The Xperia Z Ultra's huge 6.44in screen blurs the line between a smartphone and a tablet (aka phablet).
Sony's new Xperia Z Ultra is yet another Android phone that blurs the line between a smartphone and a tablet. The company claims the 6.4in smartphone is the world's slimmest with a full HD display, measuring just 6.5mm thick.
At almost 180mm tall and over 92mm wide, the Xperia Z Ultra will immediately become one of the largest devices on the market. Its size is comparable to Samsung's Galaxy Mega 6.3, so it's much larger than the Samsung Galaxy Note II, and even the 6.1inHuawei Ascend Mate. Take a look at The top 10 best Android tablets of 2013 too.
The Xperia Z Ultra appears to follow a similar design to Sony's Xperia Z smartphone and the Xperia Tablet Z. It's a long rectangle shape with flat sides, square corners and a sheet of tempered glass on both the front and the back. All that extra size means the Xperia Z Ultra weighs 212g, which is heavier than the Galaxy Mega 6.3.
The Xperia Z Ultra is completely waterproof, not just water resistant.
Perhaps the best design feature of the Xperia Z Ultra is the fact that it is waterproof, not just water resistant. The phone will handle water and dust to IP55 and IP58 standards, which is an upgrade over Sony's previous water resistant devices. See: What's the best phone you can buy in 2013?
The Xperia Z Ultra is a top end phone that is likely to retail for a top end price, so it's specifications are certainly impressive, at least on paper. It has a 6.4in, full HD "Triluminos" display which is Sony's fancy marketing term for a new technology that claims to display a wider palette of colours.
The phone is powered by Qualcomm's new 2.2GHz, quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, has 2GB of RAM, and includes 16GB of internal memory. A microSD card slot handles extra storage, while the phone is also 4G capable and will therefore work on all Australian networks.
Sony says the Xperia Z Ultra's handwriting recognition feature will work with any regular pencil or pen.
Like Samsung's Galaxy Note II, the Xperia Z Ultra comes with a stylus that allows users to write and sketch on the screen. However, Sony says the handwriting recognition feature will work with any regular pencil or pen, provided the tip diameter is over 1mm.
The Xperia Z Ultra comes with an 8-megapixel rear facing camera with Sony's Exmor RS sensor but the company has surprisingly omitted an LED flash. The phone's waterproof capabilities means you can film full HD videos underwater, and there's also HDR for both still photos and videos, along with a front-facing 2-megapixel camera that handles video calls.
Other features include a large 3050mAh battery and NFC-connectivity, though the battery is not removable.
The Xperia Z Ultra will be available in black, white, and purple colour variants.
The Xperia Z Ultra comes with Google's latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean software but is once again skinned with Sony's own UI. The Battery Stamina mode feature seen on the Xperia Z is also present here. It prevents applications from running when the screen is locked, therefore saving power.
The Xperia Z Ultra will be available in black, white, and purple colour variants. Sony says the phone will launch globally from Q3 2013.
What do you think? Please, leave your comments below.
Sony Xperia ZR comes with a 13MP camera that is capable of capturing photos under water.
Sony's latest smartphone comes with a 13MP camera that is capable of capturing photos under water. The all-new Xperia ZR, the newest entrant in the Japanese manufacturer's smartphone portfolio, comes with IP55 and IP58 certifications, making it waterproof (can withstand 1.5metre depth up to 30 minutes) as well as dustproof.
The new SonyXperiaZR has a 4.55-inch TFT HD Reality Display with 1280x720p resolution and 322ppi pixel density. It runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and packs a 1.5GHz quadcoreSnapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2GB RAM under the hood. Onboard is 8GB storage, along with microSD card-based expansion up to 32GB.
On the back of the phone is a 13MP camera with LED flash, whereas a VGA front camera is in front. Connectivity options in the new phone are 2G, 3G, 4G (market specific), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0 and NFC. It is powered by a 2,300mAh battery and comes with Battery Stamina Mode to improve standby time.
XperiaZR's display features Mobile Bravia Engine 2 technology as well as OptiContrast panel. This eliminates the need of an extra touchscreen layer by integrating the touch sensors on the panel, making the phone slimmer. The screen also features a shatterproof sheet to make it resistant to breaking in case of a fall. Features for sound enhancement in the phone are 3D Surround Sound, ClearAudio+ mode and xLoud Experience.
