A percentage of the Android community has been requesting a small-sized flagship phone for a while now. That should not be a surprise seeing as Apple released two “small” iPhones last year – the iPhone SE 2020 and the iPhone 12 Mini. Now, their wish is about to come true, thanks to Sony, as a leak has revealed that there is indeed a new Xperia Compact coming this year.

The last Xperia Compact smartphone was released in 2018 and several fans of the series expected a successor but there wasn’t one. Seeing as most manufacturers had dropped small screen phones in favor of larger ones with tall aspect ratios, Sony too had followed suit. Now, the Japanese manufacturer is breathing new life into the series and the popular leaker, Steve Hemmerstoffer a.k.a. OnLeaks, has given us a first look at the 2021 Xperia Compact.

The upcoming phone is said to have a 5.5-inch screen and the images show that there is a waterdrop notch for the front-facing camera and a significantly thick bezel at the bottom. The display is flat and there is no mention of it having a high refresh rate.

Sony has put two cameras on the back of the phone and they are arranged vertically in an elongated pill-shaped housing along with the LED flash. Save for the camera and the Sony logo, there is nothing else on the back panel.

The 2021 Xperia Compact doesn’t have its fingerprint scanner under the display but on its side where it doubles as the power button. There is an extra button other than the volume rocker and power button on the right side of the phone. We want to believe this button is either a dedicated Google Assistant button similar to that of the Xperia 5 II or a shutter key which the Xperia 5 II also has.

The SIM card tray is on the left and from the design, we can see that it doesn’t need a pin to be opened. We hope other manufacturers can emulate Sony in this regard. The 2021 Xperia Compact has an edge over Apple’s small-sized iPhones and that is the audio jack at the top. There is a USB-C port at the bottom that is flanked by a slit for the speaker on one side and the microphone hole on the other.

The source says that the phone has an 8MP selfie camera and a 13MP primary rear camera. He also gave its dimension as 140 x 68.9 x 8.9 millimeters. This leaves us with so many unknowns such as the processor, battery capacity, and screen resolution. There is also no info about the price and launch date.

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Back in February, Sony announced the Xperia 1 II (read as Xperia One Mark Two) as the successor to the Xperia 1 flagship that was announced in 2019. There was no Compac model or Premium model but that may change next year according to a new leak.

The source of the info is a comment that was posted on Android Police by a user that goes by “HGHR181”. According to a screenshot of the comment, there will be no Xperia Compact model this year but a source informed him that Sony will bring back its 3-model flagship pattern next year. So we might get a Compact, a standard, and a Premium model next year rather than just one. He adds that he is not sure if all three phones will be announced at the same time.

Sony switched to a different naming scheme last year and ditched the XZ naming scheme. The new naming scheme is said to have been adopted from its camera division.

While we advise that you take the above info with a grain of salt, bringing back the old Xperia XZ naming scheme with Compact and Premium models may be a good idea. A Compact model should also be well received since there are users who still want a phone that isn’t big.

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Sony will be attending IFA 2019, which kicks off this week, and the Japanese smartphone maker will be unveiling new products. The Xperia 2 which leaked recently is among the devices expected to be unveiled at the September 5 event.

Today, Sony shared a teaser on its Instagram page teasing that it will launch an Xperia Smartphone that “fits in the palm of your hand”. The teaser doesn’t reveal anything about the phone other than the hint that it will be able to fit in your palm.

View this post on Instagram

Xperia excellence, in the palm of your hand. Join us September 5th for #SonyIFA #Innovation

A post shared by Sony Mobile (@sonyxperia) on Sep 2, 2019 at 4:34am PDT

Some say the phone being teased is the Xperia 2 which will come with a 6.1-inch screen that is smaller than the Xperia 1’s 6.5-inch display. While the screen size is smaller, it doesn’t really fit into the palm of your hand like the Xperia XZ2 Compact which has a 5” screen and even thick bezels.

The Xperia 2 will come with triple rear cameras, a display with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. It will also have NFC and a dedicated camera button.

(Source)

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