Sony's dual-screen Tablet P arrives

Sony's double-screened Vaio P Tablet comes with "4G" internet via AT&T, dual 5.5" touchscreen displays, and a selection of apps optimized for the new format. Running Android 3.2, the data plan costs $35 a month for 3GB and $50 for 5GB. At $550, though, it'll be a difficult sell. With a two-year contract--itself a thousand dollar proposition--it's $400. Product Page [Sony]

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Andrew Singleton

OK fine I”ll bite. Nintendo contracted Sony out for their next gen DS or has Sony finally given up on the PSP and decided to outright steal the DS’s form factor?
- http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
  
  Pssssst. Just out this week: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Vita
  - Andrew Singleton
    
    Yea but who cares about the Vita? All I’ve heard over it is complaints at it using yet ANOTHER proprietary card format along with things like price, being tied to one of the worst carriers for data services and the like.
    
    Edit: Knew the Vita existed. Just couldn’t resist making a jab at Sony’s expense given how the new tablet looks.
    - http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
      
      Was Nintendo first with the dual screen clamshell format? Game and Watch was Nintendo, I think.
      - Andrew Singleton
        
        Game and Watch was Nintendo yes.
    - Halloween Jack
      
      Wait–another proprietary media format? Has Sony not learned a fucking thing from the last three decades plus?
      - msbpodcast
        
        I’ll take that as a rhetorical question. :-)
Comment_Fu

Its ugly, clunky looking and they only show one screen shot on it.

It will rely on Sony writing their own apps and lets face it, Sony are terrible at writing software.

Yuck.
Tom Ligman

I… don’t hate it… a pair of 5.5″ 1024×480 screens, hard case protects it in your pocket when folded…. but their spec page says “nvidia tegra” for the processor… if that’s really tegra and not tegra2 or tegra3, they’re WAAAY late to the game with this.
- sciwizam
  
  It’s Tegra2.
  - Palomino
    
    You are both right, changes have been made, this had been reported on for some time, it’s been in a holding pattern.
    
    “Sony first introduced the device in April 2011, under the code name “S2.”
    
    http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Sony-Tablet-P-Arrives-on-ATandT-March-4-for-400-205740/
http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

It looks like a big hardcase purse when it’s closed. Reminds me of the Vaio P’s marketing, which was aimed mostly at women.
- Palomino
  
  Yes, otherwise known as a Clutch. (Copyright Nintendo Clutch?)
  
  Sad thing is, you can put a cellphone and personal gamer inside one of ‘em.
Richard Dagenais

Those are some seriously pricey data plans. And I’m writing from Canada!
- wrybread
  
  Agreed. Why no $25/2 gig plan, as with iPads? And to even have the option of a contract seems antiquated now. I wonder what the back story is. Does AT&T have the power to dictate terms to Sony?
  - msbpodcast
    
    Sony doesn’t have the market presence that Apple has. The ball is in AT&T’s court.
http://shadowfirebird.tumblr.com shadowfirebird

I wish my smartphone folded like this. I keep butt-dialing the US (from the UK!)
- Palomino
  
  Kyocera Echo, I LOVE mine!
  - http://shadowfirebird.tumblr.com shadowfirebird
    
    Oh, niiiice.
    
    What a shame it’s not available in the UK.
PapayaSF

How do these manufacturers think they are going to compete with iPads when they keep producing tablets that cost about the the same, are inferior in so many ways, and run old versions of Android?

Also, this is another example of how the old truism about Apple products being so expensive does not seem to apply to iOS devices.
- msbpodcast
  
  It doesn’t even apply to OS X devices, which why the 802.11N MacBook Pro is a science geek staple. (Think of a photograph of the propeller heads at CERN… How many laptops do you see that aren’t MacBook Pro’s. Very very few. Now how many desktop machines do you see? Very very few. [Laptop for UI and big UNIX iron for the data capture and wrestling the computations to the ground.])
  - penguinchris
    
    Yep, it’s easily 85% or more Macs in most every university science department. Those that don’t use them tend to convert next time they upgrade.
    
    I’m not sure why you specify 802.11N though as every MBP since at least as far back as 2009 (when I bought mine) supports it.
waetherman

Not sure exactly why a $550 tablet is a “difficult sell” – assuming that price still has a 4G chip in it, it’s $100 less than a comparable iPad. Even without a 4G chip it’d be about the same price with a more innovative, practical (for some) design. The design is almost exactly that of the Microsoft Courier that the Internets went gaga over a couple years ago, and I for one would love to see that concept come to reality, though perhaps with a slightly different hardware design.

Including the price of a wireless contract always makes these devices seem absurdly priced, but that’s not Sony’s problem, it’s AT&T/Verizon/etc.
- flickerKuu
  
  Having a fast connection means nothing when your apps and OS are garbage. I don’t care how fast it is if it’s cheap, unwieldy, and hard to use.
cellocgw

I’ll stick with my Onda vi40, thanks all the same.
- mypalmike
  
  Yeah, reminds me a bit of this http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2011/09/TheOffice_ThePyramid_ss.jpg
  - wrybread
    
    I want one!!!
Brainspore

Two screens too small for enjoying video AND a form-factor too big to comfortably fit in a pocket? Score!
- flickerKuu
  
  Seriously, who thought this was a good idea. /facepalm
  
  Just copy Apple exactly- they got it right.
wrybread

I’d love to try it. Until recently I thought the iPad was untouchable, but then I picked up an HP Touchpad since they’re being unloaded so cheaply. I figured I’d ditch WebOS and put Android on right away, but I was really surprised to like WebOS much better than iOS. Much better multitasking, much nicer interface in general. Who’d a thunk?

A total shame that HP retired WebOS, but that’s another story. And the hardware was a bit behind the thin and light iPad. But the experience definitely left me much more open minded to alternative tablet designs.
- Sigmund_Jung
  
  Saw WebOS on a friends tablet and really liked it too. HP didn’t retire WebOS. It is open source now.
  http://opensource.palm.com/
Baldhead

Toshiba made something similar the other year… and it kinda sucked. typing was a pain, the screens are too small to use for most things you want an actual computar for but the whole thing isn’t compact like a smartphone is…
Palomino

Is it just me, or is everyone missing that this is NOT a smartphone? Yes, it’s being promoted as an Android device, but it can’t utilize all Android apps. I agree with many who say paying the data plan is expensive, it is if you are paying for cellular service too. They could have gone minimal, using only Google Voice, a microphone and headphones, like most other laptops.

All in all, it’s a very expensive cloud device.

The only device out there that successfully married a folding handheld gaming device and Android, is the Kyocera Echo. I see a lot of bad reviews about the Echo. But when I pull mine out and open it, people walk up to me asking “What is that, where did you get it?”
Ito Kagehisa

4G. Pfftt. My Red Wing Wellingtons are 6G!

Wake me up when you’ve got ten Gs, OK?

(For those who don’t know, these “G” terms are effectively meaningless, especially since the ITU retroactively changed the absolute meaning)
frozenintime

I’ll wait for the new iPad next week.