NotebookCHECK - Notebook Forum

You said it. I desperately need little budget smartphone. Everything released these days are too big and even $350 pixel 4a is too expensive for me. Only Samsh*t (yes, I hate that brand) Galaxy A40/41 are the nice budget, but they are not available in my country

I am right there with you, which is probably why I also own an XZ1C. It's a great phone, I just wish the camera was better at macro photography. There's no reason why a company couldn't come out with something similar today with updated components, but I guess they think everyone wants bigger phones, which doesn't make sense to me.

Still waiting for graphene battery to be matured so we can use smaller phone again, but with better battery life

I don't have a problem with a phone fitting in my pocket despite having a larger phone.

I mean if we look at it logically, phones are getting smaller despite displays getting larger due to less bezel. But people still in general prefer larger screens and bigger phones.

If you are simply trying for 1 hand operations, there are apps that make it easier on larger phones like samgung's one hand operation app. They also have a one hand mode in the settings.

But hey, I miss removable batteries and 5 row horizontal slider keyboards with top end specs. But shrug.

Hear, Hear
I'm still using my 2017 Sony XA1, no intention of upgrading soon.
would love it if Motorola re-released the 2013 Moto X but with updated specs. the ergonomics on that phone is the best imo (although probably not so much for people over 6 ft).

For flagship-level specs,  Samsung galaxy S* are generally the most compact phones. The most current ones are still in the 150mm and 150-1660g range, yet they're top of the line. No compromises like giant bezels or subpar cameras or sound quality either. Even have microSD.

I have been holding my S8 because of lack of small phone options. S20 is just expensive & Exynos is another reason making me not to spend on it. The iPhone, well is an Apple product, so was always out of the question.

This is the reason why i recommend the galaxy s10E. at 142 x 70 x 8 mm approx, its reasonably small (smaller in height than the 144 phone this post creator mentions in fact). Im not sure why the s10E didnt get a "look in" in this post.

I think its the job of the reviewers like Notebookcheck, Anandtech, The Verge (this one does shame) to shame the companies into making powerful compact smartphones. They won't listen listen to the consumers, certainly not the reasonable ones.
The current smatphone buying crowd, the Chinese buyers love to stuff their pockets with huge phones & thats who, the Chinese companies are catering to.
I have seen some of them asking for a 7" smartphone & Xiaomi listened to them & came with the Black Shark 3.
I think only the non-Chinese vendors like Apple & Samsung are providing compact phones, iPhone 11 Pro & Samsung S20. Let's see how long they fight the trend of huge phones..

Because that i still kept my redmi 5A. My hands is not big enough to use more than 6" phones. Unfortunately there are no any new phone at least has similar dimension to my current redmi 5A.

yep, i feel the same.

why we can not have a phone the size of 2016 iphone SE with notchless screen, PWM-free IPS (or high frequency PWM amoled with DC dimming option), 3'5 jack and sd card, and camera with no bump?

right now i am still using 3yo huawei p10 which still isn't small, but at least it's really thin and pocket-friendly enough to be carried around without a feeling as if i have a hard-on. it also has no bump camera, no PWM, sdxc, 3'5 jack and aluminium body which survived a dozen flights from as high as my ear level.

Some smaller phones are coming. The iPhone 12 and Sony was rumored to release a compact next year.

I wholeheartedly agree.

The only compact-ish phone that came out this year and has a decent camera (ie. with OIS), is iPhone SE. I was even considering it, but using a large local music library on an iPhone is still a nightmare in 2020, just as it was 10 years ago.

I have the Mi A3, and my wife's sister has a Sony XZ2 Compact. She asked me for a small phone, and I have suggested the Sony.
True, the Mi A3 is larger than the Sony, but not that much and it's also actually thinner. It has the 3.5mm jack and the micro-SD (both super important also for me). Finally, the A3 is a stock Android with 3 years guaranteed updates (er.. not exactly timely monthly updates, but at the end you will get them) and zero bloatware. For me the 6 inch is a decent compromise, a frameless full HD 5.5" would be probably ideal and the SE's screen is too small.

