We benchmark the Sony Xperia Tablet S extensively, here are the results

The Sony Xperia Tablet S packs a Tegra 3 chipset, making it more powerful than the original Tablet S. But how does it stack up against other tablets on the market right now? Things should be pretty close, considering the popularity of NVIDIA’s chipset.

We ran practically every benchmark we could think of, testing the CPU (four Cortex-A9 cores at 1.3GHz in the Tablet S), the GPU (an ULP GeForce) and the web browser (stock browser on Android ICS and Chrome).

BenchmarkPi is good at estimating per-core performance and the Xperia Tablet S does very well here. It comes second only to the higher-clocked Samsung Galaxy Note II, but beats the Tegra 3-packing Nexus 7.

Linpack is better at multi-tasking performance. Here, the Tablet S maintains its lead on the Nexus 7, but falls behind the Exynos-powered Galaxies (whose CPUs are clocked higher). Geekbench 2 concurs with these findings.

AnTuTu shows that the performance of the Sony tablet is comparable to a Tegra 3 phone. Quadrant puts it a bit behind, but the tablet is at a bit of a disadvantage due to its higher screen resolution (1280 x 800 vs. 1280 x 720).

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  364
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  366
• Google Nexus 7
  421
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
  495

Linpack

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  214.3
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  185
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  146.5
• Google Nexus 7
  124.3

Geekbench 2

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1845
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  1834
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  1634
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  1628
• Nexus 7
  1582

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  13562
• Meizu MX 4-core
  11820
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  11735
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  11633
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  11630
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  10767

Quadrant

Higher is better

• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  5952
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  5365
• Meizu MX 4-core
  5170
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  5121
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  4814
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  4107

Time to look at the ULP GeForce performance. NenaMark 2 doesn’t really give us any significant result beyond that the PowerVR SGX540 that’s inside the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is getting too old to be in a tablet.

The offscreen Egypt GLBenchmark tests were used to put the GPUs on equal footing. The SGX543MP4 inside the new iPad normally renders graphics at a much higher resolution than even 1080p, so it’s far ahead.

Oddly, the Sony Xperia Tablet S comes out last in this test, even behind the Nexus 7, which has the same GPU.

NenaMark 2

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  59.2
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  58.9
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  57.8
• Google Nexus 7
  55.6
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
  23.8

GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt (720p offscreen)

Higher is better

• new Apple iPad
  133.4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  100.2
• Google Nexus 7
  64.4
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  34

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• new Apple iPad
  26.7
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  14.7
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  15.2
• Google Nexus 7
  11.8
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  11

Finally, the browser. For SunSpider and BrowserMark we used the default browsers on each tablet. Samsung has done a great job of optimizing the browser on Exynos (less so on TI OMAP), but the Xperia Tablet S actually edges out Apple’s latest tablet, which is no small achievement.

Vellamo puts it behind all the quad-core phones we’ve tested though.

Finally, FishIE Tank shows good HTML5 canvas performance, though it doesn’t beat the quad-core phones. As far as HTML5 compatibility goes, if you’re running Chrome on the Tablet S, you’d be on par with the current flagship phones, except the Galaxy S III, which has an advantage.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  972
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  1194
• Google Nexus 7
  1703
• new Apple iPad
  1722
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  1750
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
  2188

BrowserMark

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  185034
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  162657
• Google Nexus 7
  131788
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  118764
• new Apple iPad
  103264
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
  94662

Vellamo

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2418
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  2078
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1890
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1568
• Meizu MX 4-core
  1468
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  1261

FishIE Tank

Higher is better

• Meizu MX 4-core
  60
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  57
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  55
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  54
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  54

HTML5 Test

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S III
  399
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  380
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  380
• Meizu MX 4-core
  380
• Sony Xpria Tablet S
  380

Unsurprisingly, the Xperia Tablet S doesn’t break far from the pack and does about as well as most other Tegra 3 tablets, Sony has done a relatively good job at providing a well-performing package. The GPU scores could have been a bit better, but the rest is good (and will only get better once the Tablet S gets the Jelly Bean update).