The first leak of a 2015 Sony tablet has surfaced. Here's everything we know so far about the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet, including UK release date, price and specs rumours and speculation. (Pictured: Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact.) Also see: Best tablets 2015 and best new tablets coming in 2015.
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet UK release date: When is the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet coming out?
We're fairly certain that we'll see an update to the Sony Xperia Z3 smartphone in the Sony Xperia Z4 at this year's Mobile World Congress, running from 2 March 2015, but this is the first hint we've seen that we may also see a new Sony Xperia Z4 tablet, too.
According to the Xperia Blog, the Sony SGP771 model number has appeared on the Indonesian Postel Regulatory site. This follows the pattern of previous Xperia tablets - the 2014 model was known as the SGP6XX, the 2013 model SGP5XX and so on.
Given that Sony's last tablet, the Z3 Tablet Compact, was unveiled at September's IFA tradeshow, we think it unlikely that we will see the new Z4 Tablet at MWC. Indeed, we would have expected many more rumours to have leaked if the tablet was a mere month away.
Given that Sony traditionally eyes Apple as its tablet rival, w(e think it more likely we'll see a Z4 Tablet at 2015's IFA tradeshow, again in September. This will give it an on sale date around October, in line with Apple's refreshed iPads and rumoured iPad Plus. Of course, Apple will be holding an additional launch event in March for the Apple Watch, so we could be completely wrong and we'll see large tablets from both Apple and Sony next month.)
This is speculation, of course, and to our knowledge Sony is cutting its flagship smartphone launches to just one per year, meaning there will be no new Xperia Z5 in September 2015. It's possible that the company intends to refresh its smartphones in March, and tablets in September.
We will update this article as soon as more information is available.
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet UK price: How much will the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet cost?
The price of the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet will very much depend on its screen size. While previous 10in Sony tablets have come in with iPad-matching £399 price tags, the latest Z3 Tablet Compact was priced in line with the iPad mini at £329.
We think Sony will once again look to Apple for its pricing. As we will discuss below in Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet specs, we expect the new Sony tablet to be an iPad Plusrival, which will likely be priced somewhere in between the iPad Air (£399 to £739) and MacBook Air (£849 to £1,129). Our guess is around £650, but we will update this article once more details are known.
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet specs
Rather than another Compact Z-series tablet, the new Z4 Tablet is expected to have a larger than 10in screen size. That makes sense, given that Apple is gearing up to unveil a 12.9in iPad Plus. A report from PadNews suggests this will be a 4K (3840x2400) Triluminous panel, and that the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet will be the most powerful tablet ever with a 2.86GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor and 6GB of RAM. There will be an 8Mp camera at the rear, too, with support for 4K video recording.
We'll update this article once more spec details have leaked.
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