Part of the Sony Xperia Z series, the device, at that point known by the project code name "Suzuran", was unveiled along with the Xperia Z5 and Xperia Z5 Premium during a press conference at IFA 2015 on September 2, 2015.

The device was first launched in Taiwan on October 1, 2015, and in Japan on November 12, 2015.

[1] It is the successor of the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact.

The device is down-scaled version of the Xperia Z5.

Unlike its predecessor, the Z5 compact features a fingerprint reader and a 23 Megapixel camera with 0.03 seconds Hybrid Autofocus that utilizes phase detection autofocus.