Sony announced on Wednesday that Android 5.0 Lollipop is rolling out this week for the Xperia Z Ultra Google Play Edition, while confirming that other devices in the Xperia Z lineup will receive the latest software version in early 2015. Sony pledged in October that it would bring Android Lollipop to its entire lineup of premium Z-series devices.
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If you had your heart set on picking up a Google Play edition of Sony’s Xperia Z Ultra, only to see it removed from the Play Store, then turn that frown upside down! Online retailer EXPANSYS is currently running a promotion that drastically drops the price of four US Google Play edition devices. For example, the Samsung GS4 GPE goes for $650 from Google Play, but this deal knocks it down to just $400. Not too shabby.
Sony’s working on a new device and it’s going to be big! Today, the company published a cryptic picture of a woman facing what looks like a enormous, but thin device. Posted to Sony’s mobile blog, the photo was accompanied by a caption that asked “do you want to know a secret? Stay tuned for the next big thing this season.” Since we’re pretty sure that Sony isn’t working on a smartphone or tablet for giant’s, the outfit is most likely teasing a follow up to its super-sized Xperia Z Ultra.
If you’re unfamiliar with this behemoth handset, it features a massive 6.4-inch 1080p display, a quad-core 2.2GHz MSM8974 Qualcomm processor, 2GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter, 16GB of internal storage and Android 4.4 KitKat. While we’re not completely sure that the Xperia Z Ultra will receive a sequel, we’re almost positive that Samsung’s marketing team will get a kick out of this mystery device’s tagline.
Sony announced today on its mobile blog that the rollout of Android 4.4 KitKat for a few of its new devices has officially kicked off. That means that Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1, and Xperia Z1 Compact owners can expect the upgrade soon, although we’ve yet to get reports that the update is available. As always, the timeframe for the update hitting your device will vary by market and carrier.
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Android Central reports that Sony is the first Android manufacturer to commit to updating devices to Android 4.3.
The Japanese company says it can confirm that the Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia SP and Xperia Z Ultra will all get upgrades to Android 4.3, though no specific update timetable is offered.
In addition, Sony says it’s looking at upgrading some of its Android 4.1 devices directly to 4.3, leapfrogging 4.2 entirely.
The Xperia ZR and Tablet Z are still scheduled to get 4.2 next month, with a later update to 4.3.
After several months of leaks and rumors, Sony has finally confirmed the Xperia Z Ultra at an event in Beijing. The device is packing a whopping 6.4-inch Full HD display with Sony’s Reality sensor, which the company says provides richer and wider colors. Sony says the device carries support for a stylus or any sort of pencil, which is an interesting feature. The company touts that it is the “world’s slimmest and largest full HD smartphone,” though coming in at 6.5mm and 212 grams, it’s not quite as thin as the 6.18mm Huawei Ascend P6 we saw last week.
Xperia Z Ultra features a 6.4” touchscreen Full HD display with Sony’s unique TRILUMINOS® Display for mobile, creating a wider palette of rich natural colours thanks to Sony’s BRAVIA TV expertise. The breakthrough technology includes X-Reality™ for mobile – Sony’s intelligent super resolution display technology which analyzes each image and reproduces lacking pixels to optimize quality for the sharpest videos. It analyses elements depending on the scene and adjusts them based on pattern, outline and colour composition. It also strengthens subtle patterns and accurately portrays their detailed feel, as well as reinforcing bold outlines. The large Full HD display has been optimised to experience at least 60%*** more of the screen than most other smartphones.
