Sony Xperia Z Ultra, Sony’s latest smartphone to hit stores has been touted as the world’s slimmest full HD smartphone. With a 6.44 inch display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, it simply makes more sense to call this one a high end phablet. It’s the first time Sony has incorporated a Qualcomm Snapdragon to its lineup and is Sony’s largest handset to date. We take a look at the tech specs that makes this beauty one of the best you’ll ever find in the market right now.
Sony Xperia Z Ultra Review
The Design
The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is based on the design of the Xperia Z. The front and the back of the Ultra are made of glass with a reflection coated surface making for a stylish finish. It’s thin glass fiber polyamide frame completes the minimalistic, yet attractive look.
Since the front and rear panels are made of durable tempered glass, coated with an anti-scratch film, the Ultra is both waterproof ( up to 1.5 meters) and dust resistant.
Sony has managed to keep a 6.4 inch phone slim and lightweight by bringing the display closer to the lens and pairing it with a skeleton frame. So don’t be surprised to be holding a phablet that’s just 6.5mm thin and 212 grams heavy.
The Display
The high-resolution 1920 x 1080 Full TRILUMINO display with X-Reality for mobile is stunning. With a pixel density of 342 pixels per inch, your pictures and images will be crisp, sharp and bright.
The Processor & Battery
If you’ve been looking for a phablet that’s super fast with outstanding battery time, you’ll love what the Ultra offers. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor will let you multitask, (run multiple apps simultaneously), surf the web, stream videos without breaks and more without wasting power. Its Adreno 330 GPU uses as little power as possible while at the same time letting you enjoy visually stunning 3D games.
Ultra’s HD voice feature is built to get rid of background noise, so that you don’t have to scream your head off when talking to someone in a noisy environment.
Now there’s no point having an awesome processor and streaming videos non stop if you don’t have a good internet connection. That’s why the Ultra comes with a built-in LTE/4G modem offering up to 100 Mbit/s download and 50 MBit/s upload speeds.
While there’s still no real solid resolution for devices that guzzle battery power the Ultra comes with a STAMINA mode that identifies when you are not using your device and automatically turns off functions you don’t really need. For instance Wi-Fi is disabled during standby, but you still receive incoming calls, texts, and other notifications. And since everyone has different requirements, the Ultra offers options to customize this feature as required.
The Camera
The Ultra comes with a 8 MP camera that can capture images in any light conditions. The device features a Superior Auto mode that will shoot with the most optimal settings creating the best shot every time. One feature you may miss is the lack of flash… and thereby use of a flashlight. However, for a device of this calibre, the camera does quite disappoint.
One Touch Functions
The Ultra is NFC enabled, so with a single tap you can share photos, music, and more; play music through a wireless speaker or headphone, see your phone’s photos on your TV, and do a one-touch backup to Sony’s wireless hub.
Productivity
The Ultra’s highly responsive screen is compatible with a stylus, although it doesn’t come with one. It also comes with handwriting recognition. That means your handwritten notes can now get optically scanned, converted into text, and quickly inserted into any of your documents.
The device runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.2 OS with Sony’s custom skin. You will still find most of the stock Android features on the phone with a few tweaks here and there. For instance you will get to use Sony’s own apps, but you will no doubt, still end up looking for the latest and best in Android tools on other markets.
Pricing and Availability
While the Ultra is yet to make its way to US carriers, it appears that Newegg is accepting preorders for the unlocked version at $699.99 and $729.99 for the HSPA and 4G LTE models. The phones will become available in the U.S on October 14th 2013.
Conclusion
The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is a classy smartphone or phablet that doesn’t just feature a great design. It’s ability to offer a supremely fast performance ( said to be twice as fast as a Samsung Galaxy S4) as well as its ability to be dust and waterproof certainly makes it one of the top devices ( other than the Galaxy Note 3 ) to consider investing in.
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