It's clear Sony is happy to just make (good) mid-level smartphones. They probably have plenty of home-market & descent global sales to maintain a relatively profitable but un-remarkable product category.

Also, Sony seems to NOT want to "make social waves" in the smartphone sector as well. They'll continue to perfect their camera tech, but then they'll just offer something a little different from the major phone competitors. People who like Sony products will buy them - no problem. They'll be content at riding a stable wave - below the radar.

If Sony is using hardware from 2 years ago why is it not using the Snapdragon 630 instead of the 650. The 630 has a smaller NM process at 14nm compared to the 650's 26nm process, RAM clock on the 650 only runs at 933Mhz where as the 630 runs at 1333Mhz. Both SOC's being from the same age it makes no sense to release newer flagship devices and use hardware that is slower than what they used in flagship phones from 2 years ago. The Sony Xperia XA2 is 2 years old and uses the Snapdragon 630.