Sony unveils the Xperia Ace II, a not so compact smartphone

Sony has released Xperia Ace II in its home market of Japan. Originally believed to be a new compact Xperia smartphone of sorts, the Xperia Ace II is slightly wider than the new Xperia 10 III. The Xperia Ace II measures 140 x 68 x 8.9 mm, making it about 5 mm taller than the XZ2 Compact and much larger than the iPhone 12 mini.

The Xperia Ace II also has a 5.5-inch and 720p display that Sony has covered with Gorilla Glass 6. Additionally, the company has included a 4,500 mAh battery, a MediaTek Helio P35 SoC and 4 GB of RAM. The Xperia Ace II comes with 64 GB of storage too, and a microSD card reader should you wish to add more.

Sony claims that the Xperia Ace II is IP68 certified and has equipped it with three cameras; a 13 MP primary camera, a 2 MP depth sensor and an 8 MP front-facing camera. The polycarbonate back shell does not have a fingerprint scanner built into it though, as is often the case with budget smartphones. Instead, Sony has integrated a fingerprint scanner within the Xperia Ace II's power button.

The 159 g smartphone will be available in Japan from May 28 for JPY 22,000 (~US$202). Sony has not commented on global availability. However, it sold the Xperia Ace in Japan, so it may do so again with the Xperia Ace II.

Purchase the Sony Xperia 10 II on Amazon