Sony's latest flagship, the Xperia Z6 comes with refined design, improved camera, and a due update in specs. Wait, back up a little there - it's actually called the Xperia XZ this time around but, yeah, the rest of that is true.

When Sony announced the new X-series, some suggested that the Xperia X Performance was meant to take on the likes of the Galaxy S7's and HTC 10's, but we knew that couldn't be the case. Okay, 'suspected' might be more accurate there. Obviously, now we all know that the Xperia XZ is Sony's top-dog for this season, and the Z in its name quickly reveals its ancestry.

Indeed, the XZ has a lot in common with the Z5. The display, for one, is the same size and resolution as the last generation - not necessarily a bad thing, but the XZ also comes with 3GB of RAM - modern-day flagships will crack a condescending smile seeing that in the spec sheet.

No one will laugh at the rest of it, though - top-of-the-line Snapdragon 820 chipset, 23MP camera with a trio of focusing technologies and 4K video recording (one could think the Z is required for that, had it not been for the M5), high-res 13MP front camera, Type-C connectivity, fingerprint reader, IP68 rating, stereo speakers - name one thing missing.

The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet faces the daunting task of flying the Z4 banner, when the Xperia Z4 smartphone is just an incremental update limited to the Japanese market. The 10.1-inch tablet seems up for the task however with contemporary specs, attractive styling and razor-thin profile.

The Xperia Z4 Tablet builds on the virtues of the Z2 Tablet from a year ago and the improvements are much easier to spot than in the Xperia smartphone range where Sony's twice-a-year release cycle has meant more gradual evolution.

We weren't particularly satisfied with the low 224ppi of the predecessor, rather thin even by last year's standards and we're happy to note that the tablet's display resolution has been brought up to date and is now 2,560 x 1,600 pixels.

Sony's design language has remained unchanged for a while, and while it may be getting a bit tired, it's stylish nonetheless. A few excess millimeters have been trimmed off the footprint, while thickness has been brought down to match the Apple iPad Air 2 at 6.1mm. And perhaps most importantly, an IP68 certification means you can submerge it in water for up to 30min and 1.5m in depth, without fearing for its life.

Most impressively, the tablet weighs just 393g, a good 10% lighter than both the predecessor and the Cupertino rival. Meanwhile, battery capacity hasn't been sacrificed and has remained at 6,000mAh, but will that be enough to power 80% percent more pixels and more capable chipset?

Speaking of chipsets, a whole year warrants an improvement in the innards and the Snapdragon 810 has replaced the S801 of the Xperia Z2 Tablet. We're only left to hope that Sony has managed to leverage the large surface area to benefit the heat dissipation and we finally the Snapdragon live up to its potential.

We have the LTE version of the tablet which comes with the added benefit of cellular connectivity. There's also a WI-Fi only model, but our findings should apply equally well to that one too. For the sake of simplicity we'll drop the LTE abbreviation for the rest of this review.