Sony Xperia Z Ultra — Review

Hardware

The Ultra’s dimensions are 179.4 x 92.2 x 6.5 mm. This doesn’t really mean much until you can see and hold one. For reference it is 28mm taller and 12mm wider than the Note II, and 56mm taller and 54mm wider than the iPhone 5s, yet it’s slimmer than both and much closer to a tablet than it is to most phones.

It’s immediately recognisable as a Sony device, and looks very similar to the Xperia Z1. Sony makes stylish devices, and it’s good to see them continue to evolve their style with their latest releases.

The massive 6.4″ full HD screen dominates the front of the device, with no hardware buttons on the face – Sony continues to opt for on-screen buttons, which seems a waste as the bottom bezel could have easily accommodated capacitive buttons and returned some lost screen real estate.

The headphone jack is on the upper right hand side of the phone which I also find unusual, as any headphone plug will add width to what’s already a wide phone. The jack doesn’t require a flap to seal it, instead it’s sealed on the inside to ensure it is waterproof.

The power button is on the right hand side in the middle of the device, and is slightly recessed – this makes it difficult to press at times. Above the power button is a large flap concealing the SIM and Micro SD card slots, and below is the volume rocker. On the left side the Micro USB port is at the top, again protected by a flap, and a magnetic dock connector in the middle.

The rear of the phone is again glass, with a small camera located towards the upper middle. There’s notably no flash – LED or otherwise – near the camera, the omission of which is a disappointment for low light pictures and also because it’s often used as a torch. I suspect the flash was sacrificed to keep the phone slim, but I would have taken an extra millimetre and maybe a few more mAh battery and a camera flash than an ultra-thin phone.

Display

Watching movies, surfing the web, even replying to emails are a pleasure on this screen! Anyone coming from the saturated colours of an AMOLED phone may at first find the screen dull, but your eyes will adjust and come to appreciate the accuracy and realistic colours of Sony’s “Triluminous” screen technology.

At the bottom of the screen are Android’s standaerd on-screen buttons – Back, Home and Multi-tasking from left to right, with slight Sony design changes. Despite some Ausdroid staff‘s protests, coming from a Samsung phone I prefer to have the back button on the right since it’s the most commonly used button and makes one-handed operation much easier. Unfortunately, with the back button on the left and my right-handed phone use, it’s a real stretch to reach it one-handed and increases my risk of dropping the phone.

A unique feature of the screen is the ability to take input with any pencil or stylus for fine-point note taking or annotations. This flexibility is great (although pencils are hard to find on most desks these days), with high accuracy and relatively low latency, but it’s sadly just not as good as the Note’s S-pen. If you want a phone that excels at this type of input, you’ll probably buy a Note, but it is still a handy feature to have for occasional use like marking up a map or picture.

Connectivity

The Ultra can be used on all of Australia’s 3G and 4G networks, with the exception of Optus’ 2300MHz 4G TD-LTE network in Canberra. It also includes Wi-fi up to and including the newest 802.11ac standard, Bluetooth 4.0, MHL and an FM radio.

The FM radio is a rare inclusion in phones these days, but is great for people who listen while watching live sport because there is no delay as there is with streaming radio. It also allows you to listen to broadcast radio on the go – if that’s your thing – without streaming over your data connection.

Performance

Performance is brilliant, as you would expect for a device powered the Snapdragon 800.

Sony made the decision to include 2 GB RAM, which seems to be Android’s current base specification, rather than the 3 GB included in Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3, but I had no issues at all with responsiveness or multi-tasking in my use of the phone.

Battery

The Ultra packs a 3050mAh battery, a bit smaller than you might expect for a device this large, but probably sacrificed in the name of device thinness. The battery isn’t removable, which also helps to reduce thickness.

Personally, I’d add a few extra millimetres and a larger battery over an ultra-thin phone. Sony’s Xperia software has a great Power Management system built-in, with “Stamina Mode” disabling data syncing while the screen is off, and “Low battery mode” which disables features as the battery gets low. The software will also analyse your usage patterns and suggest battery saving tips and modes.

The user can take greater control over “Stamina Mode” by selecting which apps are allowed to sync while the screen is off and disabling all others, a brilliant battery saver that would be great to see as a standard in all Android phones.

