Which smartphone is the best purchase for consumers? The Sony Xperia Z1, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, or the Sony Xperia Z Ultra.
In terms of design and display, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a faux leather on the back cover, a Super AMOLED display which measure 5.7 inches, and supports one of the highest resolutions, 1080x1920pixels (386ppi). Meanwhile, both Sony smartphones have screens supporting the same resolution, but the sizes and pixel densities differ. The Sony Xperia Z1 has a smaller display with 441ppi, while the Xperia Z Ultra has a huge 6.4inches display with 344ppi. Both devices are TFT and Note 3’s display has a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top of it for protection. The Z Ultra’s screen is Triluminos and uses Sony’s X-Reality Engine.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 weighs 168 grams, while both Sony models are dust and water resistant and they’re weighting 170 grams on the Z1, and 212 grams on the Z Ultra.The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is the slimmest (6.5mm) and the tallest (179.4mm), while the Xperia Z1 is the thickest (8.5mm) and shortest (144mm).
For the hardware and OS, all three devices are using the same Adreno 330 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset and quad core Krait 400 processor. But the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a processor clocked at 2.3GHz, while the Sony models have their processors clocked at 2.2GHz. The Note 3 has another version with an Exynos 5 Octa 5420 chipset supporting a quad core 1.9GHz CortexA15 & quad core 1.3GHz CortexA7 processor and which uses a Mali-T628 MP6 GPU. The Note 3 comes preloaded with Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) OS and now it’s running on v4.4.2 (KitKat), while both Sony smartphones come initially loaded with v4.2 (Jelly Bean), but they've received the 4.4.4 (KitKat) update.
The combination of RAM + ROM on each device is: 3GB and 16/32/64GB expandable up to 64GB for the first two variants (Galaxy Note 3); 2GB of RAM + 16GB of internal storage, also expandable up to 64GB.
For the battery and camera specs, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has the longest battery life among the 3, because of its 3200mAh capacity and allows 21 hours of talktime on 3G, while the non-removable batteries on the Sony devices have the capacity of 3000mAh and 3050mAh respectively, which can deliver up to 15 hours and 16 hours of talktime on 3G.
The Sony Xperia Z1 breaks the barrier with the 20.7inches camera on the back with G-Lens and which uses Exmor RS Technology. The Samsung Note 3 has the second best primary camera at 13MP and like the Z1, it features LED flash and autofocus. The Z Ultra’s back camera is 8MP, but it lacks LED flash. All three devices have 2MP shooters on the front, which can record videos at 1080p@30fps.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 32GB 4G cost $550 in amazon.com, while the Sony Xperia Z1 costs $415 and the Sony Xperia Z Ultra is around $400.
Which smartphone is worth the purchase? Sound off in the comments section below.