Sony fans rejoice, as the company might finally be doing right by you. That is, if you were a fan of its “Compact” series of smartphones. There is, indeed, an Xperia X Compact and, this time, it is worthy of the distinction as a smaller-sized smartphone with almost flagship features. While it will, of course, still have some aspects where it is sub par compared to the big boys, the Xperia X Compact, nonetheless, offers most of the key features of the Xperia XZ flagship, not to mention rather decent specs for its size and, hopefully, price point.
We can probably forgive Sony for a 720p resolution on 4.6-inch screen. After all, even the premium Xperia XZ only got up to 1080p. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 is also passable, being Qualcomm’s higher mid-range chip. 3 GB of RAM on a small smartphone? Definitely not that bad either. There’s also 32 GB of storage, the only option, which is fortunately still expandable. And the 2,700 mAh battery isn’t too far a step down from the Xperia XZ’s 2,900.
Despite the diminutive size and specs, the Xperia X Compact shares some key features in common with the newly announced Xperia XZ. First is the Loop Surface design that is totally new to Sony, but not so much to Nokia and Microsoft. The name describes how the surface seemingly loops around the front sides and back of the device in one gentle curve. In contrast, the top and bottom edges end abruptly in flat, truncated surfaces. Definitely a novel look this year.
But the most important similarity is the main camera. Like the Xperia XZ, the Xperia X Compact has the same 1/2.3-inch 23 23 megapixel Exmor RS sensor with Bionz image processor and Sony G Lens. That camera boasts of a “triple image sensing” technology. In addition to the Predictive Hybrid Autofocus introduced in the first Xperia X models, Sony has added a Laser AF for more accurate distance sensing and an RGB infrared sensor for filtering colors.
The Xperia X Compact is basically what you’d get if you took the Xperia XZ’s camera and the Xperia X’s specs and shoved them all into a more handy 4.7 size. It sounds almost perfect, if only we also knew how much it would cost. Traditionally, Sony’s Compact models haven’t exactly been cheap, though many deserved their price tag because of the bang for size factor. The Sony Xperia X Compact launches 25th September.
