Sony announces 6.44 inch water-resistant Xperia Z Ultra for Q3

Summary: Samsung showed large display smartphones can be successful and now we see Sony reveal their entry into the phablet market with the Xperia Z Ultra.

Sony recently announced the Xperia Z for T-Mobile and today offers up a competitor in the large smartphone, aka phablet, market with the Sony Xperia Z Ultra (PDF press release).

CNET hands-on with the Xperia Z Ultra

I owned, and loved, the Samsung Galaxy Note II, but went back down from that 5.5 inch display to the HTC One at 4.7 inches. As the market continues to offer larger display devices, I find myself moving to smaller displays on my phones with a tablet along for heavy surfing or work. While Samsung has shown success with its large Note line, I wonder if that is due to their marketing power or if people really are looking for smartphones that are no longer pocketable.

Larry posted an article discussing the minor differences in screen sizes in the small tablet space and I am left wondering how much tenths of inches means to smartphone buyers.

The new Xperia Z Ultra has a whopping 6.44 inch display, but comes in at just 6.5mm thick as Sony continues to focus on thin phones as a selling point. The Z Ultra has an 8 megapixel camera with the same water and dust resistance found in the Xperia Z.

One reason I liked the Note II was the S Pen functionality and it appears that is still something unique to Samsung's line. The Ultra Z does let you use a stylus, not included, pen, or pencil to write on the display, but it is not pressure sensitive so line weights are not supported.

One impressive specification is the use of a 2.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor. It has all the typical wireless radios, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage with microSD card slot, and 3,000 mAh battery.

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is expected to launch in Q3 globally in three colors (black, white, and purple). It is an impressive looking large smartphone, but I personally am no longer that interested in phones that don't easily fit in my pocket.