Gadgetory

when smartphones were first being developed people complained about them that they were getting too big eventually this became the standard and then about a year ago five-inch screen devices started to come out and plenty of people complained that they were getting too big and now they've pretty much become the standard well it looks like smartphones are getting bigger and bigger and Sony has come out with what is arguably the biggest one is this going to be the standard hey it's Josh Arikara from Android thority what's going on everybody and this is the Sony Xperia Z ultra sony has seemed to find its groove for its Xperia phones as the general design elements remain pretty similar putting the size aside for now we see shades of the Xperia Z in the rigid corners the entire front is made of the screen and the back simply has the Xperia neo pixel camera in the top corner the button layout is classic Xperia with the big silver power button atop the volume rockers that are all positioned right where your right thumb would land and of course because of the IP certification we've come to expect from Sony phones most every port is covered in a piece of rubberized plastic I did see a problem with the sim and microSD slot cover because no matter how much I tried to get it to feel secure it just didn't until I tried much harder for the most part you just have to make sure it's completely flat and then you take a step back and realize this is one of the most attractive phones ever the black slide design is in full force here even with this white edition at six point five millimeters thick and two hundred and twelve grams light the Ultra is like a featherweight of a phone that feels simplistic despite not quite being so in smartphone standards Sony has always had a knack for making sleek and somewhat futuristic looking devices and this is a great example remember what the House of the future was supposed to have a big remote that controls everything this basically looks like that kind of like a proof of concept but instead of controlling your blinds it's a phone in the hand it's a tablet there's really no other way around it this is simultaneously the biggest phone and the smallest tablet as such working with one hand is pretty much never ideal though you could certainly try turning the phone on its side and working in landscape mode gives you a much more natural feeling since the bezels at the top and bottom are large enough for thumbs ease of use in landscape mode makes the Xperia Z ultra feel good and make it quite like a personal assistant in that regard as a phone this is far from an easy thing to bring around while thin enough to fit in most pockets it is so tall that it will stick right out then there's the fear that any awkward tilts or bends will snap it in - it's not that fragile by any means but you can't help but feel that way with such a tall and thin device attractive huge practical one day fun another and then just plain odd to handle yet today there is really only one way to describe this monster it's all together the toy we dreamed of his kids but then think of as overkill when we're adults at 6.4 inches this is certainly one of the largest phone displays you're currently going to see though we might be seeing displays that surpass that 1080p resolution the Xperia Z ultra stuck to the tried and true capable of 1080p resolution and 344 PPI this display is also backed by the triluminos feature and the ex reality engine thankfully sony has been improving on their displays since the Xperia Z and the Ultra is an example of this nice evolution viewing angles are not only now existent but are actually decent well somewhat the enhancements bring a good level of contrast among the colors watching videos makes you feel like you're holding a small sony bravia tv in broad daylight however the brightness does leave some to be desired ultimately it's a screen made for mostly indoor usage partially for its lack of true brightness but also because of its sheer size when it is done right however this is a really fun screen to use the other enhancement on this screen is its ability to register touches from a myriad of metal surfaces this is most practical with say the back of a pen perhaps the tip of a pencil here's a key here's a headphone plug here's a quarter here's the corner of my sunglasses now here's where Sony didn't want to be left behind with the Snapdragon 600 kind of slipping past the s4 pearl found in the original Xperia Z they were sure to put in the current king the Snapdragon 800 in the ultra clocked in at a whopping 2.2 gigahertz this package is rounded out by the audrina 330 and 2 gigabytes of ram scores are incredibly high in antutu benchmark and Epic Citadel float about as beautifully as I have ever seen it if this is the future of smartphones then we're in for a good ride performance and practice is as good as it's ever been with all elements flying by in multitasking with the small apps remaining a breeze in hardware we already know that the Z ultra has the certifications for water and dust resistance 16 gigabytes of onboard memory is available even though there is a micro SD card slot available for expandability as far as sensors go the ultra has actually fallen behind a bit because it lacks an IR blaster so much for controlling things with your blacks light device in your