Sony's 6.4-inch Xperia Z Ultra has just passed through the FCC and the smartphone could be headed to multiple carriers in the near future.
AT&T, Sprint and U.S. Cellular just announced that they would begin offering customers the Galaxy Mega 6.3, making it the largest Android smartphone to be available from U.S. carriers. The phablet has a massive 6.3-inch display and makes the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2 seem on the small side. Samsung is once again bringing a converged tablet and smartphone to the U.S. market and the new device again pushes the envelope on just how big smartphones can become and still attract consumers.
The Galaxy Mega 6.3 doesn't appear to have too long of a wait before it faces a new rival with a 6.4-inch display and top of the line specs. The Sony Xperia Z Ultra has just passed through the FCC with North American LTE support, which means the phablet will most likely be offered by multiple carriers in the U.S.
The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is Sony's first phablet and the company is offering it in a waterproof and dust-resistant case, like its most recent smartphones and tablets. The Xperia Z Ultra features a 6.4-inch 1080 x 1920 (full HD) TRILUMINOS display that is both shatter-proof and scratch-resistant. It runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with some Sony customizations. The handset is powered by a 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and Adreno 330 graphics processing unit (GPU), as well as 2GB of RAM to provide a snappy feel.
The Xperia Z Ultra comes with 16GB of internal storage and also includes a microSD expansion slot with support for up to 64GB microSD cards. Sony has included an 8-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), LED flash, touch focus, and face detection and a 2-megapixel front facing camera. Both cameras can capture 1080p video at 30fps. The device's wireless capabilities include a 4G LTE radio, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and GPS. Its dimensions are 179.4 x 92.2 x 6.5 mm and it weighs 7.48 oz. The phablet is powered by a large 3,050 mAh battery.
Sony has added the ability to use a standard pen or pencil on the Xperia Z Ultra's scratch-resistant display to serve as a stylus. This is also another differentiator between Sony's device and the Galaxy Mega 6.3. Unlike Samsung's Galaxy Note phablets, the Galaxy Mega 6.3 does not include the company's famous S-Pen stylus and applications.
There is no indication on when we might see the Xperia Z Ultra offered by U.S. carriers, but we'll keep you updated as soon as we learn more.
