Samsung has been dominating the smartphone market by a mile, but companies like Apple and Sony, along with other budding tech companies, are making bigger steps in their bid to dethrone the South Korean tech giant.

As part of their own pitch to overtake or just to get closer to Samsung's level, Sony recently unveiled an improved version of their flagship Android smartphone: the Sony Xperia Z Ultra. This newly-launched phone is expected to compete with the Samsung Galaxy S4. So how does it fare with the flagship smartphone of Samsung?

The Xperia Z Ultra features a 6.44-inches full-HD display. While most were awed by the large screen of this new smartphone, several tech websites questioned whether devices of this size should still be treated as a phone or it should fall under the tablet category.

Paul Briden of Know Your Mobile also questioned the size of the screen but also offered praises to the new smartphone from Sony.

"The Sony Xperia Z Ultra has one of the biggest smartphone displays to date, in fact at 6.44-inches it's getting to the point where you'd hesitate to call it a phone and might consider it as a slightly cropped 7-inch tablet."

"All that combined with a 1920x1080 pixel full HD resolution at 342ppi makes for an incredibly rewarding experience for multimedia on the go, whether that's gaming, browsing or watching films. The Xperia Z Ultra offers what is effectively a Sony TV in your pocket and picture quality is sharp and vivid with an almost 3D-like quality," Briden added.

The Xperia Z Ultra will be powered by a 2.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM and Adreno 330 graphic-processing unit. While both devices have 2GB of RAM and both run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Sony wins in this category because the Galaxy S4 is only equipped with a 1.9 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and Adreno 320 GPU.

And while the battery life of the Xperia Ultra Z has yet to be tested, it is packed with a 3,050 mAh battery, compared to just 2,600 mAh of the Galaxy S4.

On the other hand, the Galaxy S4 offers a much better camera at 13-megapixel, besting the 8-megapixel camera of the Xperia Ultra Z. Both are capable of taking 1080p video clips.

Price cannot be compared at this point because Sony has yet to reveal the tag of their new device. The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is expected to hit the market in early third quarter of this year.