Back in December last year Sony’s dust and waterproof phablet, the Xperia Z Ultra, got its very own Google Play Edition variant. At the time this device carried a price tag of $649 on the Google Play Store. It has come to our attention today that Google has significantly cut the price of the Xperia Z Ultra GPE.
Sony Xperia Z Ultra Google Play Edition can now be purchased from Google Play Store for $449 with free ground shipping. Its a full $200 cut. This doesn’t appear to be a limited time promotion so Google might have cut the price permanently to move units. This price is obviously for the unlocked and off-contract variant which is supported by all major GSM/LTE networks in the U.S.
There are no hardware differences between a Google Play Edition variant and a standard variant. Only the software is different. GPE variants run stock Android, this ships with Android 4.4.2 KitKat. There are no carrier modifications to the OS and no bloatware. Moreover these variants are next in line after Nexus devices whenever Google releases a new firmware update.
Xperia Z Ultra GPE is certainly no slouch. It has a gigantic 6.4-inch HD Triluminos display with Sony’s X-Reality for mobile engine. Under the hood there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quadcore processor with 2GB RAM apart from 4G LTE, NFC and more.