The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active was released in the month of June last year to a great opening. On the other hand, the Sony Xperia Z Ultra was released one month later in July 2013. The handset from Sony was widely praised for its whopping screen size.

Readers who are planning to buy the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active or the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, here is a specification and price comparison pertaining to Australia.

Display, Design and Exterior

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active comes with a 5 inches TFT screen, bundled with 1,080 x 1,920 pixels display resolution. Whereas the Sony Xperia Z Ultra comes with a bigger 6.4 inches TFT screen that packs the same 1,080 x 1,920 pixels display resolution.

The Galaxy S4 Active is 0.36 inches think and it weighs 151 g, while the Xperia Z Ultra is only 0.26 inches thick and it weighs 212 g.

Both the handsets feature water and dust resistant exteriors.

Hardware, Software and Internal Storage

The Galaxy S4 Active is powered by a quad-core Krait 300 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 600) processor, clocked at 1.9 GHz. On the other hand, the Xperia Z Ultra is powered by quad-core Krait 400 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800) processor, clocked at 2.2 GHz. Both the phones house 2 GB of RAM.

In addition, both the handsets come with 16 GB of internal storage capacity and they support microSD card slot for expansion up to 64 GB.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active runs on Android v4.2 JellyBean (upgradable) with Samsung's custom TouchWiz UI, while the Sony Xperia Z Ultra runs on the same Android v4.2 JellyBean (upgradable).

Battery

The Galaxy S4 Active houses a 2600 mAh battery unit that provides up to 15 hours of 3G talk-time and 320 hours of 3G stand-by time. On the other hand, the Xperia Z Ultra features a superior 3050 mAh battery unit that provides up to 16 hours of 3G talk-time and a whopping 820 hours of 3G stand-by time.

Camera

Both the Xperia Z Ultra and the Galaxy S4 Active sport 8 MP rear-facing camera and a 2 MP front-facing camera units. While the Galaxy S4 supports LED flash, the Xperia Z Ultra doesn't. Both the handsets also support HDR, Panorama, Autofocus, Digital zoom, and Geo tagging.

Sim

Both the devices support micro-sim.

Color

The Galaxy S4 Active comes in orange, blue and grey colors. On the other hand, the Xperia Z Ultra comes in black, white and purple shades.

Price

The Sony Xperia Z Ultra 16 GB with 4G LTE is priced at AU$516.95, while the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 16 GB with 4G LTE can be purchased at AU$494.95 in Australia.