You have not lost hope after the iPhone SE 2 didn't trigger a bunch of similar Android-devices releases?

What about Flip Z? At least, it fits a pocket, when folded.
I've been using XZ1C for a couple of years, it's not bad, but it stuck with Android 9, and where are no alternatives in terms of size nowadays.
I have such a feeling, that all vendors think, that bigger==better, but it is not, at least, not for everyone.

+1

+1 from me. The phones I used have grown bigger and bigger over the years...

I`d use a small phone if it had the featues you mentioned:

- Headphone jack
- micro SD
- decent camera

However - I do admit that i have grown used to those really astonishing battery sizes ;-)

Best regards

phila

I am writing this on my Nokia 5 from 2017, and have no intention of replacing it with any newer phone. Android 9, 5.2" screen and a resolution of 720p in 16:9 format seem like the golden standard for me (for less than 80 Euros!). I can only hope that the future lower end phones from Nokia will stick to these standards. Until then, I'm not buying.

+1

I used Sony's compacts earlier and loved them. Got a IPhone 8 from my work and it gets the job done but I miss Android. Would go back to Android if a decent compact phone was released. Getting a Pixel 4a for my wife to replace her old Samsung S6 but it's a bit to big for me. Wish some company released something similar to Sony's compacts again with 2020 components. Decent camera, decent battery, decent internals. Don't have to be top of the line but at least close.

I have my XZ2C since two years, even when its 12mm thick I do not think it's bad, its curved so its perfect to hold -- really! Lack of Jack also is not bad, I started to use Bluetooth and the Sony headphones I have support good Sony codec for the BT. The sound quality is good.
I hope it never breaks, at least not until an alternative will be on market.

I totally agree with the auther of the article. I check the under 5,5" phone tests at notebookcheck every week. But gets disipointed everytime. No new small phones to be found. When it was time to change phones within my company every one was getting Samsung Galaxy S10. But i bent the arm of my boss untill i got an S10E instead. But i really hope Sony will come with an updated compact modell asap!

*sorry for my bad english*  ;)

Just check out Unihertz.
I use their phones for over 3 years now

Yes, please. I'm still using a Sony X Compact (had a Z1 Compact before that). If it breaks and I'd have to get a new one now, I feel like there are no reasonable options. Probably I'd go for the iphone SE, even though I prefer android.

I have the Unihertz Jelly Pro, with a 2.4 inch screen. It looks like the Jelly 2 will come out later this year with a 3 inch screen and mostly the same body size. It looks promising, and I can't imagine wanting anything bigger than that. I can already do everything I need to on the 2.4 inch. Auto-correct goes a long way. Maybe some day the Jelly Fold will approach Zoolander size?

+1
Among the 2020 releases, I am desperate to find a high-end phone (top camera + top screen) that is less than 70 mm wide and less than 150 mm tall (thickness does not matter to me).

That is actually true for both my wife (with her small hands) and me (with my large hands).

I seriously considered Google's Pixel 4a ... but it is way too stingy in storage (UFS 2.1, 128 GB only and no SD card! I need 256 GB minimum).

If only Samsung had released a small-ish Galaxy S10e successor!

As an XZ2 compact owner, and someone that's EXTREMELY clumsy with my phones, I can definitely recommend it based on durability.

But overall you're right, and it's something I've noticed recently as well, I'm not remotely interested in upgrading to any of the new phones, partly because of the ridiculous prices, and partly because they're all just so freaking big. I actually wouldn't mind going a bit bigger, I found the typing experience to be much better on an XZ which has a 5.2 in screen and 16x9 ratio. The XZ2c is too narrow. I could probably be satisfied with the pixel 4a, but in several ways that would be a downgrade eg processor.

And yeah, it's ridiculous that there is basically no alternative to the 4a which is already a decently large phone.

