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See Sony's very, very big Xperia Z Ultra waterproof phone

It's waterproof, has a bigger screen than the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S4 and is one of the more interesting big-name smartphones we've seen in a while. See the photos of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra.

By Staff Writers on Aug 6 2013, 6:17PM

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You won't see a lot of images like this involving big-name smartphones. Waterpoofing is something you can get for your iPhone by buying a special case, but the Xperia Z Ultra doesn't need one. So what does Sony mean by "waterproof"? Click to see the next photo to find out.

Sony claims the phone can be put 1.5 metres underwater for up to 30 minutes. You can actually use the phone while you've got wet fingers, according to Sony, so in theory if you need to make a call while you're working outside in the rain it should be ok. Interestingly, the claim about the phone being ok for 30 minutes underwater is for freshwater specifically. There's something else that makes this phone standout, which is....

...it's big. Look at that photo. So how big is it? The phone has a 6.4 inch screen, which is as you can see, makes it look more like a mini tablet than a phone. That's bigger than any iPhone, and even the Samsung Galaxy S4, which has a 5 inch screen. Sony claims it is the world’s largest full HD smartphone display. As we've found time and time again though, just because something is the "world's largest" doesn't necessarily make it a great phone.

For some perspective, here's what the phone looks like in a hand. If you do a lot of web browsing and prefer a large screen for things like reading documents and emails, then this might be quite handy. By the looks of it, it might also be lighter and easier to hold in one hand than an iPad and possibly even an iPad mini.

The screen resolution is 1920x1080p, which in theory means the screen is going to be very sharp. That's the same resolution as the well-regarded Samsung Galaxy S4. What else is interesting about this phone? Click for the next photo...

It's thin - thinner than a Samsung Galaxy S4 and thinner than an iPhone 5. The phone is 6.5mm thin. On the other hand, it's actually heavier than both of those phones (212grams, vs 112g for the iPhone 5). The price of having a larger screen.

Other important features: The Xperia Z Ultra is an Android phone (running version 4.2), and it has an 8 megapixel camera which takes some of the sensor technology from Sony's digital cameras, which stands it in good stead in terms of picture quality. Another feature also caught our eye...

...which is that you can use an ordinary pencil as a "stylus" on the touchscreen. This makes us wonder whether it leaves pencil marks all over the screen, but we assume not - you can find several video demos online showing this, and so far we haven't seen many comments addressing this. There's a feature which converts your hastily-written handwritten notes into text, which could be quite handy...if it works well.

We were interested to note this image among the official Sony press images. There are some very specialised waterproof phones built for "tough" environments, but we're willing to bet many tradies are happy with a "regular" phone. Will they be tempted by the Sony's waterproof (and dust proof) feature?

Battery life can be important when you're buying a phone like this. Sony is talking up the battery on this phone, but we're yet to see any battery life ratings, so this is something to look into before buying.

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Take a sneak peak at Sony's Xperia Z Ultra

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See Sony's very, very big Xperia Z Ultra waterproof phone

It's waterproof, has a bigger screen than the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S4 and is one of the more interesting big-name smartphones we've seen in a while. See the photos of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra.

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