Sony Xperia Z Ultra review and specification
Sony has also recently forayed into this segment, with its new device, the Xperia Z Ultra, which boasts of a 6.4-inch display. It's certainly not the first device to sport a large screen; we've seen the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 and the Huawei Ascend Mate featuring 6-inch+ displays, but we'd have to say that it's the sleekest out of all of them, at this point in time. The Xperia Z Ultra is super slim with a thickness of just 6.5mm.
With a 6.4-inch full HD display, Sony's new Xperia Z Ultra really is about as big as it gets when it comes to smartphones. Designed to take on the likes of Samsung's Galaxy Note range of smartphones, which also feature huge screens, it boasts the latest in smartphone technology.
Design & Body
As a quick refresher, it includes two durable tempered glass panels on the front and back of the device with a skeleton frame made of tough glass fibre polyamide. It also features the signature aluminum power button on the right side. All these add up to give the Xperia Z Ultra a fine, elegant look. The original 5-inch Xperia Z was the first to sport this design signature while the Xperia Tablet Z took on a slight deviation with a matte black rear.
While the large full HD screen is a strong draw factor, the main highlight of its design is its super sleek 6.5mm thin profile. In fact, the Xperia Z Ultra is the world's slimmest Full-HD smartphone and it is only bested by the 6.18mm Huawei Ascend P6 (thought it's 'only' a 4.7-inch device). The engineering that went behind to fit a 6.44-inch screen (which is also the largest smartphone display at the moment) onto such a thin body is truly a work of genius. Its immediate rivals, the Samsung Galaxy Mega with LTE and Huaiwe Ascend Mate, are thicker at 8.0mm and 9,9mm respectively. Of course the thin form factor has its own shortcomings like a less than ideal battery life as you'll see on the following page. The super slim Xperia Tablet Z is no different in this regard as its battery life was also one of its sore points despite a sexy svelte 6.9mm frame.
It is also hard to ignore the massive dimensions of the Xperia Z Ultra. With a length of 179.4mm and a width of 92.2mm, the Xperia Z Ultra is inching closer to the 7-inch tablet territory. Being at least 7% longer and 5% wider than its 6-inch rivals, the Xperia Z Ultra is as, or even more unwieldy in your hands. Not to mention it tips the scales at over 200 grams.
Display & Picture Quality
The front of the device is dominated by its 6.4-inch display. The Xperia Z Ultra's screen has a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels and is the first smartphone display that integrates Sony's Triluminos technology, which the company introduced at CES with its Bravia televisions. Sony claims that through the technology the display reproduces a greater range of rich, natural colours to deliver true, natural shades. It won't be wrong to say that the Xperia Z Ultra's screen is the most brightest and vivid display we've ever seen on a device of this size. Unlike the Sony Xperia Z, where we'd observed minor niggles with viewing angles, the Xperia Z Ultra's screen was flawless. Pictures and videos looked natural and colour reproduction was pretty accurate. The big screen and the full-HD resolution makes watching videos a joyful experience. Blacks had the perfect depth and the screen contrast was optimum.
While Sony still uses the same kind of TFT LCD display construction, the Xperia Z Ultra is nothing like the older Xperia devices, particularly the Xperia Z. If you recall, the chief criticism on the display of the Xperia Z / ZL is the "whitewashed" effect and poor viewing angles. Does the Xperia Z Ultra suffer the same fate? Fortunately, it doesn't thanks to the adoption of new display technologies that originated from its TV line-up - Triluminos screen technology and the X-Reality display processing engine.
In a nutshell, the Triluminos screen enables the display to show a wider range (about 50%) of colors, hence images look more natural and richer compared to conventional LCDs. X Reality, on the other hand, is an image processor engine that enhances contrast, adds saturation, sharpness and reduce noise in images and videos.
Processor
Inside is a 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, which is about as fast as you can get right now when it comes to smartphone hardware. The 800 series of Snapdragon chips hasn't really arrived properly yet, with very few phones using it. Capable of recording and decoding 4K video, it is a very powerful chipset.
Camera
The device's 2-megapixel front facing camera and the sensor array are located above the display.
Operating System
Like its recent flagship devices, the Xperia Z Ultra runs an almost stock Android user interface with some servings of Sony's minor tweaks. It joins the likes of recent Samsung's mobile devices, HTC Butterfly S and the Huawei Ascend P6 to come with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out of the box.
Sony recently announced that the Xperia Z Ultra is one of the six mobile devices in its portfolio to be getting the Android 4.3 upgrade although no timeline has been given. Since Android 4.3 is just an incremental update, there is nothing much that you are missing out on. You get quick settings, lock screen widgets and Day Dream on the device except for PhotoSphere.
Sony Xperia Z Ultra : Specification
General
Design and Display
With a 6.4-inch full HD display, Sony's new Xperia Z Ultra really is about as big as it gets when it comes to smartphones. Designed to take on the likes of Samsung's Galaxy Note range of smartphones, which also feature huge screens, it boasts the latest in smartphone technology.
Design & Body
As a quick refresher, it includes two durable tempered glass panels on the front and back of the device with a skeleton frame made of tough glass fibre polyamide. It also features the signature aluminum power button on the right side. All these add up to give the Xperia Z Ultra a fine, elegant look. The original 5-inch Xperia Z was the first to sport this design signature while the Xperia Tablet Z took on a slight deviation with a matte black rear.
