Sony Tablet P review

We admire Sony for taking a more novel approach with both of its tablets, but £499 is a lot to ask for a Honeycomb device. With a price like that, the Sony Tablet P has to really perform compared to its rivals.

We liked

The clamshell design protects the dual screens, and means this is one of the few tablets you can squeeze into an (admittedly large) pocket. We found the compact build made it a comfortable device for typing and web browsing.

Those screens are bright, crisp and vibrant, like you'd expect from Sony. The capacitive surfaces are responsive to swipes and prods and the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor keeps things running smoothly.

A 5MP rear camera takes decent shots, although we wouldn't replace our compact camera or even our smartphone just yet. Video chat fans get a decent VGA front-facing camera.

Nostalgic gaming fans can also download and play classic PlayStation 1 games, for a small cost.

We disliked

Although it's great to have the option to play PS1 titles on the Sony Tablet P, we weren't massive fans of the virtual buttons. They work better than we expected but the lack of tactile feedback is a pain in fast-paced action games, while the shoulder buttons are tricky to reach on the upper screen.

The Sony Tablet P isn't quite the ideal device for watching movies on the go, either. Videos are generally crushed onto the top screen, while the built-in speakers are rather rubbish.

We also found Wi-Fi reception was a little ropey, with signal swiftly dropping off as we moved away from our router.

Final verdict

If your current tablet has been scratched to ruins, you should definitely consider the Sony Tablet P. Its unique folding design makes it easy to carry and protects the dual screens, and the compact build makes it great for carrying around, getting online and social networking.

However, movie fans will likely prefer a single-screen tablet such as the Sony Tablet S, and we reckon gamers will wait for the Playstation Vita instead.