Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs Sony Xperia Z Ultra Hands on Comparison

Samsung just unveiled the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 3 at their IFA unpacked event today. Boasting a beautiful 5.7 inch full HD Super AMOLED display with a 2.3 GHz Snapdragon 800 Processor and 3 GB of RAM, it is easily one of the most powerful devices that have launched till date. But there was also another Snapdragon 800 device that impressed us with its performance and that was the Xperia Z Ultra, the first 6.44 inch device from Sony. How do both these phablets look side by side, and how do they fare in a quick comparison? We shot a video to show you how -

Design wise both the devices follow the company’s respective philosophies, with the Galaxy Note 3 looking like a Galaxy and the Xperia Z Ultra looking like a Xperia. However Samsung has done a few extra things to make the Note 3 fresh, especially with the leather stitched back cover adding more “warmth” to the overall feel of the phone, while the Xperia Z Ultra retains much of the design of the Xperia Z but a lot more thinner at just 6.5mm. In comparison, the Note 3 is 8.3mm which is not too bad at all, but quite chunkier than the Xperia Z Ultra.

Both the devices have a full HD display but the size and the technology definitely varies. The Xperia Z Ultra has a 6.44 inch IPS LCD Triluminous display with Sony’s own Xreality engine for enhanced media consumption, while the Galaxy Note 3 has a full HD 1080p Super AMOLED screen much like the S4 but at a bigger size – 5.7 inches. The pixel density is definitely higher on the Note 3, while the Xperia Z Ultra shows slight pixelation up real close.

The Xperia Z Ultra was one of the first devices to run on a Snapdragon 800 SoC, and the Galaxy Note 3 LTE version runs the same. A 2.3 GHz Quad Core processor accompanies the Adreno 330 GPU on both the phones but the Note 4 has higher RAM capacity at 3 GB. This is acceptable only for the LTE version of the Note 3 because the 3G version will run on the Exynos Octa processor.

The camera on the Note 3 is a 13 Megapixel unit that can record Ultra HD 4K videos, which the Xperia Z Ultra cannot, even thought it probably can. Samsung takes it even further with 1080p video at 60 fps and 720 p recording at a super fast 120 fps frame rate enabling you to take slow motion videos. Camera wise, it’s surprising that Samsung has done a lot more in comparison to Sony, but the Xperia Z Ultra is no Z1 Honami, as it doesn’t even have a LED flash. No comparison there, but the Sony camera UI has some tricks alright.

Talking of tricks, the Galaxy Note 3 is a Note, so obviously there is a newly revamped Stylus to let you do crazy stuff like Note taking, doodling and even more stuff like Air Command, Multi Window. These are some of the Samsung exclusive things you simply don’t get on any other device. Oh and did we mention the Galaxy Note 3 ran on Android 4.3? Well, yes, now you know, and you also know that the Xperia Z Ultra runs only on Android 4.2.2. That said, there is still a lot more to talk about, when the differences between both the phones are taken into account. So, wait for our in-depth comparison later when we get these devices into our labs, but for now you have to make do with the Note 3 hands on impressions, if you may.

Check out our other quick comparisons on the blog and stay tuned for more hands on coverage from the IFA show floor.