While the large full HD screen is a strong draw factor, the main highlight of its design is its super sleek 6.5mm thin profile. In fact, the Xperia Z Ultra is the world's slimmest Full-HD smartphone and it is only bested by the 6.18mm Huawei Ascend P6 (thought it's 'only' a 4.7-inch device). The engineering that went behind to fit a 6.44-inch screen (which is also the largest smartphone display at the moment) onto such a thin body is truly a work of genius. Its immediate rivals, the Samsung Galaxy Mega with LTE and Huaiwe Ascend Mate, are thicker at 8.0mm and 9,9mm respectively. Of course the thin form factor has its own shortcomings like a less than ideal battery life as you'll see on the following page. The super slim Xperia Tablet Z is no different in this regard as its battery life was also one of its sore points despite a sexy svelte 6.9mm frame.
It is also hard to ignore the massive dimensions of the Xperia Z Ultra. With a length of 179.4mm and a width of 92.2mm, the Xperia Z Ultra is inching closer to the 7-inch tablet territory. Being at least 7% longer and 5% wider than its 6-inch rivals, the Xperia Z Ultra is as, or even more unwieldy in your hands. Not to mention it tips the scales at over 200 grams.
Display & Picture Quality
The front of the device is dominated by its 6.4-inch display. The Xperia Z Ultra's screen has a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels and is the first smartphone display that integrates Sony's Triluminos technology, which the company introduced at CES with its Bravia televisions. Sony claims that through the technology the display reproduces a greater range of rich, natural colours to deliver true, natural shades. It won't be wrong to say that the Xperia Z Ultra's screen is the most brightest and vivid display we've ever seen on a device of this size. Unlike the Sony Xperia Z, where we'd observed minor niggles with viewing angles, the Xperia Z Ultra's screen was flawless. Pictures and videos looked natural and colour reproduction was pretty accurate. The big screen and the full-HD resolution makes watching videos a joyful experience. Blacks had the perfect depth and the screen contrast was optimum.
While Sony still uses the same kind of TFT LCD display construction, the Xperia Z Ultra is nothing like the older Xperia devices, particularly the Xperia Z. If you recall, the chief criticism on the display of the Xperia Z / ZL is the "whitewashed" effect and poor viewing angles. Does the Xperia Z Ultra suffer the same fate? Fortunately, it doesn't thanks to the adoption of new display technologies that originated from its TV line-up - Triluminos screen technology and the X-Reality display processing engine.
In a nutshell, the Triluminos screen enables the display to show a wider range (about 50%) of colors, hence images look more natural and richer compared to conventional LCDs. X Reality, on the other hand, is an image processor engine that enhances contrast, adds saturation, sharpness and reduce noise in images and videos.
Processor
Inside is a 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, which is about as fast as you can get right now when it comes to smartphone hardware. The 800 series of Snapdragon chips hasn't really arrived properly yet, with very few phones using it. Capable of recording and decoding 4K video, it is a very powerful chipset.
Camera
The device's 2-megapixel front facing camera and the sensor array are located above the display.
Operating System
Like its recent flagship devices, the Xperia Z Ultra runs an almost stock Android user interface with some servings of Sony's minor tweaks. It joins the likes of recent Samsung's mobile devices, HTC Butterfly S and the Huawei Ascend P6 to come with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out of the box.
Sony recently announced that the Xperia Z Ultra is one of the six mobile devices in its portfolio to be getting the Android 4.3 upgrade although no timeline has been given. Since Android 4.3 is just an incremental update, there is nothing much that you are missing out on. You get quick settings, lock screen widgets and Day Dream on the device except for PhotoSphere.
Sony Xperia Z Ultra : Specification
General
- Weight :- 212 grams
- Dimensions :- 179 x 92 x 6.5 mm
- Camera :- 8 megapixel camera fast-capture camera with Exmor RS, 16x digital zoom with auto focus
- Display :- 6.44 inches TFT, 16 millions colours, 1920x1080 pixels
- OS :- Google Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
- Processor :- 2.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8974 Quad Core
- Durability :- Dust-proof and water-resistant (IP55 / IP58), Shatter proof sheet on scratch-resistant glass
- Battery :- Talk time: Up to 16 hours, Standby time: Up to 820 hours, Music listening time: Up to 110 hours, Video playback time: Up to 7 hours
Design and Display
- 6.44”, 16 million colours, 1920 x 1080 pixels
- Shatter proof sheet on scratch-resistant glass
- Capacitive touchscreen with on-screen QWERTY keyboard
- Pen input with stylus
- Sony Mobile BRAVIA® Engine 2
- Senser-on-lens
- Face Unlock
- Gesture input
- STAMINA mode
- Throw
Entertainment
- 3D games
- Motions gaming
- PlayMemories
- PlayStation Certified
- FM Radio with RDS
- Reader mode
- SensMe™ slideshow
- Sony Entertainment Network (selected markets only)
- TV launcher
- Video streaming
- YouTube (selected markets only)
Memory
- RAM: 2GB
- Flash memory: Up to 16 GB
- Expansion slot: microSD™ card, up to 64 GB (SDXC supported)
Camera and video
- 8 megapixel camera with auto focus
- 16x digital zoom
- Sony Exmor RS for mobile image sensor
- Continue burst mode
- HDR for photos & videos
- Face detection
- Front-facing camera (2 MP 1080p
- HD video recording (1080p)
- Image stabiliser
- Object tracking
- Picture Effect
- Quick Launch
- Scene recognition
- Self-timer
- Send to web
- Smile shutter
- Image sensor
- Superior Auto
- Sweep Panorama
- Touch focus
- Touch capture
- White balance
Sony Xperia Z Ultra review and specification
Reviewed by Ankit Kumar Titoriya
on
09:39
Rating:
Reviewed by Ankit Kumar Titoriya
on
09:39
Rating:
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