Is This The Phablet to Get?

Battery Life

In a somewhat strange move, aslope the jumbo half dozen.iv-inch display and powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset, Sony opted for a relatively small 3,000 mAh battery. The idea here I'm certain was to go along the device to its svelte half dozen.5mm thick body, only it doesn't bode well for battery life.

The good news is that the standby time is impressive, because the screen isn't powered on. The bad news is that the screen on time is mediocre, considering, of form, the screen is sucking a meaning portion of the juice available. This means that in regular usage, yous'll probable observe the Z Ultra barely lasting an entire day, and you'll probably have to monitor the battery life closely to ensure you don't need to scramble to find a charger.

Compared to other flagships that I've used recently, including the Lumia 925, HTC 1 and Galaxy S4, the Z Ultra had a significantly shorter battery life, perhaps even shorter than the Xperia Z I used towards the start of the year. The 11.6 Wh battery struggles when you're using the brandish for things like games, but also for social media which can be a gradual bleed.

Sony has included a Stamina Fashion which can increase the bombardment life by a reasonable amount, probably bringing information technology on par with this twelvemonth's other high-terminate Android phones. Even so this comes through sacrificing groundwork data usage, which is i of the advantages of having a smartphone; you will lose social media notifications and emails unless you set upwardly exceptions, which then defeats the purpose of the mode in the first place.

Below I've compared the Z Ultra's bombardment life to other smartphones on the market in our battery life test. In this examination, a 720p video is looped at 75% brightness in airplane mode until the battery dies. Mostly speaking, a telephone which scores more than than eight hours in this test has a good all-round battery life.

Putting It All Together

After enjoying my time with the Xperia Z, I have to say that I'm disappointed with the Xperia Z Ultra. The device is insanely fast and complemented by a massive, beautiful 1080p display, just Sony has failed to evangelize the necessary software to have advantage of the phone's interesting hardware features.

For one, the touchscreen tin be used with pencils and whatever metallic object, which allows you to bring your own stylus to employ with the device. However, the note-taking app is bewilderingly split in 2, pregnant yous can't take text notes and annotate them from within the same awarding. Then there's the general operating organisation, which takes no advantage of the extra screen real estate, leaving yous with essentially just a larger phone.

The bombardment life is as well mediocre, failing to live up to the Galaxy Note 2 and flagship smartphones that have been released throughout this year. The Ultra definitely does take an awesome half dozen.4-inch brandish complemented by the Mobile Bravia Engine 2 and decent brightness, but that'due south not especially useful when more two hours of screen-on fourth dimension is off limits.

Then there's the design, which leaves me torn. The Xperia Z Ultra is a stunning slice of hardware, combining top-end materials with an ultra-slim, premium composition. But at the same fourth dimension it'south impractically large, hard to use as a handset, and a general hindrance in a number of everyday tasks. The phone has been crafted for its large display, but it mayhap turned out a bit too big.

Ultimately I can't recommend this telephone over Samsung's Milky way Note range, especially with the Galaxy Note Three on the horizon, because it lacks an overall smooth that yous need from a large, note-taking-cum-multimedia device. In some respects the Sony Xperia Z Ultra is wonderful, but it's the critical areas where it falls backside the mark.

Pros: Slim, beautiful and waterproof design constructed from premium materials. Snapdragon 800 is blazingly fast. Quality 1080p display with multi-stylus support.

Cons: Huge size is more than a burden than a bonus. Under--developed software takes no advantage of screen real estate or stylus features. Disappointing battery life for its class.