While most flagship phones are getting ever bigger there are plenty of people who'd prefer a small handset.
Sadly, as popular opinion at the moment seems to be that bigger is better the smaller handsets are usually a little underpowered, but that's not always the case as there are still some great ones.
These include the iPhone SE, the powerful iPhone 8 and the flagship Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact, as well as entries from Samsung and Google. Here then are the best compact smartphones available as of March 2019.
The iPhone SE is the first 4.0-inch iPhone in years and with specs to rival the iPhone 6S it was worth the wait.
Technically the iPhone SE isn’t a high-end phone, but at launch it was very close to one, with the same Apple A9 processor and 2GB of RAM as the iPhone 6S. That gives it fast performance. It's a couple of steps behind the iPhone 8, but then most phones are. It also has a sharp, high quality screen, at a resolution of 640 x 1136 for a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch.
Then there’s its design, which is almost identical to the iPhone 5S, complete with an aluminium shell in a two-tone colour scheme. It’s one of the most premium and stylish compact smartphones on the market.
The iPhone SE has a great camera too. There’s a 12MP snapper on the back, with a dual-LED True Tone flash and support for Live Photos and 4K video.
Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner is present and correct, along with Apple Pay support and the iPhone SE runs iOS 12, which is the latest and greatest version of iOS. All in all, it’s a stunningly good phone and a lot cheaper than its larger siblings.
Samsung’s followed up the strong Galaxy A3 2016 with the even better Samsung Galaxy A3 2017, which is just as compact at 4.7 inches but has had a specs upgrade.
Like its predecessor, it has a 720 x 1280 Super AMOLED screen for a pixel density of 312 pixels per inch and plenty of colour, but now there’s a lot more power, with a zippy 1.6GHz octa-core Exynos 7870 processor and 2GB of RAM under the hood, putting this firmly in lower mid-range territory.
It has a beautiful design, with a metal frame and a gently curved glass back, much like Samsung’s flagships, and it’s IP68 certified water and dust resistant too, to a depth of 1.5 metres for up to 30 minutes. That’s a major selling point, as even some high-end phones don’t have that level of resistance.
The Galaxy A3 2017 also has a fingerprint scanner, a decent 13MP snapper, plus an 8MP one around the front and a long-lasting 2,350mAh battery.
It’s worth noting that there’s now a 2018 version of the Galaxy A3, but this is too big to be considered a compact handset.
This compact Sony handset, improves on the Sony Xperia X Compact in almost every way. It’s moderately powerful, thanks to 4GB of RAM and an octa-core Snapdragon 835 chipset with four cores clocked at 2.45GHz and four running at 1.9GHz.
Those were once high-end specs, and they’re not far off now, but they’re also not the only impressive aspect of the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact. It also has a fairly premium build, with a mix of metal and glass fibre woven plastic, topped off with IP68 certification, meaning it’s water and dust resistant.
The Xperia XZ1 Compact also has a capable 19MP rear snapper along with an 8MP front-facing one, a fingerprint scanner, a big – given the size of the phone – 2,700mAh battery, 32GB of storage and a microSD card slot.
If there’s anything that slightly lets it down it’s the screen, which is compact at 4.6 inches, but comes in at 720p. That’s low for a phone of this calibre, but in line with most other compact handsets, and not much of an issue given the small size.
When it comes to compact phones the iPhone is king, and while the iPhone 8 has this beat, there’s surprisingly little to choose between them, and the iPhone 7 is the cheaper of the two.
It has a premium metal build, Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner, lots of power and an almost class-leading 12MP camera.
You also get a compact 4.7-inch 750 x 1334 display complete with 3D Touch – so it can sense different levels of pressure.
And there’s loads of storage, with up to 256GB built in, plus, despite not being the latest iPhone it runs the latest version of iOS, namely version 12 at time of writing.
With the ever-improving Siri, millions of apps available and a slick interface too, this is a top-tier compact phone.
