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If Sony’s 5-inch Xperia Z smart phone didn’t push your thumbs to their physical limit, then wrap your mitts around the monstrous Xperia Z Ultra. It packs a gargantuan 6.44-inch display and the same waterproof design as the regular Xperia Z.
The Xperia Z Ultra looks very much like the standard Xperia Z, except it’s over an inch larger on the diagonal. Naturally then, it’s going to be a little more cumbersome to hold, although my colleague Aloysius Low reported in his first take that it was surprisingly comfortable to hold thanks to its super-skinny (6.5mm), fairly light (212g) frame.
It packs the same Full HD resolution as its smaller sibling, which means a slightly lower pixel density — the same number of pixels are being stretched across a larger area — but don’t expect to see much difference side by side. Aloysius happily reported the screen looked “stunning” in his hands-on time.
Unlike Samsung’s whopping Galaxy Note 2, the Xperia Z Ultra doesn’t come with a stylus. Sony has apparently made the screen super sensitive to touch though, which allows you to use even a pencil as a make-shift stylus. That’s a pretty nifty trick, particularly as it gets around the problem of losing an included stylus the day you take it out of the box. How it compares to dedicated styluses though remains to be seen.
It shares the same glass front and back as the regular Z and is water- and dust-proof too. So long as the covers are securely fastened over the ports, you can easily watch Netflix in the bath without worrying about ruining your pricey gadget.
Under the hood is a 2.2GHz quad-core processor which I expect to be absolutely blazingly fast. By comparison, the regular Xperia Z plays host to a 1.5GHz quad-core chip, while Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4 packs a 1.9GHz quad-core affair. How these devices really stack up against each other will be tested when we go in for a full review. On the back is an 8-megapixel camera — a slight step down from the 13-megapixel snapper of the Z — which we’ll also be putting to the test.
Sony hasn’t yet said anything about pricing yet, but given the princely lineup of specs, it’s unlikely to come cheap. We’ll find out more nearer to its launch date in Q3 — that’s any time between July and September.
While you’re waiting, let me know your thoughts on the Xperia Z Ultra in the comments below and over on our Facebook page.
