The Japanese company –SONY seems to have may feathers in its cap this year, it seems that PlayStation Certified Qriocity tablet -”S1″ is not the only offer on the table from this Japanese giant. We’ve been informed that Sony is also working on two rather unconventional tablets including a dual-screen Honeycomb clamshell and innovative Windows 7 tablet slider.
Honeycomb Clamshell:
This model supports a pair of 5.5-inch displays – a device first hinted in a 2010 Sony patent application titled “Electronic Book with Enhanced Features.” We are told that Sony’s clamshell – “S2″ closely resembles an oval cylinder when closed. Spec-wise, we’re told that it will be very similar in performance to the S1 with a Tegra 2 SoC and Wi-Fi + 3G radio on the inside and front- and rear-facing cameras on the outside. Similar to the function of the S1 tablet, the S2 will be focused on delivering Qriocity media to the consumer. No word yet if S2 is PlayStation Certified. Sony is optimizing the Android OS to create the best of the two displays, no Honeycomb in the offering it seems, for now.
A source reports having seen Gmail running on a demonstration prototype where the list of messages is displayed on one screen with the body of the selected message displayed on the other. Maps will display the map graphic on one display with the detailed turn-by-turn instructions (Streetview) on the other. Likewise, the S2 will display a video and picture navigation menu on one-half of the clamshell with the selected content blown-up to fill the screen of the other. We are also told that these apps will work in a variety of orientations.
Unfortunately, our sources saw some shortcomings, which when rectified would bring the best out. It seems the gap between the displays should be get smaller. Even though S2 is called as an outright “dog”, yet , Sony’s plan is to ship the WiFi + 3G equipped S2 to the US, Europe, and Japan before the holidays with a $699 targeted asking price.
VAIO Laptop
Yet another model of Sony VAIO is under construction and it will support 9.4-inch Windows 7 slider, similar, to Samsung’s Sliding PC 7 Series and the ASUS Eee Pad Slider. It’s design is described as “nice” and could easily be interpreted as a follow-up to the VAIO P series. Unfortunately, the hardware’s good looks is undermined by a Pinetrail-class Atom processor. The target price is set for $799 but will surely increase. It is expected for retail in the fall.