Key specs:
Display: 4.55-inch TFT HD Reality Display with 1280x720p resolution and 322ppi pixel density; Operating system: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean); Processor: 1.5GHz quad-core CPU; RAM: 2GB RAM; Storage: 8GB internal storage, 32GBmicroSD support; Connectivity: 2G, 3G, 4G (market specific), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0 and NFC; Camera: 13MP rear camera with LED flash, VGA front unit; and Battery: 2,300mAh
Sony has announced the younger sibling to the Xperia Z: the Xperia ZR. The Xperia ZR includes many of the Z's features in a smaller, more compact design.
Just like the Xperia Z, the Xperia ZR is waterproof and dust-resistant. This time, Sony is not just advertising the fact that the Xperia ZR can survive underwater but that you can actually use it there, particularly for taking 13 megapixel pictures and full HD videos with the camera and dedicated shutter button.
The Xperia ZR has a 4.55-inch, 1280 x 720 resolution LCD. Sony is using its BRAVIA Engine 2, along with something called OptiContrast panel. This basically gets rid of the extra touchscreen layer by integrating the touch sensor on the panel itself, which improves image quality and makes the display assembly thinner.
Other features include a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064, 2GB RAM, 8GB internal memory with microSD card slot and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
The Sony Xperia ZR is expected to go on sale around the world in Q2, 2013.
With a cutting-edge camera, a super-slim design and the ability to withstand life's knocks and bumps (and Android Jelly Bean to boot) the Xperia Z is a phone that's got us fired up about Sony Mobile again.
Earlier handsets such as the Sony Xperia S and Sony Xperia T were extremely promising from a brand striking out on its own - but it's with the Xperia Z that Sony is really banking on making a cataclysmic dent in the makeup of the smartphone market.
If you don't believe us, just look at its marketing hype - Valentine's Day saw ads on several, consecutive pages of major newspapers in the UK and you can't pass a billboard without seeing it in glorious Technicolor, accompanied by a strong statement that Sony has "reinvented the phone."
And the early signs it will do so are promising: a quad-core 1.5GHz Snaprdragon Krait processor, 13MP camera, 16GB storage (expandable, woohoo!), 2GB RAM, water and dust-resistant, 1080p HD screen with Bravia Engine, LTE, to name a few. You couldn't make this stuff up - this is the company that had a part in theSatio, after all.The Android Jelly Bean-toting (albeit only 4.1) Sony Xperia Z comes with some of the best specs on the market - and it's one of the most eagerly awaited handsets of recent months. Launching before the HTC One orSamsung Galaxy S4, Sony is clearly hoping to steal an early march on its competitors.
As soon as we took our review unit out of the box, we were mesmerised. This feels and looks like a premium, high quality product. Sony is one of the few manufacturers that can take what is, effectively, a plain black square and make it into something beautiful. Manufactured from piano black, high gloss glass both front and black, it could have come from the same stable as theGoogle Nexus 4.
Though maybe we are overestimating it, viewing the Sony Xperia Z through geek-tinted goggles - because while we were blown away, others came out with the line that Sony will be hoping doesn't cross too many punters' lips: "looks like every other smartphone out there though, doesn't it?"
One thing the Sony Xperia Z certainly does have in common with every other smartphone out there is the fact that it is a pure magnet for fingerprints. You'll struggle to keep it clean all day long without either surgical gloves or a can of Mr Sheen in your bag.
As is fast becoming the norm, you can expect to pick the Sony Xperia Z up in white too. On top of that, O2 in the UK is exclusively offering a purple variant.
If you're coming from something like a Samsung Galaxy S3, it'll feel similar, if a little larger, in terms of size: the Sony Xperia Z rocks in at 139 x 71 x 7.9mm/5.47 x 2.79 x 0.31 inches, so there's little room for anything else in your hands.
Coming from something smaller like, say, an iPhone 5, you'll certainly notice the difference. But it's amazing how quickly you'll adapt.
At 146g/5.15oz, it's by no means the lightest handset out there - but the Sony Xperia Z exudes a heftiness that belies a quality device. It's on a par with Apple's offering when it comes to the thickness.
The front of theSony Xperia Zis minimalist - showing off only a Sony logo and front-facing camera. The rear is a little busier, with various tech info printed on it, plus the Sony Xperia logo, an NFC badge, camera light and the all-important lens. That back is stuck fast - as is becoming the custom, you'll have no luck if you want to remove the battery.The ports are spread out with the headphone jack up top, the SIM slot and volume rocker on the right - either side of a silver standby button - while both the microSD and charging ports are on the left, alongside contacts for accessories. A watertight port covers each.
Turn it on, and you're not disappointed. Coming from the blackness, the 5-inch screen springs into life. Whether or not you'll like it is down to personal choice.
