iPad Air 2 or Xperia Z4 Tablet? Which slim tablet is the one to own? We compare the specs
The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet and iPad Air 2 are two of the thinnest tablets in the world. They’re thinner than a lot of smartphones including the iPhone 6.
But which is the best? One runs Android, and of course the iPad Air 2 runs iOS, and there are other differences you should make a note of too.
We’re going to go through these tablets bit-by-bit to see which one you should have your eye on.
Watch our Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet hands-on video
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet vs iPad Air 2: Design
Xperia Z4 Tablet: 392g, 6.1mm thick
iPad Air 2: 437g, 6.1mm thick
Sony and Apple are both capable of some pretty amazing feats of tablet design. The iPad Air 2 and Xperia are both 6.1mm thick. At this point we can’t imagine tablets getting much thinner.
Apple’s dedication to aluminium rears for its tablets means it’s not quite as light as the largely plastic Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet, though. It weighs an impressively light 392g, a good 40-plus grammes lighter than the iPad Air 2.
Sony is really showing what it can do here, although that’s nothing new. Last year’s Xperia Z2 Tablet was only a little thicker and heavier.
Weight isn’t the top thing to consider here, though. The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet is a bit longer than the iPad Air 2 as it has a widescreen display. The iPad Air 2 doesn’t. It makes the weight difference all the more miraculous.
The iPad Air 2’s silhouette measures 240 x 169.5mm while the Sony is 254 x 167mm. It’s not a huge difference, but does give the Xperia Z4 Tablet a different feel.
One clear hardware win for the Sony is waterproofing. Rubber seals on the connectors give it IP65 and IP68 certification, meaning you can drop it in the bath with no worries. The iPad Air 2 would probably die should it get dunked.
As technically impressive as the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet is, the iPad Air 2 feels at least a tiny bit nicer in our opinion.
It also features a TouchID fingerprint scanner, the same one found in the iPhone 6, which lets you unlock the tablet securely with zero fuss.
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet vs iPad Air 2: Screen
Xperia Z4 Tablet: 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 pixel IPS with Triluminous
iPad Air 2: 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 pixel IPS
The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet has a completely different shape screen to the iPad Air 2. It has a widescreen 16:10 aspect where all iPads have 4:3 screens. That’s what gets you that classic squat iPad look.
Which is better? It’s very much a case of personal preference, but for general use we find 4:3 displays superior, giving you the impression of larger display size while keeping the hardware manageable. Even the Nexus 9 adopted the aspect last year. Of course, if you’re going to be watching a lot of films, a widescreen display is generally much better.
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The style is very different, but the quality is quite similar. They have IPS LCD displays and fairly similar pixel density, which is a pretty good guide of how sharp a screen will look. The iPad Air 2 offers 264ppi, the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet a slightly higher 299ppi.
It’s the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet that pushes at the limits of IPS LCD, too. It uses Triluminous tech to boost colour performance to 130 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut, providing OLED-like colour richness. This involves using quantum dot tech to boost colour saturation.
Still, the iPad Air 2 is pretty strong here too, offering very tasteful screen calibration for a very natural look.
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet vs iPad Air 2: Storage
Xperia Z4 Tablet: 32GB, microSD
iPad Air 2: 16/64/128GB
The iPad Air 2 is the only mainstream tablet you can currently buy with 128GB of internal memory. That’s an awful lot: more laptop-like than tablet-grade. It also comes in 16GB and 64GB editions, although 16GB really doesn’t go very far, especially if you like your tablet games.
There’s less choice with the Xperia Z4 Tablet, but bags more flexibility. The tablet has 32GB of its own memory, plus an SDXC-compatible microSD slot that’ll take cards up to 128GB.
It’s a much cheaper upgrade than stepping up to a 128GB iPad Air 2. Apple charges you £160 extra, where you can get a 128GB card for about £60. Then you end up with a jaw-dropping 160GB storage too. Not bad, eh?
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet vs iPad Air 2: CPU and Power
Xperia Z4 Tablet: Snapdragon 810 octo-core 2GHz, 3GB RAM
iPad Air 2: Apple A8X tri-core 1.5GHz, 2GB RAM
At first glance, it seems like the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet flattens the iPad Air 2 on power. It has an eight-core Snapdragon 810 CPU with 3GB RAM while the iPad Air has a three-core 1.5GHz CPU and 2GB RAM.
