. No USB cable included. Crash Bandicoot keeps dying on me (OK, my fault not the S's), and yet I'm spending more time than usual enjoying this tablet.

Crash Bandicoot

Conclusions?  At the same prices as the WiFi iPad gen2s, Sony's Tablet S is the best shot I've tested yet to directly steal some sales from Apple. It has a great screen, clever physical design, great media support, Built-in DLNA capability, and a great size/weight. Add PlayStation game playing as well.  Easier to hang on to than any of my other tablets too. Battery life is a little short compared to most of the 10.1s and the iPad.  It's a first generation tablet though, and probably compares better to the iPad-1. With that iPad selling for $399 or less, Sony has this tablet just a little too highly priced.  I saved 10% on mine with a coupon code (now expired) and thought $450 was a fair price for it.  Look for discounts.  If you can save anything off the current MSRP then get one.  I'm keeping mine.

4D


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Philips GoGear Muse, 16gb. My Review

This will be my third Philips portable media player. The first was the cryptically named SA5245BT. I still enjoy using that player. The included Bluetooth is great. Yet with a non-memorable name it is hard to recommend to anyone in conversation. Philips got smart this year and started giving their products family (GoGear) and model names (Muse). I love the name. Cleverly appropriate. Perhaps they've been reading my blog.

Dimensions: 110 x 55 x 8.9 mm or 4.33 x 2.16 x .35 inches. It weighs 95 grams or 3.35 ounces.
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Included: USB charge/sync cable, slip case, noise cancelling ear buds with 3 different sized tips, registration form, warranty info, a Quick Start guide, offers from Audible and Rhapsody, and an installation CD.
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I HIGHLY recommend the Muse. Why? It plays just about every form of media I throw onto it. The Noise Cancelling works well, and the included (required) earbuds are comfortable. It's well made (is that stainless steel?). The big LCD screen is great to watch Photos and Videos on. They've already updated the firmware with a more colorful and animated set of icons. Lastly, it sounds great!

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Specs and Features can be found HERE. What stands out to me are the supported codecs:

- Audio includes MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, APE, and Real Audio.

- Video includes AVI, WMV, MP4, and RMVB. Resolutions up to D1 (720 × 576) in AVI and MP4, with up to VGA (640 x 480) in WMV and RMWB. WM-DRM is also supported.
- Picture support includes JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG files. It came with some 800 x 480 photos on board which look great when displayed.
- You also get FM Radio and text display with the Muse. FM includes RDS for additional information about the station and song you may be listening to. There are 20 station presets you can program. You can mute FM Radio too. Not all players can. Text files (.TXT) will also display on the screen.
- You can record FM radio to the Muse as MP3 (stereo) files. There's also a built-in microphone for recording voice messages in MP3 (Mono) format.

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Details: Across the top is a noise cancelling switch and volume control rocker.

The microphone is on the right edge next to a slot to tie a lanyard or wrist-strap through.

UI: Getting around through the icons and menus is done using a 4-way direction pad with pause/play/select in the middle. There's also a back button bottom left of the pad and an options button top left of the pad.

A Power and Hold slider is on the bottom edge next to the USB port. Far right on the bottom edge is the headphone jack.

The headphone jack has an extra "keyhole" slot to key with the noise cancelling headphone's plug. The player will also take standard headphone plugs. That key keeps you from using the included headphones with any other player though.

As non-touchscreens interfaces go, this is average. To finding one song in a long list is not too bad. The longer you hold down the down button the faster the list scrolls. A little better than typical.

Music: With noise cancelling (NC) the Muse is more of a pleasure to listen to than most players. With NC on the ordinary sounds of living go away and leave just your music to enjoy. I type this with my CPU case next to my monitor on my desk, and the CPU has the expected fan and hard drive sounds coming from it. Plug into the Muse and that din disappears. Getting to the music is surprisingly easy as well. The Music icon is first in line and takes one tap of the play button to select. You can then choose from All songs, Rhapsody channels, Smart Shuffle, Artists, Album Art, Albums, Genres, Rating, Playlists, and Audiobooks. The screen area is well used. While any song or book is playing you'll see cover art/album art on the left and information on the right. From the Options menu you can adjust sound settings, Add the current song to a playlist, Bookmark, Delete, Rate, and choose play mode. The only thing I haven't been able to do is play all songs (across more than one album) from an artist. There are 10 preset EQ settings, and one 5-band custom EQ you can set yourself. You've also got Philips Full Sound option to turn on or off. Lastly there is an option to set a volume limit. Music play gets an A from me.

