New-ish meaning anything that has 4G. Today every phone i See is huge and annoying.
this is my main reason why I don’t want to switch to a new flagship from the Google pixel 4a. It’s not supported by still runs smoothly with GrapheneOS custom ROM and I swapped the battery for a new one from iFixit and it works! Maybe you can consider a Google Pixel 8a, at least it’s not as huge as other flagships
In December I finally bought a phone to replace my 3a. I did it mostly for the battery life, although I did actually buy a replacement battery for the 3a and have all the necessary tools to install it. It wouldn’t be my first time replacing a cellphone battery.
I was window shopping and the Oneplus 12 became fairly discounted at the end of last year.
Honestly, the overall experience really isn’t that different than my old 3a. It’s not like newer versions of Android are adding revolutionary features these days and if you’re running a custom ROM, odds are you’re on a newer version of Android anyway.
Nice things:
- Two days worth of battery life with my usage patterns. Even with a fresh battery, my 3a wouldn’t last this long
- Something like 4x more RAM means that apps are usually in the state I left them in when I come back to them, whereas on the 3a they had usually been forced to free up resources and not all apps deal with that well
- The telephoto lens is nice to have, but none of the built in cameras are a substitute for my dedicated camera for things that are moving and/or things are far away
- The screen mounted fingerprint sensor is very convenient, but that’s a placement thing. Some people liked the 3a location, but I didn’t personally
Unless you are taxing your processor, an upgrade will be incremental. At least that was my experience.
I somewhat regret the larger phone in that it’s a bit harder to handle one handed, but most on screen keyboards have a one handed mode to deal with this. I had a pop/ring type holder on my 3a, so gripping one handed isn’t that big of a deal.
Also writing from a pixel 4a… Where you get that rom from bro? By the time I heard of the project, they didn’t have roms for the 4a on their website.
Pretty sure 4g was widely supported starting like 15 years ago, so newish doesn’t seem the right word.
Asus zenphones are good size. I went with S23 since it was nearly exact same size as my S9 I used for 7 years. So no change.
- nice cam
- headphone jack
- removable storage
That’s it.
literally!
Removable battery too, while we’re at it! Lol
My Samsung S10e is 5.8", has most modern features (minus dumb AI), and if you prefer you might be able to find a new one still.
What OS are you running on that?
Android 12.
Same. Gotta stick with stock unfortunately because mine is also a work phone and they don’t allow rooted devices.
Sony has their Xperia Compact series.
- Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact - 129x65x9.3mm
- Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact - 135x65x12.1mm
I wasn’t aware they still made those in 2025
Edit: they don’t, got fooled by the prices chart
Ah, sorry. Turns out the one I got two years ago isn’t a Compact either. (I had Compacts previously, and didn’t want a big phone then either.)
The 10 V I got is not as big as some of the other big phones, but it is a bit bigger and significantly longer than Compact was previously. 155x68x8.3mm
Sony also at least used to make phones that are more tall and narrow. For some people complaining about having to hold a wide phone night find that’s good enough.
I’m an Android person (P9PXL) but I’m in a mixed marriage with an Apple person. Lol. The iPhone SE 3rd generation only has a 4.7" screen and it’s 5G.
Jelly star 2
you need a huge screen that you use with two hands so that you can play whatever that stupid fake video game ad I see on twitter is
How big we talking?
like iPod size
The only phone that has a screen that small is the Unihertz Jelly Star
The iPhone 13 mini is the perfect iPhone in my opinion. I just replaced the battery in mine and am ready to use it another 3 years
The asus zenphone 10 is a 5.9" Phone relased in july 2023.
Here’s some info:
Read this as 5’9"
My main issue with that phone is the abysmal software support. Asus promised 2 years of OS support and 4 years of security updates. So its OS updates are going to stop soon and you get 2 years of security updates if you buy the phone today.
I have a samsung s9 running android 10. Everything works, so it’s probably not a critical issue. Still, I got android 14 running with noble rom and it worked perfectly, besides banking apps.
We arrived at a time where 5.9" is considered small…
The number alone means nothing. Ratios and bezels can and do make a difference.
That’s uh…what she said?
Agree, but also half the story.
The zenphone 10 is 146.5 x 68.1 x 9.4 mm.
I had a 3a until very recently. With its 5.7" screen it was 151.3 x 70.1 x 8.2 mm, so it does support the story.
The OG iPhone was 115 × 61 × 11.6 mm.
I’m still using an iPhone 8 for my work phone and it’s 138.4 x 67.3 mm x 7.3 mm.
It’s clear that the market is demanding larger phones, which means that today’s “small” phones are often larger than the phones of yesteryear.
It’s clear that the market is demanding larger phones, which means that today’s “small” phones are often larger than the phones of yesteryear.
True and I didn’t address that, just the shallow view of bigger number bigger phone.
We arrived at a time where 5.9" is considered small…
I see you’ve met my girlfriend.
Who do you think shifted her perspective?
A ruler
Dad?
Not really there’s the Unihertz ones that seem more novelty to be honest I think the one called Jelly Max is the newest one. Specs wise they don’t seem awful or anything but I’ve never seen one in person to be honest.
Apart from them Sony maybe but you’ll pay a lot.
Pretty sure the unihertz jelly line has that covered
