If you’ve been wondering where all of that water-repellant technology we’ve been seeing over the last year or two went, look no further than the Sony Xperia Tablet Z. You can dunk it in a fishbowl and it’ll keep on working just fine, or even use it in a pool for up to 30 minutes… as long as you don’t go below three feet.

Waterproof electronics don’t impress you? Fine. How about the fact that it’s the world’s thinnest tablet too, just 6.9mm thick and 495 grams light?

The Xperia Tablet Z is a powerful badboy too. Inside, Sony’s 10.1-inch tablet boasts a Qualcom Snapdragon S4 Pro asynchronous quad-core processor, which powers a 10.1-inch, 1920×1200 resolution display.

There’s also an 8MP HD rear camera using Sony’s Exmor R mobile image sensor, as well as a 2MP front camera and S-Force Front Surround 3D speakers.

Intriguingly, the Xperia Tablet Z also comes with NFC, which allow users to transfer content among compatible devices, including audio, video and images, seamlessly from tablet to TV, tablet to speaker or phone to tablet just by touching them together. At least that’s the theory: in reality, none of this is going to work unless you’ve got a bunch of NFC-equipped gadgets lying around.

According to the press release, “the Xperia Tablet Z is available in 16 GB and 32 GB versions and will be sold at Sony Stores, including online, and other authorized dealers nationwide for about $499 and $599 respectively this Spring. A white 32 GB version will be available exclusively at Sony Stores, including online.”

Sony’s offered to send us a review unit, so we’ll let you know whether the Xperia Tablet Z is worth the hype in due course.