“Well done, boys,” said King Sony when his engineers presented him with the Xperia Z, “do more of that.” So they took him literally and made a phablet version.

It’s more powerful

Far from simply giving the Xperia Z a bigger screen, Sony has furnished it with the biggest brain currently available on a mobile, the new quad-core Snapdragon 800 chip. If you’re a gamer, a multitasker or one of those people who becomes furious in the halfsecond it takes to load a webpage, this is the phablet for you.

It’s more durable

Well, in the battery department, anyway. A larger frame means more space for fuel, and the Ultra packs in a 3000mAh battery that should give it plenty of lasting power once combined with Sony’s battery-saving Stamina Mode. Like the Xperia Z and Tablet Z, it’s also water – and dust – proof, so you can keep it in a bucket in the desert if you want to.

It’s more bigger

With its 5in screen, the Xperia Z was already getting into phablet territory – but the Ultra’s massive 6.4in, 1080p display puts it squarely into minitab territory. Amazingly, though, despite its sub-aquatic smarts and big battery, it’s just 6.5mm thick.

It’s more expensive

Sony’s Z range doesn’t come cheap, and the Xperia Z Ultra continues to buck that trend. We certainly expected it to cost more than rival bigphones such as the Huawei Ascend Mate, which is available for around `24,900. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though – if you’re buying a phablet to replace both your smartphone and your tablet, splashing out on a premium one makes sense and the Ultra is the best to go with. Your move, Samsung.

USE IT WITH Sony SmartWatch 2

Tap this similarly water- and dust-proof chunk of Android on your Ultra and they’ll NFC-meld so you answer calls, control music and read texts without having to wield your mighty phablet on the move.