Within 10 days of the end of the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, and within 2 weeks of announcing the 2013 flagship Xperia Z and Xperia ZL phones, Sony has announced its first entry into the 2013 tablet market with the Xperia Tablet Z. The tablet will introduce the 1.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro to the 10-inch tablet world, and will feature a 1920x1200 display.

Other features we know about for the version announced in Japan (we'll likely see some "tweaks" before it ships outside of Japan) are as follows:

• Waterproof chassis with rather sharp rounded corners (looks like Apple won't be able to nail Sony for copying the "look and feel" of the iPad )
  
• 6.9mm thickness (compared to the 8.9mm "girth" of the Nexus 10)
  
• LTE capability
  
• 2 GB RAM
  
• 32 GB storage with a MicroSD expansion slot (this according to Android Central, as I didn't see anything about this on Sony's official press release)
  
• Mobile Bravia Engine 2
  
• "S-Force" virtual surround sound (more on this below - frankly, I hope it sounds better than all the other "3D/surround sound" effects I've ever tried on a mobile device)
  
• NFC capability
  
• 8.1 MP Exmor R camera (for those of you who don't mind being seen in public using a 10.1-inch tablet to take pictures)

One interesting tidbit I saw on Sony's official announcement (as translated by Google Translate, so take this with the proverbial grain) is the reference to "S-Force (Force es) Front Surround 3D" virtual surround sound technology. The word "front" makes me think that the speakers could be situated on the front of the tablet.


In terms of display resolution, the Xperia Tablet Z will not replace the Nexus 10 as king of the tablet hill with a resolution of "only" 1920x1200 pixels (compared to the 2560x1600 of the Nexus behemoth). In terms of processing power, the quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro should be competitive with the dual-core Exynos 5250 featured in the Nexus 10. While you might think the S4 Pro should blow the dual-core Nexus 10 away, I must point out that the ARM 15-based 5250 is a generation ahead of the ARM 9-based Exynos 4412 processor featured in the Galaxy Note 10, and the Krait architecture of Snapdragon processors is comparable to that of ARM 15 chipsets in terms of performance.

While the Nexus 10 outclasses the Xperia Tablet Z in terms of pixel density, Sony has taken the fight to its rivals so far this year, being well ahead of the curve with its Xperia Z and ZL smartphones and now with its Xperia Tablet Z, arguably the best-specced tablet that has been announced so far (aside from the Nexus 10). Clearly, Sony is no longer content to ride the wave with "me-too" handsets that barely keep even with the competition as in past years.

The two most important bits of information, pricing and availability, are unknown at this time, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this tablet showcased at next month's Mobile World Congress - perhaps we'll know more by then.