This is no longer Google’s latest flagship, that being the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL. Still, the Pixel 2 is smaller (at 5 inches) and cheaper than the Pixel 3, and has a lot else going for it, starting with its pure, unadorned version of Android 9 Pie, which means it has a slick, smooth interface to interact with, one which few phones yet have, and being a Google phone you’re also promised speedy updates to new versions of the OS.
The Pixel 2 also has a sharp 1080 x 1920 AMOLED display, a water-resistant metal and glass build and specs which, while not quite top-end anymore, are still high-end, as there’s an octa-core Snapdragon 835 chipset and 4GB of RAM inside.
The Pixel 2 has stereo speakers as well, so it sounds great, and its 12.2MP camera, while single-lens, is one of the best around, even in low light.
You also get either 64GB or 128GB of storage, so there’s plenty of space, squeezy sides provide a novel shortcut to Google Assistant, there’s a fingerprint scanner and a 2,700mAh battery. So this small phone fits a lot in.
This is Sony’s latest small flagship and it really is something special. For one thing, it sports a newer design that’s far more modern than previous Sony handsets, as it includes a curvy body with very little bezel around the screen.
And speaking of the screen, it’s sharp at 1080 x 2160, leading to a pixel density of 483 pixels per inch. That’s far higher than most compact phones, yet at 5.0 inches this is undeniably small and has a trendy 18:9 aspect ratio.
The Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact is also dust and water resistant, and it’s very powerful, thanks to an octa-core Snapdragon 845 chipset and 4GB of RAM – the same sort of specs as you’ll find in many 2018 flagships.
There’s a hefty 64GB of storage squeezed into its small shell, along with a microSD card slot, and the phone has a good 19MP camera capable of shooting 4K HDR video.
The Xperia XZ2 Compact also sports stereo speakers, a fingerprint scanner, and decent battery life from its 2,870mAh cell, all of which comes together to make this a true compact flagship.
The Google Pixel 3 just barely counts as compact, coming in as it does at 5.5 inches. In fact, a few years ago that would have been considered quite large, but with most phones now starting at around 5.8 inches and rising from there we decided this was worthy of inclusion.
It has a sharp 1080 x 2160 OLED screen, a brilliant 12.2MP camera and loads of power, with a Snapdragon 845 chipset and 4GB of RAM under the hood.
It’s also IP68 certified, so it’s dust proof and water resistant to depths of 1.5 metres for 30 minutes.
The real reason to buy this though other than its size is that being a Google phone it delivers Android as intended and gets day one software updates to new versions, where most phones are left waiting for months.
The iPhone 8 isn’t Apple’s best phone – that honour goes to the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, but they’re also big, while the iPhone 8 is a compact flagship and it’s the best truly small phone you can buy.
There are a lot of reasons for that, from its stylish metal and glass build (that’s also water resistant) to its super-powered A11 Bionic processor, great quality 12MP camera and masses of storage.
The iPhone 8 also has a high-quality screen. It’s just 4.7 inches, but it’s sharp at 750 x 1334 and sports all sorts of high-end tech, like 3D Touch, which lets it detect different levels of pressure, and True Tone, which automatically adjusts the white balance to best suit the environment.
There’s also wireless charging for the first time on an iPhone, and of course the iPhone 8 has Apple’s fast and reliable Touch ID fingerprint scanner and access to arguably the best app store there is.
As you can see, there’s a wide range of compact smartphones available, sporting different prices, strengths and operating systems.
Apple’s first entry sneaks into seventh place with the iPhone SE. After that there’s a similarly stylish Android phone in the form of the Samsung Galaxy A3 2017, followed by the brilliant but no longer brand-new Xperia XZ1 Compact and iPhone 7, then the high-end Google Pixel 2 and Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact, then the even higher-end Google Pixel 3 and in first place the masterpiece that is the iPhone 8.
Any of these phones would serve you well if you’re after a small screen though, it all just depends on how much you want to spend and whether you want Android or iOS.
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