A page to gather interest in a small Android phone

I get that less size means less battery, but 4 hours SOT seems like a really low goal.

Asus makes the ZenPhone 10. That's 6 inches. I don't know how it stacks up to the other requirements, I've never used one.

I'm a bit confused about what the OP means with "premium", but at least the price band fits.

It has a locked bootloader, i know because i have one...
- I'm curious now that we've talked so much about it. Is it any good, locked bootloader aside?
I considered the Zenphone 10, but the issue is the price. 830 bucks in Europe compared to 630 in the US.
- Woof. Depending on what bucks those bucks are that's... a weirdly large, unjustified difference. I didn't know that was the case. I don't get it, for that money you could just order one from the US and have it shipped. Even with customs fees you'd break even.
  Still, that's a lot and the region differences suck, but given the lack of options it's still ticking boxes. Plus flagships are like 1.5k these days, somehow, so... that's midrange pricing? I don't know how we got to that being midrange pricing, but apparently that's where we are.
It's really not a small phone though.... it's the same size as the non-max iPhone, minus a couple millimeters of width.
- They specifically said "sub 6 inch display", this is 5.9 inches. I'm meeting the brief here.
  I mean, the other answer to that is that he could go for the vanilla iPhone, but they also said they want an Android phone, so this is the smallest thing with fairly high specs you can find right now and it's stil a couple fractions of an inch smaller than the small iPhone.

This is why I love my Pixel 4a. I think it's like 5.8 inches and it's just the ideal size to use comfortably and fit in my pocket.

I bought my 4A from a refurbisher two years after release, for the original retail price. Which is kind of insane, but there simply was no alternative for a similar sized phone at the time.
I really like it though.

I despise the fact that most Android phones start with a 6-inch screen. I was resolute to switch to an iPhone mini next time when I'll change phones but then they also killed that product line. 🫠

I really miss the time I can do everything with one hand using only one thumb.

I'm the complete opposite tbh. I have tiny hands so phones are hard to handle but my ideal size has always been 6.7 inches.I love how can see so much on there and how everything is so much easier to see and how my fingers have tons of room to work with when typing. Anything below 6.3 inches feels really cramped for me.
It doesn't solve the overall size issue but the latest versions of Android have a one handed mode that brings the notification shade and display down to a little less than half the screen.

My wife is using Galaxy A01 Core. This phone was outdated even before it was released. Nevertheless, there were no other options below 5.7 inches, and it cost around $200.

https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a01_core-10314.php

And no, she won't pay $700 for a new phone (or allow me to pay for it).

It kind of makes sense to be honest. The pricing of the small phones is very prohibitive.

Not just a small phone, but an ergonomically shaped phone is missing from the market. It would be great to have devices again that you can cradle in your hand and slip into a small pocket. Thin slabs are nice on a display shelf, but they aren't human-centered. Give me a phone with a curved and grippy back and a 5.x inch display.

I actually feel like the current trend to a more flat trim, like the current iPhones, Galaxies and (rumored) the Pixel 8 have is more ergonomic, since you actually have a solid edge to hold on to instead of something rounded that slips from your fingers

Sony had a really good one, I liked it. Nowadays you'd probably only be able to charge it using your PS5.

They still have the Xperia I and V series, which is taller but not necessarily much wider. I have one. I like it.
- I've had the xperia 5iv for a little over a year now and I'm pretty happy with it. It's still not a small phone, but I think it's among the smaller phones.
  I also quite like the expandable storage and headphone jack.

I'm thinking about getting a base S24 as my next phone, since it's the only "small" phone that has a zoom lens and good cameras. I've been using Pixels since the original, though, so I'm a little worried about switching

I've gone between the two brands. Samsung strikes me as a little visually complicated whereas Pixel is cleaner and the point with its design choices. Connect ADB and you can disable all of the apps that come with the Samsung if you wish. Don't really prefer OneUI, though it felt snappier with the Snapdragon.
With that said, I enjoyed my Samsung overall, and I'm enjoying my Pixel. I don't think you'll be disappointed, but if I were you, I would reflect on how I feel about a little bit more clutter. It's in the details, like having two account sign in areas for both your Samsung and your Google accounts. Two app stores. The price and stress of more choices.
If you intend to own the device for a long time, consider that you have much better aftermarket solutions on Pixel because Google releases more, higher quality code and drivers makes your ROM devs life much easier. Fewer bugs for you in the aftermarket. You can only run GrapheneOS on a Pixel.

FWIW the Unihertz Jelly Star, Jelly 2, Atom, and Jelly all exist.... they aren't going to meet all those specs though... still I enjoy mine.

I do not see any dimensions mentioned on the linked page. Is a google pixel 8 small enough?

5.9 height x 2.8 width x 0.4 depth (in), 150.5 height x 70.8 width x 8.9 depth (mm)

That's larger than the non-max iPhone.

This, but with an industrial grade SoC covered by 10y of support. Would be ideal as a secondary phone for work, or simply as a spare unit at home.

Thank fuck. My moto e2 was an amazing size 4.5 in, had excellent battery life and I miss it a lot.

And it needs a no PWM screen!!! Pulse Width Modulation causes a lot of us to have eye strain. Those are literally the 2 main things I need in a phone - small screen with no PWM.

Whenever I see a post like this it somehow reminds me of these

Hey! It's Eric Migicovski, the Pebble watch guy! Love my Pebble watches, they're really utilitarian, definitely down for a good small phone.

The problem with "niche" phones like small phones, phones with headphone jacks, phones with keyboards, etc is that most of the people who claim they want one end up not buying one because of such and such feature being missing or so and so phone being better.

Asus and Sony have been making smaller phones for years but they've never achieved any sort of success. Iirc Sony makes a small phone with a headphone jack, which should be flying off shelves if these types of threads are to be believed.

The excuse is always "well Asus and Sony" have relatively little retail presence. Sure, that'd true, but any startup niche phone seller would be doing very well to have an Asus or Sony level distribution and retail network in the first couple of generations. And that's setting aside Apple being omnipresent in retail and yet still failing to sell enough small phones.

Sony prices are very high for what they sell.
Asus had the issues of short software support and locked bootloader.
I see where you come from, but those issues were there