Wait for the Sony Xperia 5 II (mark 2). Thought it might not be as compact as Xperia XZ1 Compact, but I think it will be the perfect middle-ground, especially width wise, it will be less than 70mm, basically the size of pixel 4a.

But all of this would be in-vain if it is not made available in your region 😄.

Absolutely spot on! I'd have the XZ1 Compact if hadn't been on Verizon at the time, where it wasn't available. On AT&T now and ready for the successor to come out. My "list":

• Height 145mm or less (unlike Sony Xperia 5 II)
• Width 68mm or less
• Headphone jack (unlike iPhones)
• USB-C (unlike iPhones)
• IP68 water resistance (unlike the Pixel 4a)
• Superior processor to my LG G6's Snapdragon 821
• Good use of size - minimal bezel (unlike iPhone SE)
• Reasonable other specs: decent camera, solid battery, minimal crapware/privacy invasiveness.

Samsung Galaxy S10e is a decent choice but frustratingly hasn't seen a price drop in almost a year and is iffy on the crapware front.

I have owed small phones since when I can't remember. Enjoying learning cryptic typing with the pre-qwerty feature phones of old, moving on to a 4" Huawei handset, which was snatched during a mugging ' managed to keep my fare at least, else the trek home....' I then went back to a feature phone, this time qwerty, the appeal of writing correct language (sort of😅) was sort of embedded in me, but e-mail had become important so I got a Blackberry, like every normal person, with a wish to be mobile yet connected. I then settled to a Lumia 520 for a good amount of time, having discovered Telegram. Loved it so much got another 520 after the first got irreparably damaged, then the 550 some few months later because Windows 10. Best times of my life, Windows Mobile rocks😎. Though I left it somewhere, and never went back for it, was sort of mad at Microsoft for giving up on the OS, do miss it though, badly.
I then went ahead and bought a HTC10 good phone, really. But, it was too much, too big, too slippery, it felt like I had soap on my hand, wet soap. So I sold it and bought an iPhone, the 4s. Then I missed the power of the 10, so I got another iPhone, the 7. Small in size, great in power, and it's still supported, albeit with not as smooth and logically laid Interface as Metro, but oh well, whatever can a single man do.

Looking at current trends, the bigger screen sizes are a compensation to the ever increasing  consumption of media and gaming on the go, and since most of humanity falls under this category, making a new niche segment doesn't equate with the big expectation of wider margins. Even with the SE (2020) which is more of a ' Let's say farewell to this design and leave it at a good footing, 'and make money out of it, 'Yea!!' Sort of device, the intend was a play, with nostalgia, supported with the ease to manufacture the device at a low, very low cost, and clean out as much as possible of the 'old' platform for the 'new' one.

Sony did great with the compact line, which is more than can be said for most. I just hope that there is a company that really grows a heart for the < 5.5" handset, base it's flagship on that size.

I do wonder though, about the Note with that 6.9" screen, 🥶

When the Note first came out, I joked about how people looked like they were holding a tablet up to their heads to talk on the phone. I've since been dismayed to learn that many people actually like having such a massive phone, and unfortunately phone manufacturers seem to cater almost exclusively to those people, ignoring those users that want a phone that's actually portable. And it's interesting that, aside from phablets like the Note, the transition to larger sizes has been gradual, almost as if they're easing consumers into it, like slowly raising the temperature of a pot of water with a frog in it. I wonder if people (those that didn't jump straight to phablet devices) would be so accepting of these massive phones if the manufacturers had suddenly increased by 1-1.5" and a few dozen grams instead of a quarter inch and half dozen grams at a time.

I've also been frustrated by the inability to find many phones of reasonable size and weight; I've been looking for a replacement phone for the past year to year-and-a-half, and none of them have been worth it to me for various reasons, but there have been a handful that I might have gone with if not for being too big and/or heavy. Even my current phone is pushing the limits of both, and almost all the newer ones are even bigger and heavier. I even had to change how I hold my phone, because I used to support the bottom with my pinky to improve my grip on it, but had to stop since the increasingly heavy phones started hurting my pinky.

