Sony announces the Xperia J1 Compact - top-shelf hardware in tight metal shell, sold in Japan now

Sony may have not come out with their reiteration of the Xperia Z line and it may actually be back to a 12-month refresh cycle for its flagships, with sources claiming that the Xperia Z4 will be announced during the annual IFA event this September – the same place where its predecessor was first shown to the world.

Well, maybe we didn't get a full-blown flagship, but today, Japan is getting a top-shelf mini-class handset, dubbed Xperia J1 Compact. The phone is similar in size to the Xperia Z3 Compact – while it sports a 4.3" display, 0.3" smaller than the one on the Z3C, its overall girth measures at 5.04 x 2.56 x 0.38 in (128mm x 65mm x 9.7mm), which makes the J1C very slightly bigger than the Z3C and with its 5.00 x 2.56 x 0.34 in (127 x 64.9 x 8.6 mm) body. In terms of design, it sports a metal frame, which may or may not make it feel more “premium” than the Z3 Compact. On the flip side, however, its screen-to-body ratio is much lower – down to 61%, which will probably result in it not looking as sleek as modern smartphones tend to do.

Interestingly enough, reports say the handset sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC, though, the official website info just states that the CPU is a 2.2 GHz quad-core one. Other specs include 2 GB of RAM, 720 x 1280 pixels stretched across its 4.3” screen, which results in the crisp-enough 341 PPI density, a 2,300 mAh battery, and 20.7 MP / 2 MP camera combo. The handset runs on Android 4.4 KitKat, surprisingly, and it's unknown whether it will be getting a Lollipop update at any point in the future.

The handset is priced at the equivalent of $490 and there is no word on whether it will be hitting markets outside of Japan. Our best guess is “no”. Would you grab an Xperia J1 if you had the chance?