Best compact phones 2023 - buyer’s guide

Even if there is no iPhone 14 mini, probably waiting to be announced as the next iPhone SE, the Apple iPhone 13 mini remains the most compact yet flagship phone you can buy today. It is a smaller version of the iPhone 13 and it's lost nothing. The most important updates over the 12 mini are the larger battery capacity, the smaller screen notch, and the doubled base storage. We sure don't think iPhone 12 mini owners should update, but we do consider the 13 mini as the best compact phone there is right now.

The iPhone 13 mini packs a 5.4" OLED screen of 1080p resolution and the powerful Apple A15 chip with 5G connectivity! It has the same dual-camera as the regular iPhone 13, complete with sensor-shift stabilization, Night Mode and Dolby Vision video capturing. It also enjoys loud stereo speakers and improved battery life. Another best bits - the mini is one of the most durable phones to date as it has the same Ceramic Shield and IP68 water proofing as the standard and Pro models.

The iPhone 13 mini is the best compact smartphone to date, and we wholeheartedly recommend it. You should also consider the Apple iPhone 12 mini as it is cheaper, and the differences with the 13 mini aren't exciting.

Apple released a new SE in 2022 and it's among our top picks in this Compact chapter for its incredibly compact and lightweight body. It's hardly perfect though, but Apple has the iPhone 13 mini and 12 mini for those seeking perfection. So, the SE has a dated a form factor introduced years ago and reuses a lot of the iPhone 8 bits. That means a single camera, a small battery, giant screen bezels and - TouchID.

The best bit about the iPhone SE 2022, outside its incredibly compact and lightweight body, is the chipset – it employs the Apple A15 Bionic chip with 5G, the same one behind the latest iPhone 13 generation. The A15 chip is more powerful than even the beefiest Android, and it'll remain capable for years to come, during which time it'll keep getting software updates - the iOS way. It's a very affordable entry into that iOS world too.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 is one of the most compact Android flagships available and the small size didn't come at the cost of cut features.

The phone has an excellent 6.1-inch OLED screen with high brightness and adaptive refresh rate, the most powerful chipset on the Android market, and a superb quartet of cameras that will reliably capture whatever you put in front of their lenses.

We are glad that Samsung took the extra step and made an exclusive deal with Qualcomm for an overclocked version of the SD8G2 chip, and this will surely convince quite a few Exynos-doubting users to grab a Galaxy S23.

The smallest Galaxy S23 offers a decent battery life, too. It is one of the most compact droids available right now, the most powerful, too, and an easy enough recommendation.

The appeal of Pixel phones tends to be pretty niche, often not entirely well-founded in reason, and difficult to explain with just numbers and test results. It's somewhat of a similar story with the Pixel 7a here, as a quick look at the pros and cons lists below will show you. Yet, it is one of the most compact smartphones on the market, one of the most powerful, and one with a remarkable photo quality from its cameras.

Google hasn't been quick to adopt a high refresh rate display on its cheaper model and even when it finally has, it's a 90Hz panel in a sea of higher RR competitors. Battery life is unremarkable, charging speed is downright unacceptable, the lack of storage options is limiting, and the Tensor G2 runs hot and throttles. There are also missteps in what should be any Pixel's forte - camera performance.

Attempting to counter all of the above, we have an Android experience tailored to Google's own vision with a clutter-free interface, Pixel-only features, and an update policy that's hard to rival. An otherwise meh flagship chipset does make for a pretty great midrange one, prone to throttling as it may be. And so long as you avoid people shots in most of their incarnations, the Pixel 7a's camera's system will deliver image quality that wouldn't be out of place on an actual flagship.

In summary, with the 7a, Google appears to have simply created a more affordable, and smaller, Pixel 7. And that’s not a bad thing at all, on the contrary.

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The Asus Zenfone 9 is probably among the best compact Android flagship you can get. It has commendable qualities across the board. It's built as flagship as it can be - IP68 rating, GG Victus front and a metal frame. There is the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 5G chip with great performance. The camera quality turned out brilliant, no matter day or night, photo or video, or the type of camera you are using.

That's not all. The Zenfone 9 impressed us with its speakers quality, the excellent OLED, and rich connectivity options, including a 3.5mm jack.

Finally, the Zenfone 9 may be a flagship, but its price of €800 is quite reasonable by today’s standards.

