Verizon just became the last major carrier to launch the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in the U.S. on October 10. The newest phablet from Samsung is looking to take over the market, so let's take a look at what competition it has in the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, which was recently made available unlocked in the U.S.
Display
First of all, we're talking some of the largest "smartphones" on the market - so-called phablets, which are a mix between a phone and a tablet. For the Xperia Z Ultra, it comes mighty close to being a tablet, with its massive 6.4-inch touchscreen.
That screen has a Sony Triluminos display with X-Reality Engine, meaning you get the bright, vivid resolution associated with the Xperia Z on a huge screen. The official resolution is 1080 x 1920p, and on the 6.4-inch screen, that means a very respectable (especially considering the screen size) 344 pixels per inch.
For the Galaxy Note 3, you'll feel like you're using a regular sized phone again, compared to the Xperia Z Ultra. It has a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen with the same resolution as the Ultra. However, on the smaller screen, that gives you a pixel density of 386ppi, which edges out the Xperia Z Ultra.
Size
Size is a factor for phablets, because the idea of one of these mobile devices is that you can still carry it around, while enjoying the benefits of a large screen. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 managed to make its third iteration's display 0.2-inches larger, while making phone itself slimmer and lighter.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has very slim (for its size class) 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm dimensions, which Samsung accomplished by making the side bezels super thin, and keeping the bottom and top boarders slimmer as well. The phablet only weighs 168 grams - another impressive accomplishment in phablet portability.
Compared to the Galaxy Note 3, the Xperia Z Ultra is a monster - and that may not be a good thing. Besides the huge screen, Sony has large side bezels and inexplicably thick top and bottom boarders (especially considering that the navigation buttons are part of the screen, and not even embedded on the bottom of the device's face).
Those inefficiencies in design give the Xperia Z Ultra a gargantuan 179.4 x 92.2 mm footprint, meaning the device is over 7 inches tall and almost 4 inches wide! However, if you have large pockets but skinny jeans, the Xperia Z Ultra is impressively slim - being only 6.5mm thick.
It weighs a good deal more than the Galaxy Note 3, at 212 grams, but still manages to be under half a pound.
Power (Processor and Battery)
The processor on Samsung's newest phablet is cutting edge. The latest Qualcomm system on a chip, the quad core Snapdragon 800, graces the Note 3 and its clocked to 2.3GHz and assisted by 3GB of RAM - the first time a device like that has featured that much RAM.
But the Xperia Z Ultra almost matches Samsung, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked to 2.2GHz, with 2GB of RAM - and it was released months before the Galaxy Note 3.
The Galaxy Note 3 will outlast the Xperia Z Ultra though, with its 3200 mAh batter providing up to 21 hours of mixed use, while Sony's phablet can only go for 16 hours with its 3050 mAh juice box.
Camera and Storage
Sony has recently joined the super-camera smartphone competition with its Xperia Z1 device. However, for the Xperia Z Ultra, it skimps on the camera, giving you an 8-megapixel main shooter with no LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facer. You'll be able to take 1080p video, and Sony's camera software certainly provides enough power-user functions to make it somewhat competitive - but not competitive with the Galaxy Note 3.
Samsung's latest phablet for the U.S. market won't reinvent the smartphone camera, but it certainly matches what's expected of a high-end smartphone with a 13-megapixel main camera. That means higher zoom-in quality, and the Note 3's camera can also take 1080p video at 60 frames per second. It also has a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter.
When it comes to storage, Samsung can out-store the Xperia Z Ultra, if you're willing to pay for it. The Galaxy Note 3's internal storage goes up to 64GB, and there's a microSD card slot for up to 64GB more. The Xperia Z Ultra also has a microSD card slot, but only comes with 16GB of phone storage.
Other Features
The "other" category is interesting between these two phablets. First of all, both feature NFC, WiFI, Bluetooth 4, and other flagship-type essentials.
But Sony has brought something unique to the table with its Xperia lineup, giving you a whole set of mobile devices that have IP58 certification for water and dust resistance to at least 3 feet underwater for 30 minutes. Samsung has experimented with waterproof phones, most recently with the Galaxy S4 Active, but Sony has made the proverbial bottom of the pool their home. The Xperia Z Ultra also features an FM radio, which the Galaxy Note 3 does not.
Meanwhile, Samsung has updated its S Pen stylus to make it ever more capable of multitasking.
They've baked a multi-function menu into the operating system that operates at a press of the S Pen's button, making several tasks a breeze with the stylus. The Galaxy Note 3 also comes with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box, while the Xperia Z Ultra is at 4.2.2, but Sony has promised to upgrade to 4.3 once it finishes layering its proprietary UI over it.
Release Date and Price
The Xperia Z Ultra has been available for purchase on Newegg for a couple of weeks now, and will ship on Oct. 14. However, that's through an online retailer and only comes as the full, unlocked smartphone, which costs just about $700 to $730.
The unlocked price for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is similar, if not little more expensive, at about $750, but you can also get it at AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile for much less with a two-year contract - usually somewhere between $250 and $350, depending on the sale and model. Most looking for a large-screened smartphone will probably end up with the Galaxy Note 3, because of the contract price, and because its simply more versatile than the big screen media player Xperia Z Ultra.
By the way, both phablets have an optional smartwatch it can pair with, which you almost certainly don't want to buy.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
