Recently, tablet headlines have focused on the 7-inch format, and particularly the battle between Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7. But the latest models on the horizon are larger, including an 11.8-inch device from Samsung, and a new Xperia model from Sony.
The former was revealed, along with Samsung’s first Windows Phone 8 handsets, as part of the first full day of proceedings in the vendor’s court battle with Apple in California.
According to sparse details contained in the court documents, the product is codenamed the P10, and is certainly designed to avoid the claims at the heart of the legal spats between Apple and Samsung ‘ that the latter’s Galaxy Tab copies the iPad’s design. The LTE-enabled P10 features a far larger display at 11.8-inches, and apparently aims to outshine, rather than emulate, its rival, with a superbright screen to rival Apple’s RetinaDisplay. This would have 2560 x 1600 WQXGA resolution, or pixel density of 256ppi, and could harness the Korean giant’s next generation of Super AMOLED technology, as shown off at an electronics show last year.
Samsung has been expressing surprise that it should be embroiled in a case over ‘rectangles’. “We trust that the jurors in the trial will agree that no company should have a monopoly over rectangular phones,” it told The Inquirer. At least, the P10 would be a differently-sized rectangle.
Meanwhile, Sony’s next tablet will be a more conventional 9.4-inches, according to a leaked presentation, and will be a next generation for the current Tablet P and S, which have made little impact on the market. The new model will take the firm’s Xperia handset brand, reflecting its full takeover of the former Sony Ericsson venture (the first tablets were launched by Sony alone, not its smartphone division, but greater synergies are now expected between the two form factors, in branding and user experience).
The unnamed Xperia slate will come with a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, according to Mobiflip, plus Android 4.0, 3G (but not LTE) and Wi-Fi. It will also sport a folding case that doubles as a keyboard, similar to that planned for the Microsoft Surface, but there are few other details as yet. Sony has often said it plans to sell its devices based on the richness of its content and gaming ecosystem, emulating the strategy of Samsung, Apple and Google, but to date it has not replicated its PlayStation device/content success in phones or tablets.