Gadgetory

what is going on guys along here from Android Authority and the competition in the mid-range game has never been tougher and Sony is looking to get in on the action with their successor to the Xperia T from last year it's a monstrous size phone that's packing quite the punch at least on paper but does it actually deliver let's take a look at the Sony Xperia t2 ultra so let's start this off with a unboxing because I know many of you will be curious as to what this phone comes bundled with but there weren't any real surprises here inside the box is your standard reading materials microUSB cable with a wall adapter and a pair of white earbuds that actually look pretty decent but here is the star of the show they Xperia t2 ultra and if you're paying attention to Sony for the last couple of years or so the design of the t2 ultra is what you sort of come to expect from Sony it's a rectangular slab with very sharp angles so it doesn't deviate whatsoever from previous Sony devices that we've seen the design isn't necessarily my favorite as I tend to prefer my phones to have a little bit more curvature to them but I can understand why many people find Sony's design appealing as it is very simple and streamlined the phone is a unibody design entirely made of plastic that doesn't feel cheap but the back of the phone is glossy making it a fingerprint magnet it's not so bad on the white model but fingerprints and smudges will most likely be easy to see on the black version regardless you'll probably be cleaning your phone quite frequently it is a large phone if you couldn't tell by the Ultra name and when I say large I'm talking phablet territory as a completely Dwarfs phones like the Nexus 5 and the Samsung Galaxy s5 despite its size it doesn't feel heavy which is partly due to its all plastic construction and it's also pre thin at 7.7 millimeters making the phone a little bit easier to handle all the ports and buttons are located on the sides of the device with nothing on top and bottom which made using the t2 ultra while charging or listening to music feel very awkward but on the left is a microUSB port and a micro SD card slot right below that supports up to 32 gigs following along to the right side is a 3.5 millimeter headset jack a micro SIM card slot sony signature power but with volume rockers right below and a dedicated camera key which you don't see very often on Android devices while the phone itself feels very sturdy and well-made the buttons on the other hand feel cheap they wiggle and the feedback is extremely mushy especially with the camera key and the microSD card and SIM slot are both covered by flaps but this phone is not dust proof or water resistant like many of Sony's other phones so the flaps are really just there for aesthetics on the back of the phone right below the Xperia logo is a single slit speaker and it's loud and sounds quite good but the placement on the back makes it very easy to cover up especially when watching videos or playing games and landscape and even having the phone sitting on a table will cause the sound to be muffled flipping around to the front is the biggest reason why this phone carries the Ultra name and that is the 6-inch display coming in at 720p resolution it's not the most pixel dense display so if you're a pixel junkie you might not be satisfied but I personally had no problems with it if you look close enough you will notice jaggies especially on text when browsing the web but the display itself is very bright vivid with great colour reproduction and viewing angles the only other thing that I really notice is despite how bright the display gets it's a little difficult to see outdoors especially when looking at it off axis but that's a relatively minor complaint to an otherwise great-looking display and while some people might find a 6-inch display to be too large there's no denying that it makes for a great multimedia experience whether it's browsing the web watching movies or playing games on the inside the t2 ultra is being powered by a Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.4 gigahertz with one gigabyte of RAM and Adreno 305 GPU and eight gigs of internal storage of which only four gigs are actually usable meaning you'll run out of storage quickly without a microSD card in day-to-day usage I do notice some lag when opening apps and even scrolling through home screens will result in some dropped frames but it wasn't enough to cause any frustration or break my overall experience gaming is also very solid even with the audrina 305 GPU as I was able to play all my favorite games of the moment like clash of clans dead trigger 2 and Shadowgun deadzone without issues and like I mentioned earlier it's even more enjoyable on a 6-inch display on the back of the t2 ultra is the 13 megapixel camera that utilizes Sony's Exmor RS sensor and it's the same experience that can be found on other Sony phones with all the same shooting modes like superior auto background defocus AR effect timeshift burst and several others the difference tuning modes like AR effect make this camera quite fun to play and experiment with but if you just want to take great-looking shots just put it on superior auto and let the camera do the rest you can take photos using the dual stage camera key or the on-screen shutter but I found myself doing the latter the picture quality is rather impressive as the photos came out looking very sharp with accurate colors even in low-light situations with very little noise but the biggest drawback with superior auto is that it maxes out at nine megapixel resolution not that nine megapixels is bad as there still plenty of detail but if you want to take 13 megapixel photos you'll have to switch to manual mode which unfortunately changes the aspect ratio to 4 by 3 so as you're looking through these photos the 9 megapixel photos are 16 by 9 whereas the 13 megapixel photos are 4 by 3 the shutter speed is a little slow for my liking but for the most part this camera does a great job and is very fun to use also great is the battery as the t2 ultra is packing a 3000 milliamp hour battery and I got ridiculous battery life on this thing on my second day I got over 18 hours off the charger which doesn't sound like a whole lot but my screen on time was a little bit over 6 and a half hours which to me was just insane and that just goes to show you how much I was actually using this phone and even with pretty heavy usage of only 12 hours off the charger I still managed to pull in five hours of screen on time so I'm pretty impressed with the battery life to say the least and I think with moderate usage you can easily get at least two days out of this phone before having to recharge on the software side of things the t2 ultra is running on Android 4.3 jelly bean so hopefully we'll see an update to KitKat soon which could alleviate some of the performance issues but on top of Android is Sony's Xperia UI that comes with their usual slew of apps like walkman PlayStation mobile and Sony select but they don't necessarily feel like bloat Sony does a great job of adding their own personal touches to Android while leaving the core Android experience intact and personally I think the Xperia UI is one of the better skins out there as it's not very intrusive there's no denying that the t2 ultra is a big device and Sony knows it so they've included some very welcome features to make one-handed use a little bit easier like the centralized dialer that makes it easier to dial a phone number without having to reach across the other side of the display the keyboard that can be offset to either the left or the right and my favorite feature which lets you pull down the notification shade just by simply double tapping the home button you can also multitask with Sony's small apps from the recent apps menu I'll be it with a very limited amount of apps but it's great if you want to be able to browse the web check emails or do some quick calculations without leaving whatever it is that you're currently doing the t2 ultra isn't targeted for the United States but if you're inside the US looking to get one for yourself there is one thing to be aware of and that is the different model numbers they all support HSPA+ and LTE but only one has support for US carriers the one that I have is the 5303 but there's also the 53 22 which is the same thing except with dual-sim capabilities both of these can be found for roughly 380 to 420 dollars depending on where you look the one that most people will probably want to get is the 50 306 which supports both t-mobile and 18 T in the United States but it's a little bit harder to find and so far I've only managed to find it for $650 from one retailer and at that price you're better off buying a high-end flagship device alternatively there are other options out there like the htc desire 816 that I previously reviewed which offers almost identical specs to the t2 ultra at a very competitive price and if you saw my review for that phone you'll know that I really liked it because it offered a very high-end experience for a supposedly mid-range phone but there you have it for the Sony Xperia t2 ultra it's a mid-range phablet with reasonable performance a great camera and pretty awesome battery life but whether or not this phone is worth it to you might be dependent on you live or how much you're willing to shell out to get the connectivity support especially inside the United States that's pretty much it hopefully you guys enjoyed this video and if you did please feel free to give a thumbs up down below and also subscribe to the channel as well which is also down below so you don't miss out on any future videos and once you're done doing all that make sure to check out the website at Android 30.com for more in-depth coverage and as always thank you so much for watching and keep it locked on Android authority as we are your source for all things Android