Sony's 6.4-inch Xperia Z Ultra has just passed through the FCC again, but this time its smartphone capabilities have been removed, making it a Wi-Fi only mini-tablet.
When Sony officially announced its first phablet, the Xperia Z Ultra, it wanted to tower over competing phablets with its 6.4-inch 1080p display. When compared to its rivals, Sony achieved what it was setting out to do. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 packs in a 5.7-inch display, while the HTC One Max uses a 5.9-inch screen. It appears, however, that Sony may be having second thoughts about building such a large smartphone and has plans on also releasing it as a mini-tablet.
The Xperia Z Ultra has passed through the FCC again, except this time around it's listed as the Sony TS-0010 and is referred to as a "portable UMPC mini-tablet." It no longer has the radio necessary for phone calls and data on cellular networks, making this device a small Wi-Fi-only tablet.
The TS-0010 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 device 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 smooth user experience.
The mini-tablet comes with 16GB of internal storage and also has a microSD expansion slot with support for up to 64GB microSD cards. Sony has included an 8-megapixel rear camera with 16x Optical Zoom, touch focus, and face detection, as well as a 2-megapixel front facing camera. Both cameras can capture 1080p video at 30fps. The device's wireless capabilities include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and GPS. It is powered by a large 3,050 mAh battery and its dimensions are 179.4 x 92.2 x 6.5 mm and it weighs 7.48 oz.
It's very possible that Sony could end up releasing this version of the Xperia Z Ultra as a mini-tablet under its Walkman brand, which consists of Android-based devices with no cellular connectivity. For now we'll have to wait to hear the official word from Sony regarding this new device.
