Gadgetory

we're about to find out what happens when two behemoth smartphones go toe-to-toe I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is the sony xperia z ultra versus a samsung galaxy note 2 it never fails there's always that one commenter who is up in arms over the fact that we sometimes pit old hardware against new devices like the new Nexus 7 comparison against the iPad Mini from last year the fact of the matter is these are often the best comparisons with the biggest contrasts that just so happened to show how far technology has come in a short while sometimes they also prove the opposite of what you might initially assume and that's exactly why we're comparing the most recent oversized phone with what many consider to be the gold standard in the category the Xperia Z ultra versus the Galaxy Note 2 which one of these gigantic phones comes out the victor let's find out before we get too far into this however we'd like to thank our friends at Negri electronics for lending us an Xperia Z ultra for a review period be sure to check out the site at Negra electronics comm for mobile devices and accessories as far as hardware concerns go there is only one major similarity between the Z ultra and galaxy note 2 they're both significantly larger than your average smartphone the Z ultra measures one hundred and seventy nine point four millimeters tall and ninety two point two millimeters wide meaning it's a full twenty eight point three millimeters taller and eleven point seven millimeters wider than the note two on the other hand at six point five millimeters thick it's nearly three millimeters thinner than a nine point four millimeter thick note - and being composed mostly of glass on the front and back it weighs much more than Samsung smartphone tablet combo device 212 grams - the note 2 is more respectable 183 grams all of this means something quite significant size is everything when you compare the size of the Z ultra to the size of your hand to the size of your pockets and the size of everywhere you would normally stash your phone it poses a problem the Galaxy Note 2 was once considered to be too large by many but over time and has become accepted as the norm it fits in our pockets with room to spare with a little practice in the aid of the curved back we can use the device one-handed and the button configuration is quite economic we have to struggle to fit the Z ultra in our pockets and we're forced to readjust often especially when sitting down there's no hope of using the device one-handed and the rectangular design lends no help in that respect either the button configuration similar to the much smaller Xperia Z is quite odd as well the difference is substantial the Galaxy Note 2 is two parts phone - one part tablet the Xperia Z ultra is the exact opposite two parts tablet and one part phone and we can't necessarily fault it for that it's great at what it's designed for but there's no denying that it's designed severely limits the number of potential buyers composition is quite different as well the Z ultra like its Xperia brethren is covered with two slabs of glass one on the front and one on the back and the edges are made up of a matte finished plastic for extra grip the result is a superb build quality likewise the note 2 is just like its closest galaxy siblings it's made mostly of plastic and coated in a hyper glaze finish its edges unlike the Z ultra are rounded making it much more comfortable to hold size aside and the end result is a device that doesn't necessarily feel spectacular in the hand but other features more than make up for it such as the s-pen both are also fingerprint magnets which we're not exactly fond of but there is one area where the Z ultra is the clear winner specifications it comes with a Snapdragon 800 chipset composed of a 2.2 gigahertz quad-core Krait CPU and Adreno 330 GPU 2 gigabytes of RAM 16 gigabytes of built-in storage with a micro SD card slot ip55 and ip57 camera 2 megapixel front-facing camera a 3050 million power battery and Wi-Fi b/g/n AC the Galaxy Note 2 has a 1.6 gigahertz quad core Exynos chip said comes in either 16 32 or 64 gigabytes of storage expandable by way of microSD card 2 gigabytes of RAM an 8 megapixel camera 1.9 megapixel front camera 3100 million power battery and only Wi-Fi b/g/n and then there's the displays measuring 5.5 diagonal inches at a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels the Galaxy Note 2 offers a pixel density of 276 pixels per inch the six point four inches display on the Z ultra comes with a 1080p resolution and offers 344 pixels per inch the display on the Z ultra is markedly more crisp with no visual signs of pixelation however the AMOLED panel on the note 2 offers deeper blacks with more saturation both are quite bright though we give the edge to the Z ultra and in the Z ultras defense the Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 helps boost saturation when viewing photos and videos we have to give it to the Galaxy Note 2 for overall usability and practicality however the display of the Z ultra and the superior design and build quality make it a very close match though the software offered on both of these smartphones doesn't look all that similar the features beneath the surface put them on a fairly level playing field at its core the Z ultra is running Android version 4.2.2 beneath Sony's expansive customizations if you've