At least it seems like in the past couple years the screen-to-body ratio has been increasing more to allow for larger displays with less increase in the size of the phone, but even so manufacturers still seem intent on also increasing the phone size to make the screen even bigger, not content to just gain a little extra screen size in the same size body (which I would think would be preferable, since it seems that would require less R&D). Granted, I was hesitant about increasing size even when moving from a roughly 4" to 5" screen, only to find I got used to it and actually preferred it due to increased usability, but I've personally hit my limit at this point (on a 3-4 year old phone), as it still feels a bit much sometimes even after all those years of use. I do find that it feels very small after using my tablet for a while, but I quickly readjust.

I actually looked at Sony a few years ago, more for the (at the time) extreme and unbeatable battery life, but didn't get one, and haven't since, due to their limited availability and concern about warranty coverage (they either come from an unauthorized retailer with no warranty or, if there are any with a warranty, I frankly don't have faith that it would be handled well). I considered the Samsung S10e, but didn't get it for three main reasons: small battery with resultant short battery life (biggest reason), poor power button placement, and I just don't like some of the tweaks Samsung does to Android. I really like what they're doing with folding phones, though, and think that's the future of phones. In fact, I was wanting something like that for at least a couple years before they even mentioned it. It would be amazing to have a smaller, more manageable phone but be able to open it up for a bigger screen when needed. Best of both worlds. Of course, it'll be a few years before they come down in price enough to be even close to mainstream.

And then there are a lot of other annoyances and compromises in phones that I wish review sites would take responsibility and call the manufacturers out on (same with computers), but pretty much every review site just glazes over or completely ignores them, and certainly doesn't make a point to hold the manufacturers' feet to the fire by stating in each and every review when they make stupid design choices, e.g. small batteries, no removable storage, USB 2.0, small amounts of storage/RAM, microUSB (may not be an issue anymore, but there were still phones coming out with this years after USB-C came out), and inability to unlock bootloaders and voiding warranty when doing so. The last one being the primary reason I've been wanting to go OnePlus, but for a company who's motto is "never settle" they require their customers to do an awful lot of settling, such as using USB 2.0 all the way up to and including the 6T, no expandable storage (even worse when combined with limited storage capacity), mediocre battery life, and releasing some versions in the US and not others (e.g. 7 Pro, which is too big, but not 7).

I realize there's a lot of subjectivity in all of this, and different people have different priorities, but I often feel like phone and laptop (and peripheral and other) manufacturers just try to do the same as everyone else, leading to numerous products very similar to each other, many of which are lacking in important areas, instead of being innovative and daring to be different. And that's how we have 99% of phones being either too big/heavy, because they all want to cater to that market, or being a reasonable size and weight but then cutting themselves off at the knees by handicapping important specs. It's like they don't want to make an ideal product. I've read through dozens of laptop reviews over the past couple weeks and probably >50 in the past year or so, and it's a regular occurrence for them to be almost perfect, but then there's a couple poor decisions made that drag them down and lead to a non-purchase. It's really crazy how often this happens, and makes me wonder what the people in charge of these decisions are thinking, and if the companies actually want to sell their products.

I agree!! Phones became too big, impossible to carry on a pocket

Yeah, its anoyng that you must have a bag for your smartphone.

Preach! I think this might be the reason why you are one of the few tech sites that still have a best compact phones list. We need more reviewers speaking out like this.

This reminds me of an article years ago with same issue from gsmarena. They also had a petition to go along with it ~ a few months later (I think) ..the Z1 compact was released.

www.gsmarena.com/help_us_make_a_change_sign_our_smartphone_petition_now-news-5891.php  maybe you should join forces to do another petition ;) ;) :D

They are very few relatively small phones out there which have sacrificed their top & bottom bezels for a lengthier screen from some what high to medium specs which i'm fine with the latter. It seems the market is cranking out nothing but large phones (with 720p why??)..

