The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is a massive handheld phone that walks the line between tablet and smartphone, and the device, which has not yet been released outside of a few select markets so far, has gotten large amounts of attention due to its size. Now it appears as though Sony has released the firmware files for the device, leaving the Xperia Z Ultra open to open source software programmers before most can even get their hands on it.
Android Authority is the first to report on this new, and those interested in downloading the source code can do so here. The download comes in at 228MB, and holds each and every file available to those who wish to customize the phone's firmware and those who wish to develop their own programming for the device before the Xperia Z Ultra is even available. The smartphone is rumored to become available sometime in September.
The big selling point of the smartphone is the screen, which does not have very much difference in size compared to some tablets such as the Nexus 7 Tablet. The smartphone with the 6.4 inch display, making it just short of reaching the same size as the Nexus 7. The Xperia Z Ultra may not be the best phone for fitting into your pocket, but the big screen is perfect for watching videos and viewing photos. The LCD screen is capable of having full HD (1920x1080p).
The giant smartphone also has impressive hardware under that big screen, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series quad-core processor with 2.2GHz CPU speed powering the device. Currently, the smartphone has Android 4.2 as its operating system, and once the device is available in a wider release that will most likely remain unchange. The default memory for the smartphone is 16GB, but can be expanded to 64 GB via microSD card.
The camera attached to the Xperia Z Ultra is 8 Megapixels, with a 2 Megapixel front camera capable of capturing full HD to take advantage of the screen's HD capabilities. Like other Xperia devices, the Z Ultra is dustproof and water-resistant, meaning that the device is fairly rugged.
It will be interesting to see how well the Xperia Z Ultra does in the open market once the phone is being sold in a wider market. While not quite a tablet, the phone has a similar appeal to the bigger mobile devices, but could get caught between tablet and smartphone users and fall between the cracks.