Sony Xperia Z Ultra hands-on

Introduction

Sony just dropped a real bomb on the phablet market - a 6.4" monster that threatens to flatten the competition. The Sony Xperia Z Ultra the first officially announced device to be powered by Snapdragon 800 and it's also the thinnest device with a 1080p screen.

   
Sony Xperia Z Ultra official images

The list of tricks the Sony Xperia Z Ultra knows is almost too long to fit on even its sizable screen. Seriously, this thing is both massive and packed to the rafters with cool features. It slots between the Xperia Z and Xperia Tablet Z, using the same sleek OmbiBalance design and philosophy - "glass is good, thin is even better".

 
 
Sony Xperia Z Ultra official images

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra profile measures just 6.5mm, the slimmest 1080p device and close to slimmest overall. We were quite impressed with the Tablet Z and this undercuts it by a fraction. Unlike the Xperia Tablet Z, however, this uses the latest chipset and Android available - Snapdragon 800 and Android 4.2 respectively.

Sony Xperia Z Ultra at a glance

• General: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, penta-band UMTS/HSPA, 100 Mbps LTE
• Form factor: Ultra-thin water-resistant touchscreen phablet
• Dimensions: 179.4 x 92.2 x 6.5, 212 g
• Display: 6.4" 16M-color 1080p (1080 x 1920 pixels) capacitive touchscreen TFT Triluminous display with X-Reality and OptiContrast
• CPU: Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400
• GPU: Adreno 330
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
• Memory: 16GB storage, microSD card slot
• Camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps with HDR, 2MP front-facing camera with FullHD video capture
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, standard microUSB port with MHL and USB host, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC
• Misc: IP58 certified - dust-sealed and water resistant beyond 1 meter; Shatter proof and scratch-resistant glass for the front and the back panel, metal frame on the sides

This is a no-mercy pre-emptive strike against the Samsung Galaxy Note III and all other high-end phablets that might crop up. So far we've only heard that this or that device will use a Snapdragon 800 chipset, but this one is the first to really go for it. And the attractive design and thin body are bound to win many proponents - they did for the Xperia Z and Tablet Z.

Same goes for the water resistant certification - IP58 means it can go deeper than 1m of water, unlike the sissy Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4 Active.

   
Sony Xperia Ultra hands-on photos

The screen has 1080p resolution and despite the big increase in diagonal it still has 344ppi pixel density, enough to qualify it for a Retina display label. It's a Triluminos display with OptiContrast and X-Reality, too, to prove that Sony is throwing the kitchen sink at this one. If it's as good as the one on the Xperia Tablet Z, we'd be stocked (no offence to the Xperia Z phone, but we like good viewing angles).

The slim body did come at a price though, the battery has only 3,000mAh capacity. That's not a lot to go around for a quad-core processor clocked at the insane 2.2GHz (which might be very power-efficient, we don't know yet) and a 6.4" 1080p display.

So, is the Sony Xperia Z Ultra the future - big, high-powered, thin and beautiful - or is it just the king of the phablet niche? Well, that niche has been expanding as of late and so have our pockets. Our first impressions of the Xperia Z Ultra along with live photos follow on the next page of this article.

Update August 1: We had a second encounter with the Xperia Z Ultra and we've updated the following pages with new live photos and benchmarks of the device.

Sony Xperia Z Ultra hands-on

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is a fairly large phablet - it's about halfway between a Note II and a Nexus 7. It's a matter of perspective really. One thing it is not is a phone - it has full telephony functionality (HD Voice even), but it's not a comfortable device to hold up to your ear for long voice calls. Luckily there are plenty of hands-free sets that you can use for that, include the just launched Sony SBH52.

  
The Xperia Ultra next to the Xperia Z • Beautiful metal sides and OmniBalance Power/Lock button

And the Sony Xperia Z Ultra really excels for the remaining 95% of the time - browsing, watching videos, gaming, messaging and everything else.

We're glad to see Sony's OmniBalance design again. We loved it on the Xperia Z and the Xperia Tablet Z and we love it here. The sizable Z Ultra phablet has even improved on the already great looking tablet with a brushed aluminum frame running along its sides to give it stability and tempered glass on the back and on the front.

  
Size comparison of the Z family: Xperia Z, Z Ultra, Tablet Z • Size comparison with Nexus 7

Unfortunately, you have to wipe the front and back quite often to keep the Sony Xperia Z Ultra looking good as all that glass is a real fingerprint magnet.

   
The Sony Xperia Ultra is a fingerprint magnet

The 6.5mm of thickness is quite stunning. The angular sides don't make the Xperia Z Ultra the most comfortable device to hold in one hand, but for two handed operation the slim chassis feels really impressive. It's not too heavy either - 212g is certainly a burden you will feel in your pocket, but it's barely any heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 and that is all plastic, no metal, no glass.