Some who've used the Sony Xperia Z describe the screen as a disappointment because Sony has gone for TFT - albeit with 1080 x 1920 pixels, giving a pixel density of 441ppi, which would explain why it looks a bit washed out. If you've come from a Super AMOLED screen you'll definitely feel the difference.
We're still fans - this is a razor sharp display from one of the world's premier screen manufacturers, although it doesn't have the wow factor of the HTC One's Super LCD 3 screen.
The only thing that lets it down is viewing angles - if you look at the Sony Xperia Z's screen, dead on, it's sharp enough. If you look at it from the side, it has a strange ability to look incredibly washed out. It's no huge problem - but it does mean the impressiveness of the screen is diminished compared to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the HTC One.
Clearly, you'll need to make sure the ports are covered using those watertight protectors, that much goes without saying.One of the selling points of the Sony Xperia Z is that it is also water resistant. There's something slightly unnerving about taking a £529 phone and dropping it in the sink - but that's exactly what we did. And it worked absolutely fine.
And here's some more good news: the price of the Sony Xperia Z is dropping quite quickly, already making it cheaper than the likes of the HTC One and could soon sneak under the £30 contract mark for a half-decent whack of minutes.
While it's actually the same price as the comparable SIM-free 16GB iPhone 5, the cost is now closing in on the iPhone 4S on PAYG, so we can't help but feel the Xperia Z is finding its natural pricing level.
Verdict
Sony's come out here with a very strong message: we are back and we mean business. There's no hint of this being a niche Android phone, or by any means a cheap one. Sony wants the Xperia Z to be viewed as the handset of choice, the one that will knock Apple off its pedestal and be classed as the Android device.
It's done this through a design which is, frankly, beautiful. And specs which are, in some ways, unmatched.
But it's also making a powerful statement by charging so much. And while we can see why, we don't know if it's a strategy that will necessarily work.
We liked
It has built on the strong heritage of the Walkman and given power users one of the things they often desperately crave - a good battery performance and top speeds.The Sony Xperia Z has incredible specs - from that beautiful screen, to its breathtaking design and powerful innards, there is so much that Sony has got right here.
The design is robust and fits very well in the hand - and despite the fact the 5-inch screen is whopping, the way its integrated into the chassis mitigates that issue well. And when you turn on the Full HD screen, well, the clarity is almost mind-melting.
We disliked
But there's always got to be a minus, and there are a few with the Sony Xperia Z. For example, the dust resistance is pretty much nothing more than words in our experience, and it does feel like a large slab in the hand.
And while the camera is OK, it's hardly mind-blowing. The price will still be a little high for some - although we think it's probably about par for a phone of this power - and we're annoyed about the trickiness of Mac support. Will it affect a large group of users? No - but that doesn't mean it should be neglected at all, given the increasing number of people using MacBooks for media purposes.
Final verdict
The Sony Xperia Z has a beautiful design and finally represents an Android smartphone that can be used to show iPhone owners that they're not necessarily at the top of the heap anymore.There is so much to love about theSony Xperia Z- and while there are some annoyances, they pale in comparison. Yes, we think it's a bit shoddy that we encountered software bugs, but we suppose they can be fixed easily enough, and they weren't bad enough that we had crashes or lost data.
The price is just a little too high in our opinion - but rush out a software update to improve the camera and you have a strong contender for smartphone of the year.
The only problem is, by the time that's happened, the competition from fellow Android manufacturers will have grown even fiercer. For now, for those who can afford it, we recommend it heartily.
With Sony getting out of the blocks early, it's one of the first companies in 2013 to reveal its wider portfolio of devices. The Sony Xperia SP technically slips into what we'd traditionally call the mid-range, but with specs matching 2012's flagship devices, the Sony Xperia SP doesn't lack power.
That's a huge positive, because it means you get a great experience from a device that's now perhaps £200 cheaper than it might have been 12 months ago. But is there really any space for this sort of device, lacking the glory of the top spot and falling well into the long shadow of the excellent Sony Xperia Z?
Design
The Sony Xperia SP mashes together the S and P names and in theory brings together elements of those forebears, mainly with the specs of the S and the aluminium design of the P, together with the translucent strip design common to the S, P and U Xperia devices of early-2012. However, the design has taken something of a departure, because although this phone carries an aluminium frame, the back is a conventional clip-on plastic shell which can be removed to give you access to the important SD and SIM card slots, but that's all.
In reality, the contrast is rather nice. You have the solidity of that metal frame, cool to the touch around the sides, then the warmth and tactile feel of the plastic back, providing some grip against your fingers to make it a little more secure in the hand. The angles of the sides provide plenty of grip too, the high points fitting into the joints of your digits to ensure that this handset isn't going to go flying from your grasp. Measuring 130.6 x 67.1 x 9.98mm, it isn't too large, but the 155g weight is pushing up towards the top end: it weighs more than the larger Xperia Z or HTC One, for example.
