Sony launched the Xperia Tablet Z earlier this year, initially only in Japan. Now the company has announced the tablet will be available in other parts of the world, including Canada, in Q2 2013.

The design of the latest Xperia Tablet Z is very similar to the Xperia Z smartphone launched at the International CES in January this year, and just like the Xperia Z smartphone, the tablet is dustproof and waterproof if submerged for no more than 30 minutes in one meter of water.

"Xperia Tablet Z sets new standards in entertainment by matching premium specifications and Sony technology with cross-device connectivity and a consistent user-experience," said Kaz Tajima, corporate vice president, head of UX creative design and planning, at Sony Mobile Communications. "Xperia Tablet Z reinforces our intention to be a leading player in the premium Android device market, by building on the principles established by Xperia Z and perfectly optimizing them for the tablet form factor."

The new Tablet Z sports a 10.1-inch LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen with 1200 x 1920 pixels resolution and 224 pixels per inch (ppi). A 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM powers the device.

The tablet is equipped with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel HD front-facing camera. You can get 32/64GB on-board storage versions of the device with the option to expand the storage to a further 64GB using a microSD card.

The Tablet Z also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and microUSB port connectivity options. The tablet has a 6000mAh battery that offers around 1,270 hours of standby time and nearly 10 hours of productivity. The tablet measures 10.47 x 6.77 x 0.27 inches and weighs 1.09 pounds.

Sony has just confirmed that the Tablet Z will be available in Canada in Q2 but did not confirm the pricing and exact release date of the tablet. It will be interesting to see if the Xperia Tablet Z is able to squeeze into the highly competitive tablet market.