14 DAY TRIAL // Exactly one week ago, it was revealed that Sony was probably prepping a tablet with a smaller form factor of the 8-inch variety, set to be unveiled at IFA 2014 next week.
With a few days until the kick start of the official event it appears Sony might have “accidentally” teased the tablet plus an unannounced and unheard of smartwatch on a Facebook product page it set up for a new SmartBand wearable.
Sony posted the image you can see above, which shows a person holding a white tablet with a smaller form factor, sitting by the pool. The man is also wearing an unidentified smartwatch. From the picture, it’s pretty clear the two new products will follow Sony’s tradition and be waterproof.
The tablet looks to be of a 7-inch or 8-inch variety and judging by the fact that the Xperia Tablet Z and Xperia Z2 Tablet both sport 10-inch screens, it makes sense we’re actually looking at the purported Sony Xperia Tablet Z3.
As for the smartwatch, in all possibility this is will turn out to be the newest addition the Sony Smartwatch family. Some of you might remember the SmartWatch 2 was released back in mid-2013, so the timing would be right for the company to roll out a successor.
Aside for these first visual cues, there’s nothing else spec-related that we can actually tell you about the new devices. Sadly, we’ll have to wait until next week to see if Sony actually rolls out the new products or not.
Some time ago, a mysterious Sony SGP621 product appeared in the Indonesian website Postel and back then it was speculated the device could either be the Sony Xperia Tablet Z3 or Xperia Z3 Ultra.
Since then theorists has narrowed down and the general consensus is that the company is planning to penetrate the 8-inch tablet ecosystem, which it stayed cleared of until now.
It would be interesting to see how slim the new tablet is going to be, considering February’s Xperia Z2 Tablet was dubbed the “world’s slimmest waterproof tablet.”
We also hope, Sony will bump up the resolution on the mini slate to something better than what they are offering on their current flagship (FHD – 1920 x 1200 pixels). Something akin to the iPad mini with Retina Display or Samsung TabPRO 8.4 would certainly make a difference.
Last but not least, maybe Sony’s upcoming tablet will compete with the likes of Dell Venue 8 Pro or ASUS VivoTab Note 8, by adding a smart pen into the bundle.