Gadgetory

the device that probably most blurs the line between tablet and smartphone was the other one to get the Google Play edition treatments recently hey it's Josh regard from an authority what's going on everybody and this time we're taking a look at the Sony Xperia Z ultra Google Play edition as always when it comes to the Google Play editions they are the exact same as their original counterparts when it comes to pretty much most of the elements leading up to the software and in that regard you can always check my review of the Sony Xperia Z ultra found here at the Android Authority YouTube channel but we will talk about a few points in design as always the form factor and the aesthetics and this one is the same as the original but the Google Play edition does come in black compared to the white one that I did review last the glass panels are kept together by a metal spine and this is tempered glass that we're looking at on both sides of this phone and also as is the case with a lot of experience if not all of them at this point this does come with IP certification and that means that this phone can definitely take a bit of a tumble and it is dust proof and water resistance the tumble that it can take is due to the tempered glass on both sides in the end the sony xperia z ultra still gas great looks and is really just the kind of design that you would expect from sony these days and only really Sony can deliver it so in the end this is a phone that does look and feel very nice even if that size is a bit of a hindrance for it all around 6.4 inches in the screen comes in at 1080p resolution and 342 pixels per inch now Sony brought in the triluminos technology that does make for a very vivid experience and a great experience for all types of media and also the screen does retain its ability to register presses from any real metal surface you can basically use anything that has metal to conduct a stylus like experience on this large screen again the only real problem here is its size but it does provide a very fun experience in the power department there definitely is no shortage of it in the experience the ultra as it comes with the Snapdragon 800 and the adrenal 330 now the Xperia Z ultra was an early adopter of this particular package and ended quite a bit of justice after all the time scape UI in the original Z ultra was already pretty mystic and thus quite speedy but now you have the stock android 4.4 kitkat build with all of its optimizations and thus is a step further in that proper direction all in all you have a very speedy experience here mostly because of the processing package but also the benefit of an optimized operating system that speeds along just fine due to all of that performance when it comes to the hardware we already mentioned the dust proofing and also the water resistance given from that IP certification and also the two sides are made of tempered glass which gives it an even more rugged outlook underneath the surface it is capable of connecting to all of the major mobile networks including LTE networks and after that there are a couple of really good features that are available in here like expandable storage found under the small cover right over here via micro SD card and then the battery is 3050 milliamp hours in its unit which provides a very decent battery life on a phone as big as this and with this much power and in my original review I said that it could get that far it could get maybe close to 2 days with frugal usage and with the power saving features on but since this is stock Android you don't get the power saving or the standby features at the original Timescape UI provided in the original version so without those you might just get a pretty decent battery life on here maybe not anything that is truly impressive and then we make it to the camera now since the Z ultra is about as tablet as a phone can get the lack of even a flash diode on the shooter should pretty much allude to what quality you can expect from it the stock Android app does bring a few functions to the table but is definitely not as robust as the original Timescape UI camera application it there is the lack of the superior auto which we did enjoy on pretty much all of the Sony Xperia phones that came before it and as far as quality goes the shooter does give good 8 megapixel photos given that lighting is nice the pictures are quite vivid but obviously they won't yield too many good low-light shots because obviously you don't have a flash diode built in and now finally the software it's actually really interesting what Android 4.4 KitKat looks like on the Xperia Z ultra because well after I thought about it for a while I realized that even if you do get the full Android KitKat build on here the Timescape UI was already pretty minimalistic so it might have already provided more or less the same experience in the original now of course the updated Android does mean there's better optimization and it does have a more elegantly simplistic look compared to the Timescape but with that in mind Timescape did more or less provide the same general functionality you had the home screens the notification drop down even though stock Android has a better power shade and of course Google now so what is it that you lose in the translation here well mainly what you lose are the small apps triggered by opening the recent apps button on the original Xperia Z ultra these are small overlays that did help with some multitasking and then after that you do lose also Sony's own takes on the media apps like the album and the very good performing Walkman for your local media content ultimately the experience of the most updated stock Android build is really worth the choice for many but the fact is that you don't really lose too much if at all from the conversion from Timescape to android 4.4 kitkat now whether or not that's a positive or a negative to you really depends on where your standpoint is and in that regard $649 is just about what's going to sway you one way or the other yeah you can also get the original Xperia Z ultra for around this price and maybe a little bit less so for a phone that can scratch that tablet itch as well as this it still might be a pretty steep price to pay for you and so there you have it the Sony Xperia Z ultra Google Play edition you can't really deny it's good looks and like the original we do applaud its build quality and that IP certification is really nice to have it might be a very large device and that might be a turn out for some of you but in the end this is probably one of the best large devices you can have out there especially with one as big as this now we did find that the Xperia Z ultra does fill a niche much like the LG G pad that came out with it the Jeep had fulfilled the mid-size tablet range the 8 inch range and then the experience the ultra though it might be a little bit weird makes actual sense because it is the closest thing you're going to get in the u.s. to a tablet range can take phone calls we don't have any tablets here full tablets that take calls and if you have a smart phone that is as large as this it's the closest thing we can get to that so that's a bit of a niche that I believe Google is trying to fulfill here with their Google Play Editions and you know what it's actually not too bad an idea in the end having the device like this is actually quite valuable if you need a huge phone that acts like a tablet then that is what you get here whether or not it is valuable to you is the question that you are gonna have to answer as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the Xperia Z ultra Google Play edition now happy Holidays to all of you and Merry Christmas no matter what holiday that you celebrate this year I hope you do so safely and also have a lot of fun as you're doing it stay tuned to Andra 30 for all of the best coverage including our CES coverage as it is 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