But the biggest design feature isn't the choice of materials, it's the inclusion of the illuminated bar across the bottom of the phone. This replaces the notification LED, giving you coloured flashes when you have a message, as well as changing colours when viewing photos - rather like Philips' Ambilight TV technology. It brings a dash of colour to what you're doing and it is a bit of fun, although we found that flashing can be a bit too much, especially at night, when an email alert may well end up illuminating your whole bedroom. We're sure it will appeal to some; for us, a simple LED notification will do, but that's personal choice. The physical controls are placed around the device in typical Sony fashion, with a central power/standby button on the right-hand side, along with the volume rocker and a dedicated camera button, which can be used to launch the camera directly from locked.
All on display
Encased within the somewhat quirky design are a set of display specs that are altogether more solid. There's a 4.6-inch display on the front, with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, giving you an impressive 319ppi pixel density. The result is a nice sharp display and plenty of space for Android to show off its talents. Of course the resolution has now been bettered by those Full HD displays, with the likes of the HTC One being fractionally larger, but plenty sharper. Considering that the price is a step down though, the Xperia SP serves you well, although you will need to accept that the viewing angles aren't brilliant.
The display itself is good, but not the best out there. The auto-brightness seems to be a little reluctant to react, often needing a prompt to get a perfect level. You've also got Sony's Mobile Bravia Engine 2 included, that will boost colours to give you more-vibrant images. It works, but can result in the photos you take looking a little better on your device than they do when you share them with friends. But our biggest gripe about the device is that we've spent our time constantly trying to clean smears off it. The Xperia SP is topped with Corning Gorilla Glass, but it seems to spend more time being smeary than any other device we've used recently.
Hardware and performance
Driving the Xperia SP is a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, clocked at 1.7GHz, and backed by 1GB of RAM. It isn't the latest generation of processor, nor is it the most powerful and that's somewhat reflected in the experience. Although the SP is pretty fast, it lacks the snap that the latest devices give you, but given the device's positioning, we're happy with that, and it will set about your Android tasks with relative ease. There's 8GB of internal storage, of which 5.37GB is available, although you can add up to 32GB via microSD card. In terms of physical connections, the Xperia SP has a 3.5mm headphone socket on the top and a Micro-USB supporting MHL on the left-hand side. On the wireless front, this is available as a 4G LTE handset in some markets, and you have all the wireless wizardry you'd expect, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS, DLNA support and so on.
The whole thing is powered by a 2300mAh battery, which is pretty impressive considering the level of this device. We're pleased to see that Sony Mobile didn't opt for a lesser capacity, as the SP really needs that to power this hardware. Typically, the phone will make it through the day and we found that we'd get through 12 hours fairly easily. On light days we had no problems at all. It used to be the case that "mid-range" devices did well when it came to battery performance because of the lower specs. In the case of the Xperia SP, that's not really the case. However, there are also a lot of smart options for managing the battery. As we found with the Sony Xperia Z, you can customise how the phone behaves with a stamina mode. This will let you say exactly what elements of the device are shut off when the level dips below a certain figure - 30 per cent by default. You can turn off background data, but cleverly you can nominate those apps you want to stay connected. That means, for example, you could keep WhatsApp active for your social connections, but let all your Google syncing go quiet when the battery gets low. You also get hardware controls, so you can easily manage the endurance of your device when the battery level gets critical. The result is that the Sony Xperia SP is a good performer on the battery. Sure, push it hard and the battery will drain itself in 6 hours or so, but with sensible use, the SP will see you through the day easily enough and Sony's smart battery management options really work well, with all the flexibility we want. The call quality of the Sony Xperia SP is good and there were no complaints from callers when using the phone. We also found the reception to be pretty good, with a good strong signal in places that some phone struggle with on our test network. The external speaker is located on the back of the phone and isn't great. It sounds rather tinny and there are certainly phones that give a much better account of themselves when being used for music and movies with the external speaker.
The Sony Xperiance
Sony's customisation of Android is now at a level where it doesn't inhibit much of what you love about Android. Some of the distractions of Xperia devices of old have been moved aside, so there's no longer any Timescape or Mediascape, but there's still a fair quantity of bundled apps and services. But thanks to support for folders in the apps tray on this Android 4.1.2 (at launch) device, you can easily move any number of apps you don't want into a folder. While we'd much prefer to be able to remove them, at least you can hide them away easily. There are some superficial changes to the calendar that we don't think really add anything over the stock Android offering and although Sony has added a great deal to its keyboard, we still don't think it stands up against Swiftkey or the new Swype, which we used predominantly on this phone. But Sony is sticking to some core Android elements. Chrome is the browser you're supplied with out of the box, rather than having some other customised browser getting in the way. We like that approach, just as we like that Sony follows the Nexus line and eschews capacitive buttons in favour of on-screen icons for device control, which can be dimmed when you dive into things like movies, making for a nice, clean experience.
