Sony Xperia Z Ultra review: Thinking big

Synthetic benchmarks and performance

Sony Xperia Z Ultra is the first device running on the Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 800 chipset we meet. It is powered by a quad-core 2.2GHz Krait 400 processor, an Adreno 330 graphics and has 2GB of RAM.

The Xperia Z Ultra, like the most flagships out there, is packing a 1080p display, so we can easily compare the performance of the new chipset to the old generation processors.

The Krait 800 processor clocked at 2.2GHz is currently the fastest processor on the market. We start with a single-core test and we were treated to quite the result. The Xperia Z Ultra had absolutely no problem topping our BenchmarkPi tests chart.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  115
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  130
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  132
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  132
• HTC Butterfly S
  135
• LG Optimus G Pro
  147
• HTC One
  151
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  166
• Sony Xperia Z
  264
• HTC Butterfly
  266
• Oppo Find 5
  267
• HTC One X+
  280
• LG Optimus G
  285
• HTC One mini
  293
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  330
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  350
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  359
• Nexus 4
  431

Next, we are put all four cores to a test with the multi-core version of the Linpack benchmark. Sony Xperia Z Ultra didn't disappoint, easily beating the Snapdragon 600 competition here.

Linpack

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  1034
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  818
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  791
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  788
• LG Optimus G Pro
  743
• HTC Butterfly S
  669
• HTC One
  646
• Sony Xperia Z
  630
• HTC Butterfly
  624
• LG Optimus G
  608
• Oppo Find 5
  593
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  413
• HTC One mini
  320
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  214.3
• Nexus 4
  213.5
• HTC One X+
  177.7
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  175.5
• HTC One X
  160.9
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  141.5

GeekBench 2 benchmark has been recently replaced by the new GeekBench 3 benchmark, so we've run it on all devices we had around at the moment. Sony Xperia Z Ultra is the champ in this chart as well outrunning the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One by a mile.

Geekbench 3

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2670
• HTC One
  1972
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1869
• LG Optimus G
  1623
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1315
• LG Nexus 4
  1288
• HTC Butterfly
  1257
• Oppo R819
  1047
• HTC One mini
  887

Quadrant and AnTuTu evaluate the overall device performance instead of just the CPU, but the Sony Xperia Z Ultra and its Snapdragon 800 chipset shine again.

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  29185
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  26275
• HTC Butterfly S
  25357
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  24716
• HTC One
  22678
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  21363
• Sony Xperia Z
  20794
• LG Optimus G Pro
  20056
• HTC Butterfly
  19513
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  15547
• Oppo Find 5
  15167
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  14518
• HTC One mini
  11434

Quadrant

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  18177
• HTC Butterfly S
  13130
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  12446
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  12376
• LG Optimus G Pro
  12105
• HTC One
  11746
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  11346
• Sony Xperia Z
  8075
• HTC One X+
  7632
• LG Optimus G
  7439
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  7153
• Oppo Find 5
  7111
• HTC One mini
  6048
• HTC One X
  5952
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  5916
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  5450
• Nexus 4
  4567

It's time to test the new Adreno 330 graphic processing unit. We ran both of the GLBenchmark tests in offscreen mode, testing raw GPU power. The Xperia Z Ultra easily outpaced all other phones we've tested so far.

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  60
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  43
• HTC Butterfly S
  42
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  41
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  41
• HTC One
  37
• Oppo Find 5
  32
• Google Nexus 4
  32
• Sony Xperia Z
  31
• Sony Xperia ZL
  31
• Sony Xperia SP
  31
• Apple iPhone 5
  30
• LG Optimus G Pro
  30
• LG Optimus G
  21
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  17
• HTC One mini
  15
• HTC One X
  11

GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  23
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  17.1
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  17.1
• Apple iPad 4
  16.8
• HTC Butterfly S
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  16
• Google Nexus 10
  13.9
• LG Optimus G
  13.9
• Sony Xperia Z
  13.5
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  13
• Sony Xperia ZL
  12.8
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  6.4
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  6.3
• HTC One mini
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  4.9

By the way, the Adreno 330 GPU on the Xperia Z Ultra supports OpenGL ES 3.0, which was recently added to Android (with 4.3) that promised even more impressive graphics. It's reasonable to expect even better performance once Android 4.3 makes its way to this device.

The Epic Citadel benchmarks was also updated recently with new Ultra High Quality setting. We've rerun every 1080p device we had around and, as we expected, the Xperia Z Ultra stole the first place once again.

Epic Citadel

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  54.9
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  37.2
• HTC One
  35.6
• HTC Butterfly
  29.6

The JavaScript performance of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra Chrome browser is the best we've seen so far. Since SunSpider has recently released a new v1.0.1 we had to update the old scores.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  750
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1046
• HTC One
  1174
• LG Optimus G
  1293
• HTC One mini
  1375
• LG Nexus 4
  1379
• HTC Butterfly
  1397
• Oppo R819
  1423
• Huawei Ascend P6
  3858

The combined BrowserMark 2 benchmark saw another great score from the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, but this time it didn't manage to come on top.

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• LG Optimus G
  2555
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  2438
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2419
• HTC Butterfly S
  2378
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  2338
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  2314
• HTC One
  2262
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  2170
• HTC One mini
  2164
• Sony Xperia ZL
  2107
• Sony Xperia Z
  2093
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1801
• Oppo Find 5
  1797
• Nexus 4
  1794
• Nokia Lumia 920
  1774
• Google Nexus 10
  1773
• HTC Butterfly
  1475
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1247

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra came back to its rightful top place in the Vellamo benchmark, making the BrowserMark 2's third place much easier to swallow.

Vellamo

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2944
• HTC Butterfly S
  2592
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2418
• HTC One
  2382
• HTC One mini
  2252
• Sony Xperia Z
  2189
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  2078
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  2060
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  2056
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  2019
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  1936
• HTC Butterfly
  1866
• Oppo Find 5
  1658
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1641
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1568
• LG Optimus G
  1522
• Nexus 4
  1310

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is currently the fastest smartphone (phablets included) on the market right now. There's a noticeable performance lead over the Snapdragon 600 competitors and you can even feel the snappier chipset everywhere inside the Android OS running on the Xperia Z Ultra. Once you get your hands on the Z Ultra you immediately realize that there's some serious firepower under the hood.