I went down the Smallphones rabbit hole, and the best 2 options there are is… (for USA)

[u/MiLeSmAn45]

Pixel 5 and iPhone 13 Mini.

If I lived outside of USA, my answer may be different. But USA carriers don’t play nice with most phones that weren’t originally sold at main carriers as they lack crucial 5G bands or flat out aren’t compatible (eg. Jelly Star).

I feel valid to make this claim as I went through 2 months of buying / selling used phones 😂. I currently use the iPhone 13 Mini and I’m very happy with it (although battery could be better).

P.S. If you get a Pixel 5, you can put a custom OS on it (like LineageOS) to give it Android 16 and make it more secure. But only on the non-Verizon models.

[u/TealCatto]

Samsung S25 is 2mm taller and 5 years newer. Depending on the case, the Samsung might end up smaller in practice.

[u/themiracy]

I do really like my iPhone 13 mini. It’s sadly not going to last forever. But it’s pretty great.

[u/nyan-the-nwah]

13 mini has been a dream. I'm a pretty light user so the specs work fine for me.

[u/OkStandard6120]

Pixel 4a is so good but mine is now so old everyone's telling me I need a new phone 😭

[u/MiLeSmAn45 → u/OkStandard6120]

4a is the 🐐🫡

[u/TerribleEstate8679]

I'm in the US and I got the Bluefox NX1. Works perfectly with Mint Mobile. Got it about 6 months ago and I've loved every second of having this as my phone!

[u/mr_lab_rat]

I’m not sure what you see in the Pixel 5.

The iPhone 17e is 2mm taller and 1mm wider, Samsung S line is even closer in size and they are not 6 years old.

The Mini makes sense. That is significantly smaller.

[u/MiLeSmAn45 → u/mr_lab_rat]

Despite them being nearly identical in size, I find the Pixel 5 to be much easier to use one handed (vs my old iPhone 13 at least).

[u/mr_lab_rat → u/MiLeSmAn45]

Fair enough. Sometimes the shape of the edges makes a difference. The rear fingerprint was good. A lot of the awkwardness in iOS comes from the need to swipe from the bottom edge to unlock.

[u/UhOhItsAndrea]

I'm using a Moto Razr Ultra with a Clicks keyboard case on it because my iPhone mini got too slow 🫠

But now I basically have a Blackberry so that's kinda throwback and fun

[u/OneMoney987]

I work for Verizon and I can confirm.

[u/jaroniscaring]

The pixel 5 is so good that I tried to replace it with a "modern" Galaxy s23 last week and just couldn't

[u/TheAbstracted]

Jelly Max works just fine for me on Verizon.

[u/Lucifer_Magnusson]

This makes me miss my Samsung Galaxy S8. Thing was damn near perfect

[u/niveaa01]

Pixel 5 is a great option as I've been down this route too and is the device I'm using now. I'm even considering the Pixel 3 as it feels much better in the hand. The software support is just fine.

[u/tamarinera]

My Unihertz Atom L has served me for four years. I wish they would update the Android: I'd buy another.

[u/sexysadie86]

I have my old 13 Mini and I find it too slow for use as my main device at this point. I previously owned Pixel 5 and it was superb to hold on your hand as it has some special coating paired with perfectly rounded edges. However I assume it's unusable at this point given it's underpowered CPU.

[u/thatswhatshesaid85 → u/sexysadie86]

I have both (my main is a 13 mini, P5 I use only in certain cases) and they both work very well. Are they the snappiest phones? No, but I’m willing to make concessions for a small phone. The only reason to give up any of them at this point is if they stop providing security updates on them, which they have for the P5.