Camera

The Ultra’s 8 MP rear camera is, unfortunately, very ordinary. Photos are grainy in good conditions, and worse in low light. I expected a lot more from the camera given Sony’s Exmor R sensor and image stabilisation technology, especially given Sony’s reputation for quality in mobile cameras. It supports up to 16x digital zoom, though given the grainy results seen in my testing, I wouldn’t recommend trying it out.

The 2 MP front camera is good enough for video calling, but doesn’t produce results you’ll want to save to your gallery for later use, except in an absolute emergency.

Given the size and dimensions of the phone, it’s probably fair to say people are buying it for the screen rather than the camera, but that doesn’t excuse the poor performance.

Software

Sony’s customisations to Android 4.2.2 are unobtrusive, and mostly beneficial. Sony’s implementation of Quick Settings in the notification pulldown provides quick access to commonly-used settings and can be changed and reordered. Sony’s launcher uses a 6×7 grid making appropriate use of all that extra screen real estate, and has a slide-in menu (like a Navigation Drawer) in the app tray allowing you to search, filter and re-order applications to find what you need – a nice touch, but the categories and ordering is sadly not customisable.

The default keyboard supports gesture input and has a number of configuration and customisation options, and would be better if it had a row of numeric buttons as its top row considering how much screen space is available, but unfortunately it does not. Many people probably have a preferred third-party keyboard by now which they’ll will swap to anyway.

Sony’s packed in custom Music and Video software, with ties to their own online content stores and their own Playstation Mobile app and game store. The Video app was able to detect NAS devices on the local network, although it wouldn’t play DivX / XviD AVI files and couldn’t handle audio decoding in MKV files. The review unit also came with a “Reader” shortcut installed, which linked to the app in the Google Play store which apparently isn’t available in Australia (it looks like there’s two Sony Reader apps, and another is available for Australian users).

There’s also Sony Select – an app recommendation service that’s designed to promote particular apps that take Sony’s fancy – it links to Google Play for purchase and download, Sketch – a drawing app designed to make use of the Ultra’s large screen and ability to take finger, pencil and stylus input, a custom Backup and Restore app, and Smart Connect, which manages connections with external devices. NeoReader, McAfee Security, OfficeSuite 7 and a demo version of Temple Run 2 also came preinstalled on the review device.

Xperia Z Ultra

Sony

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Quad Core 2.4GHz CPU
• 6.4 inch 1080×1920 display at 344 PPI
• 16GB storage
• 2 GB RAM
• 8 MP rear camera
• IP58 Certified – dust and water proof
• Android 4.2.2
• 3050 mAh non removable battery
• 179.4 x 92.2 x 6.5 mm
• 212g

Model number: C6833

The Ultra is a great big enormous phone that will unfortunately be impractically large for most people. I have a preference for large phones, but even I couldn’t bring myself to use the device on a daily basis as it just doesn’t suit my lifestyle – it doesn’t fit in any of my pockets, and is awkward to use for quick tasks. Others may find they’re happy to make some adjustments to accommodate the larger phone, but I couldn’t justify it.

If you’re considering this phone as your next purchase, I strongly recommend you visit a store and handle the device in person before buying to ensure you’re happy with the size.

If the size doesn’t bother you, then this is an awesome phone for media consumption with its massive, bright and sharp screen, Snapdragon 800 processor, large battery, water- and dust-proof features matched with a premium look and feel and expandable storage. It’s let down by the lack of a camera flash and a poor performing camera, but if you can fit this phone in your pocket then you’ve probably got room for a dedicated camera in another pocket.

Availability

Optus is the exclusive carrier, offering the Xperia Z Ultra on various 24-month contracts starting at $58 per month with 200 MB of data up to $100 per month for 3 GB.

Local retailers Harvey Norman, Dick Smith and JB Hifi are selling outright ($733, $747 and $732 respectively at the time of writing), Mobicity, Unique Mobiles and Expansys can supply both imported and Australian units between them at varying prices.

If you’re looking at prices overseas, make sure it is model C6833 for the 4G model – C6802 is 3G only (unreleased in Australia), and could explain a “bargain” price.