Video: What I love about the Muse is that I can drop about any video files I have on it and it will play. MP4 Videos at 480 x 320 for the iPhone and iPod Touch are most easy to come by and they play fine on the Muse. AVI files formatted for my players with 480 x 272 pixel screens also play fine. I've thrown 512 x 288 and 640 x 360 MP4 files onto the Muse and they play as well. They only thing to keep away from is DRM encoded videos. Video gets an A.

Pictures: The Muse displayed photos taken right off my 7mp digital camera. It's obviously internally shrinks then to display on it's screen. It doesn't offer any Zoom capability that I could find. You can rotate images in 90 degrees steps. Photos look typical for an LCD screen, and will fade out as you tilt away from a straight-on view of the screen. There is a slide show function. You can select the time between photos, as well as shuffled or sequenced play order. There is an option to add individual photos to an Album. You can also delete photos from the player. To display the photos in a single folder use the browser to find that folder first. I'll give the Photo app a B- for not having a zoom option.

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Conclusion: The Muse from Philips leaves me with a generally good feeling. There are no major flaws or shortcomings among it's features. The price (mine was $128 from amazon.com) is right for what you get, and what you get is a versatile and great sounding media player. Philips seems to know there is little 3rd-party support for it's player so they throw in a nice slip-case to keep the muse in. A simple but appreciated touch. Should you buy a Muse? I see no reason why not. There is no memory expansion slot on the Muse, but you can get one with 32gb memory installed if you need it.

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4D

Latte Espresso Touchscreen Media Player, 16gb. My Review!

Latte looks like they want to move up the ladder in the touchscreen player market. Target.com sells this beautiful 3" touchscreen Espresso model in 8gb and 16gb versions for $120 and $150 respectively. No cutting costs on hardware features, as this player features a G-sensor, Haptic Feedback, Voice and FM Recording, and FM broadcast to any nearby FM radio. Target listed a microSD card slot, but my Espresso DID NOT have one. Target also lists a calendar app which doesn't exist on the Espresso.

The packaging is a nice change from plastic blister packs. Slide the top off to find the player. Lift out the player to find the normal contents beneath. You'll find a standard USB to mini-USB cable, some nice sounding in-canal earbuds, a user manual, warranty card, and coupon for 50 free songs. The earbuds appear to be well made and designed to compliment the Espresso's style. They come with uneven length cables to the buds which makes them easy to wrap behind your head. They also came with a nice net bag and spare set of tips. As a bonus they also sound Great. Good bass, plenty loud, external sound isolating, no audible noise, and expressive across the audio spectrum. They are on sale for $5.99 at Lattezone.com (regular $14.99) though, so don't be upset if they sound or look cheap to you. The only external control is the Power/Play/Pause/Hold slider. On the same end you'll find the USB and headphone jack. There is a small reset hole just around the corner. I love the way the Espresso looks, with a clean simple bronze body evenly framing the 3" touchscreen. The back and sides appear to be aluminum with a fine bevel between them . The front screen surround is plastic. The back is brushed, and the overall finish does a good job at not showing fingerprints. If you care about where your headphone jack is, then the Espresso has the perfect solution. The internal G-sensor knows where down is, and no matter how your rotate it the icons and apps all rotate to stay upright. The main menu is a simple array of icons. A tap takes you to either the files list for the app or right into the (radio) player. There is a nice haptic vibration to confirm your selection. Music. This Latte will play back MP3, WMA, FLAC, APE, and AAC (no DRM) files. I've tried MP3, WAV, WMA, and FLAC with success, although it wouldn't play lossless WMA files. The music app is nearly complete. Missing is the ability to advance to any part of a song. There doesn't appear to be gapless playback. I couldn't find any playlist support in the manual or on the device, but there is an option to add songs to a single favorites list. The now-playing screen lets you tap between album art, a graphic equalizer, EQ/bitrate/repeat/shuffle info, or the ID3 info including title, album, and artist. There is a large PLAY/PAUSE button, with track and volume buttons smaller and along the right side (or top in portrait view). You also get an A-B button, lyrics toggle, settings icon, and BACK (previous screen) icon. Finding a single song in a long list is a tedious process. There is no reliable way to jump to a relative position in a list, and with no swipe or fast scroll of the list the touchscreen capabilities are underutilized. Yet this music app is better than most I've seen on budget Chinese media players. I've been enjoying a shuffle though my music collection as I write this. Music gets a B+.

