Sony Xperia Z Ultra review: Thinking big

Thinking big

GSMArena team, 03 September 2013.

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.

Reader comments

  • ibro
  • 02 Jul 2022
  • dP$

have fun with your toy

  • Anonymous
  • 19 Dec 2016
  • r3H

Why would the display turn off during calls? This singular fact rubbished whatever advantage the Z Ultra possesses. secondly the screen cracked at the slightest provocation. For me, durability is zero. No one want to buy and expensive item and...

  • AnonD-615282
  • 29 Nov 2016
  • GXm

How I use jio 4g sim in my sony xperia z c6802