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Sony S1 and S2 Tablets announced: Android 3.0, Tegra 2, PlayStation Certified, Qriocity and Reader Store ebooks

Sony has just officially announced that it’s got not one but two Android-based tablets in the works.

Both the S1 and S2 will run Android 3.0 Honeycomb, feature Tegra 2 dual-core processors and will be PlayStation Certified, meaning they’ll be able to download PS1 games on the go, a la the Xperia Play.

The in-progress artwork of the S1 looks a lot like the leaked pic we saw back in February – a folded over magazine type thing. Sony describes this as an “off-center of gravity form factor” that allows for “intuitive gripping”. We’ll believe it when we see it.

The Sony S1 has a single 9.4-inch touchscreen, whereas its S2 sibling comes with two 5.5-inch screens. Wow.

It’s a fold out jobbie in a similar vein to the Kyocera Echo and Nintendo 3DS. This alone plus the PlayStation Certified connection makes the S2 more of a PSP Phone in our eyes than the Xperia Play. Can we have a SIM slot please?

Sony says that the two screens “allows its displays to be combined and used as a [single] large screen or for different functions such as playing video on one screen while showing control buttons on the other.”

Sadly, there’s no mention of virtual PlayStation/PSP controls being mapped to one screen in the press release. But that’s not to say Sony isn’t working on that. Hey, we can dream can’t we?

While there’s not much hardcore spec to go on here, Sony is keen to emphasise that its other services, like the recently launched Qriocity (music streaming) and the Reader Store (ebooks) will be accessible through both devices.

You’ll also apparently be able to use an S1 as a remote control for Sony’s Bravia TV range and ‘throw’ pictures and music to TV screens and speakers via DLNA connections. Let’s hope that they bung in HDMI support as well for good measure.

The final thing to note is that the S1 and S2 look like they’ll be sold under Sony’s VAIO banner and not Sony Ericsson.

The release says that Sony will be “strengthening its VAIO brand and introduce increasingly compelling products which offer new value propositions to the market.” This suggests that the S1 and S2 will be VAIO-branded, but doesn’t explicitly confirm it as so.

We’re chasing up Sony and Sony Ericsson now for a comment.

 

 

Source: Sony via Phone Arena

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