Sony Xperia T2 Ultra review: The bigger, the better

Synthetic benchmarks

Sony Xperia T2 Ultra is running on the Snapdragon 400 mid-range chipset. It offers four Cortex-A7 CPU cores, Adreno 305 graphics and 1GB of RAM. We've already seen the S400 in action on the Motorola Moto G and it delivered a snappy performance. Hopefully, the light Sony UI and the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean can provide for a great performance on the T2 Ultra as well.

Starting off with the CPU benchmarks, the Xperia T2 Ultra posted some mid-range numbers, quite expected for this processor. The single-core performance is slightly better when compared to other Cortex-A7-powered devices such as the Moto G and Xperia C.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• LG G Flex
  99
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  99
• LG G2
  99
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  104
• Sony Xperia Z1
  115
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  115
• HTC One (M8)
  121
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  128
• HTC One Max
  131
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  132
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  132
• LG G Pro 2
  141
• LG Nexus 5
  146
• HTC One
  151
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  166
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  183
• Alcatel Idol X+
  211
• Huawei Ascend P7
  271
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  306
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  308
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  347
• Huawei Ascend P6
  348
• LG Optimus G
  353
• Sony Xperia C
  374
• Motorola Moto G
  392
• Sony Xperia M
  400
• LG Nexus 4
  431
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  466
• Nokia X
  676

The T2 Ultra posted good results on the multi-core GeekBench 3 cross-platform benchmark. While the score pales in comparison to the latest Krait processors, the T2 Ultra does better than the Moto G and Xperia C and better than the first-gen Krait and Cortex-A9 devices.

Geekbench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3011
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  2968
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  2937
• Alcatel Idol X+
  2842
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2670
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2638
• LG G Pro 2
  2585
• Apple iPhone 5s
  2561
• LG Nexus 5
  2453
• HTC One (M8)
  2367
• LG G Flex
  2254
• LG G2
  2243
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  2172
• HTC One
  1972
• Huawei Ascend P7
  1895
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1869
• LG Optimus G
  1465
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  1359
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  1321
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1315
• LG Nexus 4
  1288
• Motorola Moto G
  1120
• Sony Xperia C
  1079
• Oppo R819
  1047
• HTC One mini
  887
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  647
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  564
• Nokia X
  421

Quadrant and AnTuTu are compound benchmarks, which also take into account RAM and GPU performance. Quadrant's score is rather unimpressive, while AnTuTu's numbers are quite good, once again slightly better than the quad-core Cortex-A7-powered Moto G and Xperia C.

Quadrant

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S5
  25044
• HTC One (M8)
  25035
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  21618
• LG G Flex
  20521
• Alcatel Idol X+
  20420
• Sony Xperia Z1
  20388
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  20052
• LG G Pro 2
  20010
• LG G2
  19815
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  18177
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  12446
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  12376
• LG Optimus G Pro
  12105
• HTC One
  11746
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  11404
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  9453
• LG Nexus 5
  8844
• Huawei Ascend P7
  7781
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  7153
• HTC One mini
  6048
• Sony Xperia V
  5816
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  5053
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  4998
• Sony Xperia C
  4941
• Sony Xperia L
  4279
• Sony Xperia M
  4147
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  3240
• Nokia X
  2880

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  37009
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  36018
• LG G Flex
  35831
• LG G2
  35444
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  34527
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  32162
• Alcatel Idol X+
  31717
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  31109
• Sony Xperia Z1
  30850
• LG G Pro 2
  29603
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  29185
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  27613
• HTC One
  26389
• Huawei Ascend P7
  25812
• LG Nexus 5
  25097
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  19896
• Motorola Moto G
  17214
• LG Optimus G
  16943
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  15714
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  15667
• Oppo Find 5
  15167
• Sony Xperia C
  13948
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  13109
• Sony Xperia M
  9902
• Nokia X
  7514

The graphics benchmark results didn't come out that hot though. The GFXBench tests - both off-screen and on-screen variants - reflected some very poor performance.

GFX Benchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  28.4
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  27.8
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  26.3
• LG Nexus 5
  23
• Sony Xperia Z1
  23
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  23
• Apple iPhone 5s
  23
• LG G Pro 2
  22.9
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  22
• LG G Flex
  22
• LG G2
  22
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  17.1
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  17.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  15
• Huawei Ascend P7
  12.3
• Alcatel Idol X+
  10.9
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  6.4
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  5.8
• Sony Xperia C
  2.8

GFX Benchmark 2.7 T-Rex (on-screen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 5s
  37
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  34
• LG G Flex
  33
• HTC One (M8)
  30.1
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  28.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  26.7
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  25
• LG G Pro 2
  24.1
• LG Nexus 5
  24
• LG G2
  23.1
• Huawei Ascend P7
  12.4
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  10.9
• Alcatel Idol X+
  10.6
• Sony Xperia C
  7.3

GFX Benchmark 3.0 Manhattan (on-screen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  11.9
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  11.7
• Oppo Find 7a
  11.4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  10
• LG G Pro 2
  9.2
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  5
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  4.7
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  4.1
• Samsung Galaxy Grand 2
  4.0

Web browsing shows the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra does OK on the JavaScript SunSpider test.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S5
  379
• Apple iPhone 5s
  403
• LG G Pro 2
  536
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  568
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  587
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  750
• HTC One (M8)
  780
• LG Nexus 5
  827
• Sony Xperia Z1
  845
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  855
• LG G2
  908
• Alcatel Idol X+
  931
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1046
• HTC One
  1174
• Huawei Ascend P7
  1307
• Motorola Moto G
  1308
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  1325
• Sony Xperia Z
  1336
• Oppo R819
  1423
• HTC Butterfly
  1433
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  1646
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  1680
• Huawei Ascend Mate
  1741
• Sony Xperia M
  1867
• Nokia X
  2363
• Huawei Ascend P6
  3858

So, the Snapdragon 400 chipset turned out the mid-range performer we expected it to be – nothing more and nothing less. It doesn’t really stand out from the other mid-rangers but it’s as good as most of its competitors.

While the T2 Ultra benchmark scores are nothing spectacular, it does great when it comes to playing games, web browsing, 1080p video playback or even multi-tasking. The UI experience is buttery smooth too and we can't complain of lag, stutter, annoying loadings or crashes.