Perhaps the integration of your social networks - Facebook and Twitter - could be a little better, as it's all too easy to lose an update you share via Twitter for Xperia for example, but as we found with the Xperia Z, Sony's user interface has reached a point where it feels right. We did find a few quirks however. The camera seems to slow things down a lot. Launching the camera takes longer than expected, moving into previews feels slow, and returning to the camera once you've viewed a shot takes even longer. It's almost as though there's too much going on, which may well be the case. We also found the returning to the home screen sometimes left us with lots of blank spaces where there should be app shortcuts or folders, as though the SP was lagging behind what you were asking it to do. With the power on offer, this shouldn't be the case, so perhaps points to something in the software that needs fixing. Not a deal breaker, by any means, but it detracts slightly from the package.
Photos, movies and music
Sony being Sony, it wants to own the entertainment space. Where you really feel the impact of its tinkering is in the entertainment apps. That means that visually, as well as operationally, things like the Gallery, here called Album, change dramatically. One of the things we like about Sony's Album is the zooming to change the view of photos, a feature Sony has offered over a couple of generations of Android smartphones. It's great to be able to zoom in and out of the whole album view and watch everything rearrange itself.
You also get in-built editing options, so you can add common effects like Lomo, change the saturation of a picture, crop, rotate, change highlights, shadows and a whole host of other things, so if the picture you snap isn't looking its best, you can easily make some changes. The Movies app is something of an oddball as it doesn't give you all your movies, like those from the camera, which are accessed through the normal album. Movies will, however, pull together those videos you sideload, as well as those you might buy through Sony's Movies Unlimited, but not those you download from Google Play. Movie playback looks good head-on, although the display's viewing angles will see the colour drop out if you lie it down flat. There's good native support for a range of different file formats, however, as well as integrated support to share content or access content on a media server. We're still not totally sold on the music app. Even though it sports the Walkman branding, the home page for the music app feels a little antiquated with the top section given over to the depiction of a record player. When it comes to finding and playing your music we don't have a problem with it, and the sound quality is pretty good through a decent set of headphones, with various enhancements available to tweak the sound to your liking.
Cameras
Sony packs a huge amount of functionality into the camera of an Xperia handset. The Xperia SP has an 8-megapixel camera on the back and a 0.3-megapixel camera on the front. The rear is supported by an LED flash and as we've mentioned, there's a dedicated camera button. This button will let you launch the camera to get into snapping straight away. There are various options for its function, but we suspect that to launch the camera will be the most popular. It launches in a fast capture mode, basically in fully automatic, and seems blighted by inaccurate focusing. The majority of pictures we took via this method didn't come out well, so its use is limited.
We also don't like the "superior auto" mode. It limits your options and doesn't seem to give you the superior return you might expect given the name, so it's best to head into the normal shooting mode and tweak things to your liking to get the best results. But the Sony Xperia SP suffers with noise, both in low light conditions and in good conditions, with blue skies turning speckled on a fine day, even with a reported ISO of 50. These shots are fine for sharing where the viewing size will probably hide those imperfections, but it's not the best performer out there.
The slightly misleading thing about the Xperia SP, as with the Xperia Z, is that the Mobile Bravia 2 option often makes these pictures look better on screen than they actually are. That's fine for showing to your friends on the phone, but fire them to your TV and they lack some of the punch you might be expecting. The front-facing camera isn't great either. Its low resolution shows, and although it's not bad at giving nice colourful shots, they're mostly mushy and lack detail. Full HD video capture is offered and the results from video are pretty good, with continuous autofocus.
The Sony Xperia SP is a good mid-range phone. There's power and flexibility on board and there's the performance to back it up, aside from a few minor quirks. The design of the handset is good too with the metal frame giving the SP a nice solid feel. We're not sold on the flashing bar however, it just seems a little too much at times, especially when you're lying awake at night, watching it illuminate your bedroom. The camera performance isn't great. Although there's a lot on offer, it just doesn't seem to all come together and give you the good shots you'd sometimes expect, with focusing being the thing that frustrated us the most. However, the Sony Xperia SP is reasonably priced and for that you get a good display and a device that will showcase the fun of Android nicely, with a battery that will get you through the day.
