SONY XPERIA Z3 TABLET COMPACT

The Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact is the large-screen sibling of the Xperia Z3 mobile phone, offering a similar waterproof design but with a tablet form factor. It's blessed with a wafer-thin waterproof casing, a quad-core 2.5GHz chipset, a Full HD screen and an 8.1-megapixel rear camera for photography and video capture. It also features NFC for wirelessly exchanging data at close quarters.

As we've mentioned the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact has an 8in screen putting it in direct competition with tablets like the iPad mini, Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and LG G Pad 8.3. Sony has opted for a Full HD (1920 x 1200) resolution instead of anything higher but the screen looks nicely crisp and has the advantage of Sony's TV tech like Triluminos with Live colour LED.

Unlike Xperia Z phones, here the back is matte plastic rather than glass, which we like better. It's nice and warm to the touch and, more importantly, isn't a scratch and fingerprint magnet. Sure, it's not as cool as an all-aluminum back like on the iPads but the whole Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact weighs just 270g.

The new Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact runs extremely smoothly during both gameplay and media consumption. This is largely thanks to its speedy Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 processor clocking in at 2.5 GHz, and backed up by an Adreno 330 GPU and 3 GB of RAM.

Sony's Z3 Tablet Compact is a well-made, thin and light device with a stunning display, brisk performance and robust battery life. Still, it's difficult to recommend at this price ($445 and up) when there are other thin and light flagship tablets that cost less, many of which offer higher-resolution screens and more capable cameras.