used an Android powered Sony device in last year or so you'll be able to find your way around fairly easily not a lot has changed the same icons of widgets are present as found on the Xperia Z ZL and tablet Z and the ever so slight changes to stock Android are scattered about the system and lest we forget Sony's skin comes with various themes that allows the user to change the look and system accent color between corpse amber emerald sapphire silk xperia amethyst and Ruby the Galaxy Note 2 running an older version of TouchWiz is two point versions behind the latest version of Android it's running Android version 4.1.2 meaning it's missing some of the latest features like lock screen widgets and daydream mode but like any version of TouchWiz it will be familiar to anyone who has used it in the last two years as the same icons widgets wallpapers and pre installed applications between the two the offerings are quite the same pull down the notification shade and you have a set of quick setting toggles you can adjust which toggles appear and their order on both devices you can customize the number of home screens both also have battery saving software the Z ultras is called stamina and the note two's is simply called power saving mode taking advantage of their larger displays they both offer unique ways of multitasking as well the Z ultra offers Sony's small apps hit the recent apps button in the various small apps are accessible at the bottom of the display the note 2 has the multi window feature which splits the display in half and allows two applications to run Simon Dainius Lee you can also hold the button on the s-pen and DoubleTap on the display to open an S note and atop any application there's hardly anything between these two on the software side but we have to hand it to the Xperia Z ultra for the lower dpi setting out-of-the-box which squeezes more information on the display plus it has dual shock 3 wireless controller support built-in to boot in daily performance the two devices offer enough horsepower for standard activities emailing web browsing text messaging taking and sharing photos and other typical stuff when you get into heavy multitasking or gaming there's a great divide the Snapdragon 800 delivers significantly more power to the Z ultra than the Exynos chip does to the note 2 this is evident in both synthetic benchmarks and to the naked eye we've experienced no lag on the Z ultra the same can be said for the note 2 however we must note that we have been experiencing some touchscreen issues with the Z ultra even after several factory resets battery life is still up in the air the Galaxy Note 2 is most notably known for its exceptional battery life at least by today's standards it's a full day plus kind of device we're not so sure about the Z ultra just yet I've had to factory data reset does the ultra a handful of times now and has gotten in the way of testing the battery data at least on paper though these two offer similar capacities 3050 milliamp hours in the Z ultra and 3100 million powers in the note 2 it's difficult to say how the 6.4 inch 1080p display and the snapdragon 800 will affect the sort of capacity just yet so keep an eye out for the full review next week finally the cameras both devices come with eight megapixel cameras in terms of hardware the biggest difference is the lack of an LED flash on the Z ultra and software they both compact the brim with effects filter shooting modes and other settings to tweak but at the end of the day the note 2 has a marginally better camera mainly because it's easier to wield when shooting the note 2 offers truer to life colors but was quick to overexpose and was subject to blurry images the Z ultra often aired on the very cool side and offered no more detail or stunning images than the note 2 where one fell short the other picked up the slack and vice-versa there's no denying the Xperia Z ultra is a phenomenal piece of work and the sales and popular of the galaxy note2 should speak to its quality as well so which of these smartphones do you fill is the best overall we choose the Galaxy Note 2 as great as the Xperia Z ultra maybe it's impractical Sony basically took all the great things about the Xperia tablet Z and crammed it down into a tighter neater package and decided to market it as a foam and that's where the problems with this device begin to start it's simply too big for comfort that's partially subjective but we feel those who disagree with the statement will be few and far between it doesn't comfortably fit in our pockets and it isn't ergonomic at all we felt the Galaxy mega 6.3 was borderline too big and we were right six point three inches is too big to still be considered a smart phone the phone has a dpi setting more along the lines of a tablet and as a result it often runs tablet applications instead of phone apps so if you're willing to carry around a small tablet everywhere with you the Z ultra may be the best device for you period otherwise we suggest sticking with the Galaxy Note 2 for a more foam-like experience that's all we have time for so if you enjoyed it let us know by clicking the thumbs up button below and stay tuned for the full Xperia Z ultra review next week follow us in all the usual channels Facebook Google+ and Twitter at pocket now you combined me on Twitter at Casper Tech i'm taylor martin and i'll see you next time oh my gosh I was like 30 takes