The top five compact smartphones

The iPhone 13 Mini is a fantastic small phone even three years on, making it especially unfortunate that this is the last ‘Mini’ phone Apple produced. 

Despite its age, the iPhone 13 Mini remains a great choice if you want a small but still very powerful smartphone that fits as seamlessly in your pocket as it does in the Apple ecosystem. It also weighs just 140g, making it easy to use one-handed. 

The 13 Mini itself isn’t much bigger than the iPhone SE (2022), yet the display is 5.4 inches, making it more spacious than the SE’s 4.7-inch screen. This gives you more room to scroll, browse, work and stream content, albeit less space than the larger and newer iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. 

The 13 Mini is powerful, too. The small phone is equipped with the Apple A15 Bionic chipset, a great pair of 12-megapixel cameras and all the apps and features you’d expect from iOS. That is, aside from Apple Intelligence, of course, as the AI features require the latest Pro chips inside the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 series. 

The main downside to the iPhone 13 Mini is its battery life. This isn’t exactly a shock considering the smaller size of the phone and the fact it’s more than three years old. The 13 Mini will give you enough power to get through a full day and it beats the battery in the 12 Mini that came before it. However, if you’re looking for something that’ll last a bit longer we recommend opting for another small phone, such as the Asus Zenfone 10. 

Likewise, if you want the most performance power for your buck, a more modern phone like the Zenfone 10 or the Samsung Galaxy S24 might be the best choice. However, if you’re looking for a small but still powerful iPhone, the 13 Mini remains hard to beat.

Review: iPhone 13 mini review
Reviewer: Max Parker

If you’re after a small phone but want to stick with Android, the Asus ZenFone 10 is your best bet.

It’s not quite as small as the iPhone 13 mini, sporting a 5.9-inch 120Hz OLED display, but it’s still comfortably within compact territory when most Android flagships sport 6.7- or even 6.8-inch displays. And as with the iPhone 13 mini, don’t let the compact nature fool you; this is very much a flagship smartphone with specs to match.

That includes the latest and greatest Qualcomm chipset in the form of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, coupled with 8- or 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage to play with, allowing the ZenFone 10 to handle whatever you throw at it with absolute ease. Gaming was also a joy on the compact phone, managing to stay cool even over extended gameplay sessions.

There’s also great camera performance from a combination of a 50MP main and a 13MP ultrawide, particularly when it comes to image stabilsation, and a 32MP RGBW selfie camera delivers some of the best selfies we’ve seen this year.

What really makes the ZenFone 10 stand apart from the competition, however, is its hugely customisable approach to Android 13. 

You can either opt for Asus’ ZenUI skin or adopt something very close to stock Android, with additional support for Material You and other customisable elements of the UI. It goes much further than practically any other Android OEM, making it a joy to use day-to-day.

Throw in comfortable all-day battery life from a 4,300mAh cell and you’ve got a great compact Android smartphone that doesn’t cost the Earth. 

Review: Asus ZenFone 10 review
Reviewer: Lewis Painter

The Asus ZenFone 10 remains the smallest flagship Android smartphone around, but the Samsung Galaxy S24 is not only more powerful, but offers a larger screen in a body that’s not much bigger than that of the ZenFone.

The 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen is a slight increase on last year’s 6.1-inch panel, but don’t fret; that’s possible due to Samsung shrinking the screen’s bezels, leaving the form factor near-identical to its older sibling. That means it’s not only bigger while still maintaining a compact form factor, but it boasts high-end specs like an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate alongside HDR10+ support and a maximum brightness of 2600nits. 

It gets a little bit confusing in the chipset department with the UK, Europe and other regions finding the Exynos 2400 chipset while those in the US get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy.

We reviewed the former, though we’ve benchmarked the latter and it’s clear that the Snapdragon-equipped variant is more powerful in GPU tests, but you likely won’t notice a difference in everyday use. It’s rapid, responsive and utilises GenAI capabilities to provide on-device translation, voice recording transcription and more. That should only continue to improve with its improved seven years of OS upgrades, the longest of any small-screen phone right now.

The only disappointment is camera performance; while it’s far from a bad camera setup, comprised of a 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide and 10MP telephoto, it remains entirely unchanged for a third year running and, as such, there are more performative options on the market – though many of these are attached to bigger screens like Samsung’s own 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Still, if you’re looking for a solid small-screen flagship that can handle just about anything you throw at it, the Galaxy S24 remains a tempting option.

Review: Samsung Galaxy S24 review
Reviewer: Max Parker

What if your budget doesn’t quite extend to flagship-level smartphones like the S24 or ZenFone 10? The Google Pixel 8a is our recommendation for compact smartphone fans on a bit more of a budget. 

The Pixel 8a measures in at a compact 6.1 inches, boasts a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and even borrows the Actua tech from the flagship Pixel 8 to boost brightness to 2000nits. It’s also a nice compact size that sits nicely in the hand, especially with the Pixel 8a’s rounded edges.

Where the Pixel 7a flexes its mid-range muscles is in the camera department, using the flagship-level Tensor G2 chipset to power a range of AI features like Super Res Zoom and Night Sight, along with exclusive photo editing features that remove distractions from the background and even sharpen blurry images. 

That AI goodness also extends to the general experience, with the Pixel 8a’s stock Android 14 littered with handy AI features to improve your day-to-day, be it displaying upcoming calendar invites and the weather on the Home screen to Recently Played, an AI feature that automatically detects music in your environment as you go about your day – a real boon for music discovery.

Battery life is also solid, though it’s still very much just a one-day device – one of the downsides of more compact smartphones.

Still, if you’re looking for a compact phone on a budget, you won’t find a more capable option than the Google Pixel 8a in 2024. 

Review: Google Pixel 8a
Reviewer: Max Parker

If you’re looking for a truly compact Android smartphone that doesn’t compromise on a large-screen experience, boasts a solid camera, strong performance and an all-day battery life then you can’t do much better than the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra.

Although the 6.9-inch pOLED panel is anything but small, and surpasses some of the largest smartphones on the market, once folded the external display measures just 3.6-inches. This is perfect for one-hand use as all corners can be easily reached using just your thumb. 

Not only is the external screen tiny yet still highly functional, the handset is just 15mm thick when folded so you can easily slip it into your pocket or your bag. Plus as the display is fitted with Gorilla Glass Victus, you shouldn’t have to worry about scratches either. 

Aside from the displays, the Razr 40 Ultra includes two rear cameras: a 12MP main and a 13MP ultrawide lens. We found that the main snapper does an admirable job in well-lit scenarios, resulting in vibrant colours and detail, however it’s worth noting that in low-light sometimes images were too soft despite the PDAF focusing technology.

Similarly, the ultrawide lens is generally sufficient in well-lit environments although there can be notable blurs in areas which need more detail. 

Running on the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset which, despite not being Qualcomm’s latest processor, is certainly still capable and scored well in our CPU and GPU benchmark tests. If however you plan on using your smartphone mainly for intense gaming then we wouldn’t recommend this handset as it struggled with higher-specced titles. 

If that’s the case, then we’d recommend checking out our best gaming smartphones list for dedicated gaming options.

Whether you want the smallest smartphone you could possibly get your hands on, or you’re just keen to recreate the flip phone experience of the noughties, the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra is a great choice for most people.

Review: Motorola Razr 40 Ultra review
Reviewer: Lewis Painter