Sony Xperia Z Ultra Smartphone / Phablet Review

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is one of the thinnest smartphones on the market today. Its dimensions are 179.4 x 92.2 x 6.5 mm. In order to keep its incredibly thin size from being susceptible to structural problems, it has an aluminum and glass case, which allows the phone to be firm and light at the same time.

The Smartphone / Phablet only weighs 212 grams, this is remarkable considering its relatively large size. In fact the phone is so large that it is difficult to use its interface with only one hand, and despite its thinness and weight, it remains somewhat cumbersome to hold.

Xperia Z Ultra Review

In this article I’ve taken a brief but detailed look at the Z Ultra’s Specs and Features, and laid them out in easy to understand chunks.

Display

Sony’s latest boasts a massive 6.4 inch 1080 x 1920 pixel display which offers 344ppi (Pixels Per inch) and whilst not up to the standard of Samsung’s Galaxy S4 it can be considered an even trade off for the handsets unwieldy size and power consumption requirements.

That being said though the Z Ultra’s phone’s display is still nothing short of eye-popping, extremely colorful, and really engaging to look at.

Software

Sony Xperia Z Ultra runs Android OS 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Sony’s user interface skinned on top of it, which makes the phone very easy to use. As with the majority of handset manufacturers Sony have seen fit to kit out the Ultra with its own suite of apps. Pre-installed software includes the Smart Connect app and the improved one-handed keyboard feature.

This enables users to choose a narrower keyboard and whether they want it on the left or right of the display. In addition to this, the phones UI is extremely sensitive, and this allows the user to access it with a dedicated stylus, or even a pencil or pen, although the phone does not have any dedicated software for this feature. Still, users who prefer to utilize a stylus will not need to have one on hand at all times in order to use this feature, which is a great addition.

CPU and RAM

Fitted with the 2.2 GHz quad core Krait 400, one of the fastest mobile processors around the Z Ultra is able to easily multitask which cuts out any noticeable delay in response times. Accompanied by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage space, along with Micro SD availability that can let the user expand total memory to 64GB of storage, this handset can take almost whatever you throw at it!

Battery Life

The Z Ultra’s standby battery life is 790 hours in the 2G and up to 820 hours in the 3G. It allows for a talk time of up to 14 hours on the 2G and 16 hours on the 3G, and boasts a whopping 120 hours of music play time.

Camera

The Xperia Z Ultra boasts an 8 MegaPixel (3264 x 2448 pixel) camera and a 1080 pixel, fully high definition video recorder. The camera has all of the latest features available, including geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, image stabilization, HDR, and sweep panorama. There is also a secondary camera that is 2 MegaPixel, 1080p at 30 frames per second.

Sony Xperia Z Ultra: Final Opinion

The Z Ultra gets high marks for offering a screen with high resolution and multiple stylus options. However it does not offer much more than that as far as extremely large phones / Phablets are concerned. Ultimately, this seems to be a phone that wishes it were a tablet.

The combination of power and size make it unique, and that will certainly appeal to certain consumers. Buyers who are interested in the benefits of a tablet but don’t want to spend the money necessary to acquire one may be drawn to the Z Ultra. But its unwieldiness will probably prevent it from becoming a mainstream smartphone, and instead relegate it to niche markets.

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source 
•  License: Creative Commons image source 

By Darren wall

Author Darren Wall is a mobile technology enthusiast who has written about smartphones and apps for many sites. He regularly writes for the Pre Pay As You Go Blog under the name of prepay and also tweets under that name.