Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 and Sony's Xperia Z Ultra are both great phablets, but which is the greatest ?
Sony and Samsung are set to go head to head with their latest, greatest phablets. Both of these smartphones are among the most powerful handsets in the world, but is the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 the best or does the Sony Xperia Z Ultra beat it? Read on to find out.
When it comes to build quality Samsung devices are normally a disappointment, but the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 actually isn’t too bad. The front is as plastic as ever but the back has a leather look and texture to match, giving it a touch of class.
The Sony Xperia Z Ultra still has it beat though, thanks to a glass back and metallic frame. It oozes premium quality and it’s also waterproof and dustproof, making it more durable.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a big 5.7 inch 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of 386 pixels per inch.
The Sony Xperia Z Ultra has an even bigger 6.4 inch 1080 x 1920 Triluminos display with 344 pixels per inch.
In other words both are enormous and high resolution. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is perhaps more portable due to being slightly smaller, it’s also slightly easier to use as it comes with an ‘S Pen’ stylus, and it has a higher pixel density. On the other hand the Sony Xperia Z Ultra comes closer to becoming a genuine tablet replacement thanks to its enormous size, so there’s no clear winner here; it all just depends on what you want.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 comes in two varieties. There’s a 4G LTE version with a 2.3 GHz quad-core processor and a 3G version with a 1.9 GHz octa-core processor. Both versions also have an enormous 3GB of RAM.
The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is very powerful too, but can’t quite match it with a 2.2 GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a 13 megapixel camera which can also shoot 1080p video at up to 60fps and even 2160p video at 30fps. It also has a 2 megapixel front facing camera.
The Sony Xperia Z Ultra has a less impressive 8 megapixel camera alongside a 2 megapixel secondary camera and can shoot 1080p video at 30fps. So on the camera front the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 wins by a significant margin.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a huge 3200 mAh battery while the Sony Xperia Z Ultra has a slightly smaller 3050 mAh battery. Both phones need all the battery power they can get given how big they are, however we suspect that while there probably won’t be much in it the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is likely to have a better battery life, thanks to a smaller screen coupled with a larger battery.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a choice of 32 or 64GB of built in memory along with a micro SD card slot to further expand it. The Sony Xperia Z Ultra has just 16GB built in, but like the Note 3 it has a micro SD card slot too.
For connectivity options the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has just about everything under the sun, including 3G, 4G, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and an infrared port. The Sony Xperia Z Ultra almost matches it but doesn’t have an infrared port.
Ultimately while both of these are stunning handsets, a winner has emerged and it’s the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Not only is it more powerful than the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, but it also has a much better camera, more built in storage and more connectivity options.
It’s debatable which has the better display as it really depends on whether you want the biggest screen possible or a slightly more pocket sized screen with higher pixel density. The one area that the Sony Xperia Z Ultra outright wins is in build quality, but even for that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 isn’t bad.
So while you can’t go wrong with either device (assuming you want a pocket stretching screen), we have to recommend the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 as the best of the two.
