Hot on the heels of the news about a Google Play Edition of the LG G Pad 8.3, Google has released a Play Edition of the Sony Z Ultra on the Play Store. Google Play Edition (GPE) devices are sold unlocked and contract free and run stock Android instead of the OEM's skinned version of Android. Google handles the OS updates, and the track record for updating has been great lately (relatively speaking), with GPE devices getting updates only a month after the release of a new Android version.
The Sony Z Ultra is a massive device—one of the world's biggest smartphones—coming in at just over seven inches long. It has a 1920x1080 6.4 inch display, 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, MicroSD/XC slot, and a 3,000mAh battery. Like all GPE devices, the Z Ultra runs Android 4.4, KitKat. The Z Ultra is compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile, and as an added bonus, it's waterproof. The ridiculously huge smartphone will cost $649.99 and ships in one to two days. With Sony bowing out of the US smartphone market, the Play Store is probably their biggest US presence.
Google has been beefing up the Google Play Edition lineup lately. The Sony Z Ultra joins the Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC One, and LG G Pad 8.3. There is now a pretty large number of stock Android devices to pick from.
