The water-resistant, ultra-slim Sony Xperia Tablet Z is now up for pre-order in the U.S., with shipments expected to start on May 24.

The new flagship Sony tablet is available in two versions: the 16GB model is available only in black and comes with a $499.99 price tag, while the 32GB version comes in both black and white and costs $599.99.

Interested customers can pre-order the Sony Xperia Tablet Z from Sony's online store, but the good news doesn't end here. Those who pre-order the 32GB white version of the slate between now and May 24 will also get a free charging cradle, which normally costs $44.99.

The Sony Xperia Tablet Z made its debut back in February at the Mobile World Congress. Sony touts the 10.1-inch Android tablet as the world's thinnest, measuring only 0.27 inches. The slate weighs in at just 1.1 pounds. For the sake of comparison, Apple's iPad weighs 1.44 pounds.

The Sony Xperia Tablet Z is also water resistant for 30 minutes in up to three feet of water, which makes a great feature for the more clumsy or prone to accidents. In terms of specs, the new flagship tablet from Sony sports a Full HD display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels and packs a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked at 1.5GHz and 2GB of RAM under the hood.

The slate also sports an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with Sony's Exmor R sensor, as well as a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter for HD video calls. A micro SD card slot is also on board for expanding the tablet's 16GB or 32GB internal storage capacity. The Sony Xperia Tablet Z will launch with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but Sony promised an upgrade to the latest 4.2 Jelly Bean soon after launch.

Wrapping up an announcement oozing with excitement and enthusiasm, Sony further points to its "furry friend Dreyfus," who touts some of the ways the tablet can improve one's everyday life. The video is aptly called "How To Use Xperia Tablet Z, according to Dreyfus the 3-legged Dog," and it's likely to squeeze an "awww" or two out of the animal lovers out there.