Snapdragon 690-powered Xperia Ace 2 is the Sony compact phone you'll probably never own

Over the last three years, like clockwork, yearly rumors surface about Sony's plans to launch a compact flagship phone to succeed the Xperia XZ2 Compact. Of course, nothing has come of those rumors so far, but it appears Sony may actually have a compact device in the works.

According to a new report by AndroidNext, the Japanese OEM is working on a new device that will be named the Xperia Ace 2. The Xperia Ace 2 will succeed the Xperia Ace that was released in 2019 and will do so with a 5.5-inch display, placing it firmly in compact territory. It's still quite bigger than its predecessor, however, with the first-gen phone sporting a 5-inch screen.

The Xperia Ace 2 is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 690, a mid-range 5G-capable chipset by Qualcomm. That's a big improvement on the Snapdragon 630 on the original phone. The Xperia Ace 2 is also said to not use Sony's cinematic 21:9 display ratio, perhaps because it's just too small for that to serve any purpose?

Sadly, though, like the first-gen Xperia Ace, the Xperia Ace looks to be a Japan-exclusive device and will be sold by DoCoMo. Expectant fans around the globe hoping for a new compact device from Sony will have to wait a while longer.

Buy the Sony Xperia 5 II on Amazon.