The Mi 9 se (if you can get/ afford it) the recently 4A, A41 are very note worthy..then again how long before we see some more if any at all =/. Currently I'm rocking an A01 ;D Though it has a few short comings which has been discussed, it is quite comfortable to hold & easy to operate in one hand, light weight & of course pocket-able.

Yes! We demand more small phones! With good specs!

There are advantages with having smaller phones, it fits better in your pocket, compact, and easier to bring. You can go for the google pixel phone or the iphone se 2020. Both are affordable and in the smaller side

Yes we demand handier smartphones!  Pixel 4a width minus 4 mm, hight minus 10mm, weight ok

Oh my, I couldn´t have said it better myself! Give us back high class small form factor smart phones! The new iPhone12 Mini leads the way, now please Android manufacturers, follow this example!

Yes! More compact, high-end phones. And make them available in Canada! Just because we want smaller phones, doesn't mean we want to revert to a flip phone or completely basic smartphone. I'm hanging onto my XZ1C until a decent alternative shows up. The Samsung Galaxy S10e seems promising but they are currently in short supply here.

There are a few reasons that I can think of as to why the big tech brands are releasing smaller phones or listening to the market demands...

1) The bigger the phone, the bigger the price tag, the bigger the unit profit margins
2) incremental releases of new technology such as 5G to get people to use trade-in and insurance programs to upgrade yearly or face the full, cardiac arrest-inducing price tags

They've done everything to make small flagships entirely feasible, more so now than ever before:

1) screen to body ratios are at all-time lows
2) battery tech is advancing faster than ever thanks to all manner of e-tech adoption outside the mobile and computing arenas - "economies of scale"
3) hardware/software optimization is so advanced thanks to smart device adoption
4) OEM OLED technology is not a monopoly anymore and OLED technology is and has always been a massive benefit to battery optimization
5) OEM's finally are placing priority on the specialization of cameras of a device - opting for multiple cameras that do one thing very well, rather than a single lens that does almost nothing right
6) other internal hardware has never been more compact - as mentioned in the article, - "With microchip manufacturing processes reaching into the single digits of nanometers"

So the question of size is quite a curious one from a user's perspective, but perhaps not so much so from an OEM's perspective.

It seems my first enumerated point of profit margins takes precedent over the optimization of existing and new tech within the framework of "user comfort".

Well here we are half way through 2023 and I still can't move on from my XZ1C.  Robust, no nonsense, still fast.  I have it attached to my bike handlebars in rainstorms!  I just got a Zenfone 8 as the nearest vaguely modern phone but I think it might be going back on eBay.  By comparison the XZ1C has a 100% reliable fingerprint reader (in the right place) and a camera button (this is Sony!).  Who cares that it's a bit boxy when it's in a case?  I have been a fan of the Sony compacts since my first Z1 Compact - though I do miss wrist loop attachment point!

Quote from: Headwesty on June 20, 2023, 12:24:49Well here we are half way through 2023 and I still can't move on from my XZ1C.  Robust, no nonsense, still fast.  I have it attached to my bike handlebars in rainstorms!  I just got a Zenfone 8 as the nearest vaguely modern phone but I think it might be going back on eBay.  By comparison the XZ1C has a 100% reliable fingerprint reader (in the right place) and a camera button (this is Sony!).  Who cares that it's a bit boxy when it's in a case?  I have been a fan of the Sony compacts since my first Z1 Compact - though I do miss wrist loop attachment point!

It is 2023 and I still can't find a top end keyboard phone or a top end phone with a removable battery...

I mean it is pretty clear the ship has sailed for smaller phones, I mean be aware as people want more features on stuff in their phones, you need space to fit it.

That said, now there is at least some variety other than slabs like those bendable phones, many of them are smaller than regular phones before you open them up