Sony could bring back the Xperia Compact to compete with the iPhone 12 mini

Sony is reportedly set to bring back its “Compact� line of phones in 2021 with a new Xperia Compact model. It will offer a 5.5-inch display and dimensions more in line with Apple’s (relatively) diminutive iPhone 12 mini rather than the increasingly large phones that Sony has offered for the last few years.

The new device, according to noted phone leaker OnLeaks, who has also posted renders of the upcoming phone over at Voice, would feature dimensions of 140 x 68.9 x 8.9 mm (5.5 x 2.71 x 0.35 inches), making it just a bit bigger than the iPhone 12 mini (which measures 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm or 5.18 x 2.53 x 0.29 inches).

The new Xperia Compact is also said to offer an 8-megapixel selfie camera in a teardrop notch, a dual-camera setup with a 13-megapixel main camera on the back, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a side-mounted fingerprint reader integrated into the power button. Notably absent are any details on specs, however.

Image: OnLeaks / Voice

The (as-yet-unnamed) 2021 Xperia Compact would be Sony’s first phone to bear the “Compact� name since 2018’s Xperia XZ2 Compact, which had similar dimensions as the leaked specs of the new 2021 device (although the display on the 2018 model was a bit smaller at 5 inches, thanks to its larger bezels). But it’s still a far smaller piece of hardware than other recent attempts like the Xperia 5.

The biggest question, though, is whether the new Xperia Compact will offer flagship-level specifications or if it’ll fall into the same pitfall of other shrunken-down Android devices and offer downgraded specs to match its smaller size. Sony has avoided this issue before — the aforementioned XZ2 Compact offered nearly comparable specifications to its larger sibling — but it remains an open question whether Sony will actually deliver on a 2021 Android phone with flagship-class specifications that doesn’t also require a massive display.

It’s also unclear whether there’s actually a market for smaller flagships. Apple’s iPhone 12 mini, while offering virtually identical specifications to the larger iPhone 12, has reportedly seen lackluster sales compared to the larger models on offer (despite its lower price tag). There are additional reports that Apple is shifting production away from the smaller model to focus more on the full-sized phones.