Sony Tablet Z

Xperia Tablet Z

Sony didn’t drop the mid-range Xperia SP on us as we’d been expecting. In fact, the company held a press conference on Sunday morning which it used to reveal a tablet it’d already announced in Japan a month earlier. But we did get our first chance to play with the device in question, the Xperia Tablet Z. And it’s actually a really nice 10-inch tablet based on the Xperia Z design. The problem? It’s a 10-inch Android tablet, and people simply aren’t buying 10-inch Android tablets. Sony: make an 8-inch version, then we’ll talk.

On a related note, journos attending MWC were kitted out with Sony Xperia T handsets as part of the “NFC Experience” taking place at and around the show. The T has recently been updated to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, addressing some of the battery issues and software lag we complained about in our review, while inheriting some features from the just-launched Xperia Z, like an improved camera app. It’s a better phone now than it was then, but we have to wonder if it’s too little, too late for this handset.

 

On the NFC side, there were various apps pre-loaded onto the phone, including an NFC pass app for the show itself and an NFC gift app. We didn’t have a whole lot of luck with the gift app, which requires you to request a special NFC card from venue staff (for example, a waiter at a restaurant), scan it with your phone, show the staffer the item and then remember to claim your prize when you’re done. On the Mobile Nations team’s last night in Barcelona,

 WPCentral’s Jay Bennett managed to navigate through most of this convoluted process, but still managed to leave the restaurant prizeless.

 

 

And the NFC pass app wasn’t much better. The problem here is that MWC attendee badges are already NFC-enabled, and pulling out your passport at entry for the required ID check is often easier than unlocking a phone, loading an app and navigating to the right area. The NFC experience certainly got people talking (perhaps largely due to the promise of free phones) but the practical benefits on the ground were few and far between.