home various versions of the Xperia Z ultra are available for various networks and LTE connectivity so be sure of what you're getting for your respective network a 3050 milliamp hour battery of incredibly thin proportions powers the Xperia Z ultra it's supposed to make an insanely large phone like this work through an entire day's work and play and it seems to do so in my battery test I watched a couple episodes of Top Gear that's 2 hours of some really high quality programming and after those 2 hours I got the battery down to about 70% that would put the battery in straight media consumption crack up to about maybe 7 hours in a full day's work the good standby time and the power saving features all helped the phone get through that full day you might need if you use it like a tablet with all that continuous usage then you're probably going to get tablet like longevity but if you use it less intensively and more like a phone than that standby time and these power saving features will help you get a lot more out of it much like pretty much every tablet we've seen the Xperia Z ultra camera does not include a flash diode and that's usually a hint to its quality in the app things remain largely the same as in previous experience you get the superior auto that harkens back to cyber-shot days and does a good job of getting the right settings for your shots included are a number of scenes for pinpointing those best shot settings sweeping panorama some picture effects other than that it's more of what we've come to expect from a smartphone camera picture quality then is good enough for a device you might not be taking many pictures with without a flash unit you won't be taking many low-light shots but luckily good lighting helps make for pretty nice pictures out of the HD ultra while this one manages to be just small enough to not look as weird as a tablet when taking pictures it certainly does toe the line and it's quality makes it a camera backup rather than more of a replacement shooter Sony's Xperia UI hasn't changed a whole lot since the Xperia Z but that isn't much of a surprise because the Z came out not too long ago Sony keeps things pretty simplistic with a UI that looks a little bit like Ice Cream Sandwich while being fully jelly bean 4.2.2 one notable addition I found here is a built-in 1/8 of connecting your ps3 controller to the phone so that's really nice otherwise you get pretty typical elements in the much darker and less colourful tones you get the different Sony apps for media consumption like the gallery and the Walkman and finally the small apps small overlays that give you quick access to little apps for multitasking this is all on top of the Google editions like Google now over all the Sony Xperia UI is simplistically elegant without really trying too hard but that also might make it too simplistic for some and for others maybe it's just the right fit a price for the stateside version of the Xperia Z ultra hasn't really been put out yet but currently it does sell on Amazon UK for a whopping eight hundred quid in reality though the American price should actually be around 800 US the general release info is still rather vague however obviously for US tech people out there the sony xperia z ultra is pretty much just the next step it's not necessarily surprising given what we know about the smartphone market so with that in mind it occurred to me to check with my friends to see what the reactions would be so here are a couple of my friends reactions look yeah this is what they bully you mother wait oh wow Oh something magical just happened so this is first and foremost opponents on a tablet yes it's a fun can't put this in my program to be fair I would probably be less likely to lose this I mean it's hard to miss play something that's big but it I like how thin it is yeah yeah design wise one very heavy it looks I like the rim maybe they'd read more books and newspapers on here I had reading a book on my iPhone the other day in that kind of terrible design bit is nice it was smaller than I will get it if it was smaller I liked the design very sleek got the dog no what do you think shiny shiny tiny and so there you have it if you've noticed me going back and forth in this review that's really just the nature of this device at one point it's brilliantly fun and the size is great for putting the world at your fingertips in other instances it's just not a very practical device unless it's used primarily in your office or home as you saw with my friends this is certainly a surprising phone to behold all at once this is a phone that appeals to the toy driven kid in all of us the speck hungry and the part of us that is for all intents and purposes just curious and when you finally get your hands on the device you will either find quite a bit to love about it you'll probably hate the size or perhaps you'll ponder that one day this might become the standard but at least for now it's not going to be much for all of the best coverage and reviews make sure you stay tuned to the Android Authority Channel don't forget to drop us a like down below check out all of our other content on the Android thority Channel and then subscribe and when you're done with all of that head over to our website Android Authority comm because we're your source for all things Android looks a little bit like an Apple Computer