Sony puts brakes on Xperia Tablet S sales over manufacturing fault

Tablet leaks usually involve details coming out before an official announcement, but this one is different: Sony is recalling its most recent Android slate because some units are susceptible to water damage.

The Sony Xperia Tablet S launched at IFA in August and the company has sold around 100,000 of them so far. However, according to a Reuters report on Friday, the Japanese firm has halted sales due to a manufacturing fault and is promising to fix devices that have already been sold.

The fault apparently created a gap between the screen and case, which is particularly unfortunate for a tablet that counts being splashproof as a major selling point.

The report suggested that Sony still does not know when it will resume sales of the Xperia Tablet S, and that the company does not expect the recall to be overly costly.

The Xperia Tablet S is the first to come from Sony since it broke up with long-term partner Ericsson. Its predecessor was simply called the Sony Tablet S, but the newer device employs the Xperia brand name that was previously used for Sony Ericsson's Android products.