Video. Video format includes AVI, WMV, RM, RMVB, and FLV. Video is the only visual media to not rotate to portrait view. You can still flip the headphone end from right to left and the video will flip. I've tried WMV and AVI files on the Espresso, and although they play there is occasional frame drop. Audio will also get slighly out-of-sync. This may be no problem with videos formatted to fit the native resolution of the screen. My videos were all 480 x 272 or larger. The screen resolution is 420 x 240, but the user manual claims videos up to 800 x 480 (AVI) will play. This is no OLED screen, but videos look decent, and are certainly watchable. The resolution is slighty below what other 3" players feature, but on such a small screen the difference is not apparent. On a side note, the new (and expensive) Sony Walkman 3" t0uchscreen player has the same resolution yet worse video codec/format support. Video playback gets a B-.

Photos. You can view JPEG, BMP, and GIF images. You can rotate the screen, but images don't auto-rotate to fit the screen, nor will they reliably rotate as the screen rotates. There is a one-step zoom option. You can pan around a zoomed image, but screen response is slow and a bit unpredictable. Images looks fine on the screen though, when you can avoid glare. This app is immature, and my experience suggests it won't be updated. Photo display gets a C+.
Text. TXT files can be read. You get three font sizes, as three font colors to choose from. The text will rotate as you turn the player for landscape or horizontal views. Legibility depends on the background and font color you choose, but text is crisp on the 420 x 240 screen. Moving through a large text file isn't as easy as it could be. It should be easy enough to throw a grocery list on the player, though you can't create one on the player itself. Text gets a C+.

FM Radio. Works as expected. You can tune manually or let it autotune and select by preset stations. The presets page irritatingly doesn't let you pick a preset and jump to it, but it does let you delete or add stations easily. No RDS info. No HD radio tuning. Reception will vary depending on your headphones and orientation, as the headphone cable serves as the FM antenna. You can also record off of FM. You get two quality settings. To my ears the high quality WAV recording produced sounds just like the song did playing over the air. It take RDS to get an A from me, so FM Radio gets a B.

Voice Recording. There are two quality settings and five level settings. Recordings are in the .WAV format. I have no idea where the mic is on the Espresso but facing the screen the pickup seemed to be fine. There was noticeable 'static' in my recording. I could hear it through the headphone both while recording and playing back what I'd recorded. Not enough to make the recording useless, but something that will keep this feature of the Espresso from replacing your dictation machine. You can pause and resume while recording, and choose to save or not save a recording you've just made. You'll need to go into the music app or explorer to find an play back your recordings. Voice Recording gets a C-.

Stopwatch is your bonus app. Very basic. No lap times, and only a single timer. It displays time down to 100ths of a second. You can pause and resume a timing. There is also a reset icon. The display will rotate as the device rotates. That's it. Nothing special. C.

Explorer is what explorer does. Have a grand tour of the files you've put on your player.

Settings. Among other things the Settings option lets you turn on or off haptic response and the G-sensor. You can change or disable the backlight and power OFF timings. You'll also find your background choices here. Photo slide show timing is also here, although it would have been more useful in the Photo app.

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Summary. I strongly suggest you use a soft tipped stylus with the Espresso. It's hard to be precise enough with a fat finger as the small icon/targets demand. Otherwise I find this Latte a good value for the money. FM broadcast from a media player is very convenient, and it works well on the Espresso. You can set the frequency you want to broadcast at, and any FM radio with 30 feet or so should be able to play your music. A cheaper alternative to wireless audio than Bluetooth although not as versatile. It's not as nice a player as the Samsung P2 or P3, but you get twice as much memory capacity for the same money. Target seems to have the best price on them right now, but don't trust their description. There is NO memory slot and no calendar on the Espresso. If you can get over that, I highly recommend Latte's Espresso.