It's not that hard to slip the Xperia Z Ultra into your pocket (well, certainly not every pocket) but we're not sure how we'll feel after a whole day.

Anyway, it's quite worth it - the 6.4" display has 1080p resolution and 344ppi pixel density, meaning it's as sharp as last year's flagships and the iPhone 5, a bit more even. And we're pleased to report that the screen has better viewing angles than the Xperia Z screen. There's still some color shift and contrast degradation, but it's nowhere near as bad.

 
Sony Xperia Z Ultra's massive 6.4" 1080p display

It's a Triluminos display, too, which explains the beautiful colors. Sony says the Xperia Z Ultra display has wider color gamut than regular LCDs and it's easy to see that colors look better than they did on the Xperia Z.

There's X-Reality image processor (the BRAVIA engine successor), which will intelligently enhance contrast, add saturation, reduce noise and the Super Resolution will make sure very video makes full use of the 1080p resolution of the screen.

The OptiContrast design means the display is laminated to the glass to reduce optical flare, but unfortunately it's much too dark in the showroom to tell the difference.

Photos of BlackBery Z10 Porsche Design leak

The last time we saw a Porsche Design phone, it was the BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981. Some new leaked photos today show a new version of the BlackBerry Z10, which bears the same unmistakable design traits.

The unannounced phone reportedly has the model name BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9982.

   
BlackBerry Z10 Porsche Design P'9982

Beside the photos, there is not an awful lot of extra information about the smartphone. We only get to know that the handset will be priced to match the luxury branding. The BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9982 is said to cost more than USD$2000. This hardly comes as a surprise, given the fact that the older model, the BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981, which was released back in 2011, still retails for about $2000.

Sony Xperia Z Ultra gets its first update, minor improvements

Sony recently announced its Xperia Z Ultra phablet and the 6.4-inch beast with its Snapdragon 800 chipset is by far the most powerful device in the current market. Sony is yet to launch its monstrous phablet outside of Asia, but the company has already rolled out a firmware update for it.

The latest firmware for the Sony Xperia Z Ultra has a July 19 build date and is pretty minor. There is no change log available, so it appears it was all about squashing some of the bugs that were spotted after the market release.

The firmware update is currently available on the PC companion and is not seeding over-the-air (OTA). Sony has officially announced that the Xperia Z Ultra will be getting the latest Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update, but that's going to come later on with another update.

By the way, we have already got our hands on the gigantic Sony Xperia Z Ultra and you can check out hands-on impressions here.

Android 4.3 rolling out for Galaxy S4 and One Google Play edition

The Google Play editions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One are receiving an OTA update that will upgrade them to Android 4.3.

The update arrives merely a week after it was officially announced and started rolling out for the Nexus devices. In fact, many of the Nexus devices are still to receive the update, so you can say the Google Play editions are more or less on par with the Nexus devices in terms of receiving updates.

When Google announced the Google Play edition of the S4, they promised quick updated along with a stock Android experience. These are two of the main reasons to get these devices over their standard versions that come with OEM customizations and are bound to receive the 4.3 update much, much later.

The Android 4.3 update was announced last week at an event, alongside the new Nexus 7 tablet and the Chromecast media streaming device. Although not a major update, it brings features such as restricted user profiles (only on tablets), Bluetooth Low Energy profile, virtual surround sound, autocomplete for dialpad, improved keyboard, OpenGL ES 3.0 support and a handful of other things. You can find a list of Android 4.3 features here.

Over and above these features, the Android 4.3 update enables Bluetooth tethering on the Galaxy S4 and the IR port on the One.

You can check out our review of the Google Play edition Galaxy S4 and the One here and here, respectively.

Samsung Galaxy Folder leaks again, named Galaxy Golden

It seems Samsung is actually going to really do that clamshell Android smartphone after all. When we first saw it, we were hoping that the Galaxy Folder is merely a dead prototype, but a new live image suggests it's actually still in development and edging closer to release.

At the start of the week we saw a leaked manual detail the specs of the smartphone - a couple of WVGA AMOLED screens plus Snapdragon 400 chipset with a 1.7GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and 2GB of RAM. There will be a couple of cameras too as well as rich connectivity options including LTE.

Now we also got to learn the possible name of the upcoming Samsung smartphone. According to the latest gossip it will be marketed as Samsung Galaxy Golden in South Korea. It's unclear if the smartphone will make it to other markets and if it will retain the same name there.

If it does, would you be interested in getting a clamshell Android smartphone? Share with the rest of us in the comments section below.

Asus Google Nexus 7 2 pictures

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