Sony's latest offering that presents something different to the smartphone market is the Xperia Z Ultra, and it's a pretty big piece of kit
When JOE got the chance to get a look at the Xperia Z recently at a hands on event in Dublin, we were struck by just how big the phablet looks...at first.
However, when you pop it into your hand, you notice that in fact it's not quite as huge as you might have first thought, and the 6.4” Full HD display really grabs the eye. As smartphones go, it is becoming more and more difficult to use them one handed, and if you want to be able to work or play all on one device, you might as well use both hands and go for something like the Ultra.
The idea here, as far as we can see, is that something like this phablet is the perfect media device for anyone who has a long commute by rail or bus in the morning, or who wants to still watch their favourite shows or videos online. It's not just for play either though, it's powerful enough to get a good deal of your work done on it too. The display is absolutely fantastic, and with the triluminos technology that they're using on their TVs also present in this model, you do notice the difference straight away.
Obviously, this is also going to come in handy when working away on the device, from answering emails to possibly even typing out a full document. It can also be used with a stylus or a pen and pencil if you want to be a bit more precise.
From a design point of view, this device is pretty nice. It's a premium handset, and you get that feel from the metallic frame and tempered glass - you feel like you're getting what you paid for. It's also just 6.5mm thick, which is incredibly slim for such a powerful machine. Inside it's got Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 800 processor with 2.2 GHz quad-core CPUs, and is noticeably quick, and the battery life is equally impressive.
Wireless connectivity through NFC is something that Sony have really been pushing across all their devices, and with the Ultra Z, that's very evident. Coupling this with the latest smartwatch from Sony would also allow you to check mails, texts, Facebook notifications and Twitter without having to whip the phone out every time you want to have a look.
There are plenty of studies that show that we now check our phones hudnreds of times a day, so the combination of smartwatch and phablet could cut that down pretty drastically. Plus we need a new watch anyway.
The same connectivity options are present for screen mirroring on to your TV, a great feature if you are using the Ultra Z as your main media device, or even to connect a pair of Sony's bluetooth headphones,
like the pair we reviewed recently. We really do enjoy anything that's wireless, really.
The Ultra Z tablet is also part of this range, something which we already had a look at previously
in their great range of gadgets earlier this summer. Another cool feature for the tablet, the smartphone and the smartwatch, is that they are all waterproof (to an extent obviously) which comes in handy for those of us who keep our phones with us throughout the house (the kitchen...or maybe even the bathroom) and possibly even poolside if we're lucky enough to get away on holidays to somewhere sunny.
All in all, we were pretty impressed with the device, and while we at first thought that we'd find it overly bulky and a bit too big to be practical, by the end we'd been won over, and were impressed by the amount they've crammed into what is a very neat package.