The Sony Xperia 5 IV introduces a few updates over the Xperia 5 III - a brighter display, an updated design, a faster chipset, a better selfie experience, longer battery life, wireless charging. It gets to keep the same compact and lightweight design, thankfully.

The only thing that has been downgraded since the Xperia 5 III is the zoom camera - it now offers 2.5x fixed optical zoom instead of 3x/4.4x two-step zoom. But even with these improvements, it doesn't make much sense for any Xperia 5 III user to upgrade to this newer generation.

The Xperia 5 IV offers a lovely, timeless design with solid waterproofing, an excellent OLED experience with high brightness and HDR10 certification, and we enjoyed the balanced stereo speakers. The battery life turned out amazing, something that's incredibly rare for a compact phone, let alone a compact flagship.

Even better, the Xperia 5 IV offers four 12MP cameras with excellent photo and video quality. The Pro tools coming with the phone will surely win a few more users on the Xperia side, too.

The Xperia 5 IV is not a perfect phone as it has one notable issue, just like the Xperia 1 IV. Yes, we are talking about sustained performance, which is currently behind the curve. All non-gaming phones won't shine with stability, but the Xperia 5 IV even drops the refresh rate after a while, which is not a good thing. Sony is applying heavy throttling to keep the phone from overheating, and that's the main issue - the Xperia 5 IV design makes it so easy for the device to overheat in mere minutes.

With that being said, the Xperia 5 IV packs more than enough punch, even with the 50% throttling - it's still quite a powerful device. And if you won't be playing games all the time, or process videos on the go, we'd say most people won't ever experience these performance drops.

We can safely recommend the Sony Xperia 5 IV for its compact design and camera prowess, its battery life and speaker experience. It's one of the best 2022 flagships with excellent pocketability, and it has earned our big thumbs up.

The Galaxy Z Flip went from a fashion-centric device to a full-blown flagship in just a couple of generations. The Flip4 is what the Flip3 should have been from the get-go - a powerful foldable smartphone with excellent camera performance, decent battery life and charging speed.

And indeed, we can say a lot of positive things about the new Z Flip4 - it has a superb water-proofed design that will hit the nostalgia notes across many users. It's a compact flip phone, one that clicks simply great.

The Z Flip4 offers an excellent AMOLED screen, good battery life, good charging speed, and the speakers are nice. It also packs the most powerful Android chip to date, though the thermals lead to throttling. And the camera performance is superb across the board, photo and video, day and night.

We consider the Flip4 as the most affordable foldable smartphone of the current generation, one of the most compact, too. And for its €730 price, it delivers an outstanding set of features..

It's not an ideal smartphone - it takes a while to get used to its design and form factor. Then you need to live with the crease and the plastic screen protector over the screen. Dust gets in various places, too. But we are recommending it to people who'd like to own a unique phone, small, and yet powerful and capable; to users that will take it with all of its good and not so good aspects

The Motorola Edge 30 Neo is a relatively compact and affordable smartphone. It impresses with an extremely bright and fast OLED panel, OIS on the main camera, better 13MP ultrawide camera with autofocus, blazing fast 68W fast charging, wireless charging, a set of nice-sounding stereo speakers and a nifty LED strip around the camera used for notifications and other stuff. Of course, some compromises had to be made for this price, so Motorola settled for a Snapdragon 695 SoC. Most of Neo's competitors run on faster chipsets and support 4K video recording. The device's camera capabilities, although not inherently bad, are not particularly impressive, leaving an easy opening for alternatives with better camera performance.

The good news is that the clean, burden-less Android experience doesn't slow down the chipset and operation is quite fluent and trouble-less.

So, if you are willing to make some compromises in terms of raw performance and overall camera performance, the €330 Motorola Edge 30 Neo gives you a whole lot of reasons to like it.

The Xiaomi 12X is an excellent compact smartphone with a top-notch display, the first one with native 12-bit color and true Dolby Vision experience. It offers flagship-grade performance and connectivity, excellent speaker experience, long-lasting battery life and fast charging. We are also happy with its camera quality across the board.

The Xiaomi 12X has no ingress protection and lacks zoom capabilities. But Xiaomi the 12X is an easily likable smartphone with a reasonable price in 2022 terms, and we think it has everything to become a best-seller. We are sure you will like the Xiaomi 12X as we did if you decide to get it. We do recommend this phone, especially if you are looking for a rather compact Android device with premium features.