Sony has announced that its large-display Android phones XPERIA Z Ultra and XPERIA Z1 are (finally) available in the U.S market, but only as unlocked phones, available directly on Sony.com. Both are going to be sold at the usual unlocked price range for high-end smartphones, which means $669.99 for the XPERIA Z1 and $649.99 for the XPERIA Z.
If you are not yet familiar with those smartphones, you may want to know that they are quite different: the Z Ultra is a very large smartphone with a 6.4” display, which is noticeably bigger than the Galaxy Mega 6.3 which is already very sizeable with its 6.3” display. The Z Ultra has a slightly larger body than the Mega 6.3. You can read more about The XPERIA Z Ultra, but it’s basically a tablet-phone that has been designed to be extremely comfortable when using handwriting with an electronic pen. The extra screen space allows users to write comfortably without bumping into the limitation of a small display.
It’s funny to say that the XPERIA Z1 is a “much smaller” phone at 5” when there are still 4” handsets out there (nothing wrong with that), and this one is like an updated version with the original XPERIA Z, but with a faster Snapdragon 800 processor and a much improved camera (20.7 Megapixel, if you like big numbers). You can read our full review of the Z1 if you want all the juicy details.
In any case, these two are now available directly from Sony if you want to have an unlocked phone. Keep in mind that the XPERIA Z Ultra has an LTE version which should work with T-Mobile and AT&T (LTE Bands 1,2,4,5,7,8,17), while I’m not sure about Verizon. The current XPERIA Z1 model does not support LTE at this moment.