Tablets have been a mainstay in consumer technology for well over half a decade yet surprisingly, they haven't been able to unseat the traditional pen and pad for general notetaking. Sony with its new digital paper tablet, the DPT-RP 1, is hoping it can change that.
The DPT-RP 1, an updated version of the DPTS1, features a 13.3-inch "non-slip" display sporting a resolution of 1,650 x 2,200 that comes with a stylus. Under the proverbial hood is a quad-core Marvell IAP140 64-bit processor and 16GB of local flash storage although only around 11GB is usable. That said, Sony estimates you can store roughly 10,000 PDF files measuring 1MB each.
The slate utilizes 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band Wi-Fi and has both Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC. It's both thinner and lighter than its predecessor, measuring about 224mm x 302.6mm x 5.9mm with a weight of 349 grams. With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth disabled, the tablet can last about three weeks on a single charge. That figure drops to around one week with Wi-Fi turned on, Sony notes in the device's specifications.
Sony's DPT-RP 1 won't come cheap. According to The Verge, the tablet will carry a price point of about 80,000 yen (around $720) when it goes on sale in early June. That could be a tough sell considering you can now get a 9.7-inch iPad for less than half that amount but then again, Sony is targeting an entirely different demographic with its latest offering.