However, some benchmarks actually show that the iPad Air 2 is more powerful. Check out the Geekbench 3 score: the iPad Air 2 can score upwards of 4500 while around 4000 points is the best we’ve seen out of a Snapdragon 810 so far. They are both incredibly powerful, but it actually looks like Apple wins this round.
The iPad Air 2 also has a fantastic GPU.
Of course, to an extent these sorts of navel-gazing CPU comparisons aren’t that useful when the devices are still roughly in the same ballpark. What matters is that these are both chipsets at the top of their respective games, meaning they’ll be used to tailor the very best visuals in games, at least for now.
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Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet vs iPad Air 2: Software
Xperia Z4 Tablet: Android 5.0 Lollipop
iPad Air 2: iOS 8
Here’s just about the most important thing to consider with any cross-platform tablet decision: which software is better? Well iOS fares a bit better with apps, with there still being more worthwhile tablet apps made for the iPad than Android tablets, which continue to have to use scaled phone apps in places. Of course, there are iPad apps like this too.
We’re glad to report that the Xperia Z4 Tablet doesn’t have a too-invasive custom interface, though. Sony’s fiddling with Android is pretty low-key, and always stylish.
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet vs iPad Air 2: Camera
Xperia Z4 Tablet: 8.1MP front, 5.1MP rear
iPad Air 2: 8MP front, 1.2MP rear
These tablet each have a camera on the front, and another on the back. And the rear ones at least are almost the same resolution. The Sony has an 8.1-megapixel rear camera, the iPad Air 2 an 8-megapixel one.
We’re yet to test the Z4 Tablet camera fully, but we have a feeling the iPad Air 2 one might prove a bit easier to get high-quality shots out of. Still, Sony does know how to pack its mobile device cameras with absolutely boatloads of features, offering a bit more creative potential.
For selfies, the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet is the clear winner, with a 5.1-megapixel camera to the iPad Air 2’s rather basic 1.2-megapixel one. While just about every company has started to put a bit more focus on the selfie camera, Apple is yet to cotton onto the trend.
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet vs iPad Air 2: Speakers
Xperia Z4 Tablet: Stereo, side positioning
iPad Air 2: Dual speakers, bottom edge positioning
Despite being incredibly thin, the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet still manages to fit in a pair of speakers. They sit at each end, giving you a convincing stereo image when the tablet is held in landscape, as you would do when watching a film.
As a tablet designed to be held in portrait, it’s no surprise that the iPad Air 2 has speakers on its bottom rather than the sides. They’re pretty good, but this means you don’t really get a stereo image. The two speakers are there more for better sound quality than for a stereo effect.
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet vs iPad Air 2: Connectivity
Xperia Z4 Tablet: Wi-Fi up to ac, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, optional 4G, MHL
iPad Air 2: Wi-Fi up to ac, Bluetooth 4.0, optional 4G
Just as the iPad’s slightly restrictive style means you don’t get things like a microSD memory card slot, the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet has better connectivity than the iPad Air 2. The extras you get include NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 instead of Bluetooth 4.0 and MHL. This means you can output video to a TV if you get the right adapter.
Both tablets are available in 3G/4G versions, although as ever you’ll have to pay a bit more for the privilege.
They have ac-grade Wi-Fi too. This provides better range and performance when used with a Wi-Fi ac router.
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet vs iPad Air 2: Battery
Xperia Z4 Tablet: 6000mAh
iPad Air 2: 7340mAh
The top Android phones tend to outperform iPhones in battery life, but the roles are reversed when we look at tablets. Android tablets very rarely touch the battery performance of iPads, and sure enough the iPad Air 2 has a significantly larger battery than the Z4 Tablet.
It has a 7340mAh unit while the Sony uses a 6000mAh battery.
Day-to-day performance is likely to be comparable, though. You’ll get at least 10 hours of video playback from the iPad Air 2, and while we’re yet to fully test the Xperia Z4 Tablet’s battery stamina, we expect at least somewhat-similar results.
Early Verdict
The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet is even more of a marvel than the iPad Air 2 in terms of how light and thin it is given the amount of hardware packed into the thing. However, that’s far from the only thing to consider when buying a tablet.
We still think the iPad’s ecosystem is better for tablet apps, and the 4:3 screen size is better for a lot of uses, apart from watching films of course. If you want an easygoing casual tablet, the iPad might be the better choice.
However, there are some great tech extras in the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet to throw into the mix. The question: how important or useful are they to you?