Sony’s upcoming scaled-down variant of its yet-to-be announced flagship smartphone has been the talk of the town for a while now. So far we’ve seen it pass through the Federal Communications Commission, show up in a bunch of leaked product shots, and just this morning was the subject of seven images allegedly revealing the handset’s side, back and top panels.

The pictures above show the Z3 Compact accommodating a selection of action keys on the right-hand side of the device. At the bottom there’s a dedicated camera button, followed by Sony’s famous circular chrome-plated power button, then a matte black volume rocker and finally, at the top it looks as if there’s a micro USB and microSD slot enclosed in Sony’s IP58-certified waterproof casing.

According to recent reports, the handset is set to feature a 4.6-inch Full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a speedy Snapdragon 801 processor with four cores clocked at 2.5GHz, the latest Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB of RAM, front-facing stereo speakers and a 20.7MP Exmor R sensor equipped with an F/2.0 lens and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and a 2300 mAh non-removable Li-Ion battery.

In terms of software, the Compact is likely to run the latest build of Android 4.4.4 KitKat skinned with Sony’s famous Xperia user interface, which is designed to provide a seamless entertainment experience by way of incorporating the traditional Walkman, Movies and PlayStation applications.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any solid information from the manufacturer as of yet, so we’re just going to have to wait until Sony provides us with some solid evidence with regards to what it has planned for the first variant of its upcoming flagship smartphone — the Xperia Z3.

• SourceXperia Blog