4D

Insignia Pilot 8GB Review

BestBuy put their 8gb Insignia Pilot on sale this past week, so I had to take a look. With bluetooth and a slot for a SDHC card up to 8gb, $99 appeared to be literally the best buy for a multimedia player out there. When I found an 8gb SDHC card online for <$30 I knew I had to have this Pilot. My entire music collection totals about 14gb. A 16gb iPod Touch is $399. A 16gb Sony $299. The 16gb Samsung P2 isn't available in the states, and still goes for over $300 in Canada. It looks like 16 gigabytes worth of Insignia was going to cost me $130 plus tax. Does the Pilot perform?

The Features are there:

Music: MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA DRM, WMA Pro, Audible, OGG, WAV. Formats upgradable.

FM radio: 20 channel presets, RDS, Records to WMA, Saves RDS data. FM also works over Bluetooth headphones.

Video: MPEG4 (30fps), WMV (30fps)

Photos: JPEG. 5 zoom steps into your photo.

SDHC single slot. Reads and automatically adds to it's libraries all supported media on cards up to 8gb.

Windows and Mac compatible.

Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery for up to 25 hours of playback time can be removed and replaced by the owner. This promises the Pilot will last longer than it's original battery.

Five Band Equalizer with 4 presets, with a normal and one custom setting.

USB 2.0 interface, non-propriatory USB cable included.

Built-in Bluetooth wireless audio lets you listen to your music with compatible Bluetooth headphones or speakers (not included). Stereo via Bluetooth, but no volume control to connected speakers or headphones.

2.4" high-resolution 4:3 LCD color display with wide viewing angles. 320 x 240 pixels. 262,000 colors.

Height: 1.6"

Thickness: 0.4"

Depth: 3.3"

Weight: 2.1 oz.

Music-Management Software: Best Buy Digital Music Store

Music Service Compatibility: Best Buy Digital Music Store Rhapsody Rhapsody To Go iTunes Windows Media Player

Included Accessories: Wired ear buds, mini USB 2.0 cable, software CD-ROM

The interface can be flipped to serve for right or left handed users. You can arrange home screen icons in a circle or array. You can choose from Navy Blue, Yellow Green, Deep Magenta, Dark Gray, and Blue Mist background colors. Eight brightness levels. Backlight timeout from 2 seconds to 3 minutes or Always On. Lastly, you can choose between screen OFF or dimmed after timeout.

The Pilot has two 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo jacks on it's short side. You can use them both for headphone outputs, sharing the music with another person. One alternates as a line input which the Pilot can record from. The other alternates as an A/V output to your TV.

Control is via a rocker/spinning wheel that also serves as directional up/down/left/right control, a center Play/Pause button, and a menu button. The top edge of the device has an ON/OFF slider that also serves to lock the Pilot's controls. There is also a small rocker switch for rating songs. Access to functions is nowhere near as easy as the touchscreen players allow, but no worse than any other spin wheel player out there. Volume can be controlled with a spin of the wheel, or a long press on the top or bottom of it.

How does it sound? With it's included earbuds the sound is average at best. Plug in a good pair of headphones and the sound is as good as any other player's sound is. Perfectly enjoyable. There is an A<>B mode for repeating sections of a song or audible book. If you have cover art attached to your music files it will display full screen on the player while the song plays. Pictures look as good as possible on a small LCD screen. They are bright, and easy to see from any angle. You can play them as a slide show, with timing between images from 2 seconds to 1 minute. They can be zoomed and rotated.

Video is also sharp as can be expected on a small screen. The Pilot comes with a version of Arcsoft's video convertor that will convert DVDs and other video formats into video files you can watch on your device. The TV output can be set to 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios, and NTSC or PAL format.My conclusion? The Insignia Pilot is competent and versatile. It doesn't have the best interface. It doesn't have the biggest screen. For the money, though, it stands out as an amazing bargain. It will play almost any media you throw at it, and can be upgraded to play future formats as well. If you've got a large collection of music, videos, or photos, the Insignia is your most economical way to take them with you. I vote Best Buy.

4D