Is Sony working on a new ‘compact’ Xperia to challenge the iPhone 12 mini?

The 5.4″ iPhone 12 mini is probably the most peculiar device to be announced by Apple last year. It’s quite rare to see a flagship-class device that comes in a tiny form factor that you can use with a single hand. Now it seems that Sony Mobile might be interested in having another go at making small but powerful smartphones with yet another ‘Compact’ Xperia.

Serial leakster onleaks had recently shared a couple of renders of what appears to be a new Xperia compact. The new device is expected to succeed the Xperia XZ2 Compact that was launched during MWC 2018. Back then, the Xperia Z Compact series was probably the only strong Android contender to pack flagship specs in a small size. To refresh your memory, the XZ2 compact had a 5.0″ Full HD+ IPS display, Snapdragon 845 processor and it was one of the first phones that can record 4K HDR videos.

At the moment, the name of the new device isn’t known but it appears to be a lower mid-range device based on the dimensions. According to the latest post by OnLeaks, this particular device has a 5.5″ display which comes with a tiny notch on the screen and it’s 8.9mm thick. It is 140mm long and 68.9mm wide which makes it quite chunky for a 5.5″ flagship smartphone.

As a comparison, the current “compact” Xperia 5 II has a larger 6.1″ 120Hz display but yet it has a narrower 68mm width and it’s slimmer at 8mm. We reckon, the new upcoming device could likely be the successor to the budget Xperia L4. Further more, the device shown here only comes with a dual-camera setup instead of a triple-camera array that’s found on most current mid-range and flagship Xperia models.

Other revealed details include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a dedicated camera button, which is a feature that was missing on their mid-range Xperia 10 II.

It is also reported that the iPhone 12 mini isn’t doing that well and it contributed just 6% of total sales in the iPhone 12 series. Although there are those who liked a smaller flagship device, it is clear that most consumers tend to prefer phones with larger screens and battery which makes it more practical for watching videos. It is also rumoured that Apple is cutting down on production for the iPhone 12 mini as a result of the lower expectation.

If you really want a compact flagship Android phone, the Xperia 5 II is probably the best option at the moment and it’s now going for RM3,999. You get a 6.1″ Full HD+ HDR OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 865 processor, 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. The device still gets stereo speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack and even a microSD card expansion slot.

As a comparison, the iPhone 12 mini is priced from RM3,399 for the 64GB model. If you need larger storage, the 128GB option is priced at RM3,599 while the 256GB storage version is going for RM4,099.

[ SOURCE 2 ]

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