Another Pixel 4a user here. I haven't found a single compelling reason to move to another phone, and will drive this one into the ground... Hopefully there's a suitable replacement once it's dead, otherwise I'll just buy another 4a

Yeah, I've been using the 4a for about a year now, it is pretty sweet. It's the phone I wanted after the Nexus 5. (but with wireless charging). The size is great and it's light. I hate heavy phones.

I've been looking into the Asus Zenfone 8 to replace my 4a eventually. It's expensive but it's compact.

I was about to buy exactly this after reading reviews, wanting a compact phone, and my Note8 dying.

But for a few different reasons I ended up just getting my wife an S22 (non plus) and then inherited her S20 (non plus), which has a very similar form factor.

Definitely felt the OPs frustration in looking for compact Android phones. They just plain don't exist.

I've been very happy with mine. As another user mentioned, the main issue with it is the battery life isn't as good as some other Android phones, but it's good enough that as long as I charge it daily I rarely have to worry about it. Though I do really wish it had wireless charging.

I like the form factor of mine. Only thing I don't like with it is the battery time, which is shorter than I'd have preferred. But I bought it almost a year ago now, there might be a new model coming that fixes that.

A spare battery could fix this. Of course, only if designed this way.

I am also planning to move from a 4a, and at this point it would be either a Sharp R7 (probably not available internationally though) or a Sony Xperia 10 IV.

The Sony seems to be the best alternative though I have no idea of the software quality.

List of smaller Android phones with decent specs:

Pixel 5 - 144.7 x 70.4 x 8 mm

Samsung S22 - 146 x 70.6 x 7.6 mm

Zenfone 8 - 148 x 68.5 x 8.9 mm (could be higher thanks to narrower body)

Xiaomi 12X - 152.7 x 69.9 x 8.2 mm

Samsung S21 - 151.7 x 71.2 x 7.9 mm

Sony doesn't produce phones, but remote controls. Their software is nice clean, but their camera is pretty bad, might as well buy Zenfone 8 if you don't mind camera.

>Sony doesn't produce phones, but remote controls. Their software is nice clean, but their camera is pretty bad, might as well buy Zenfone 8 if you don't mind camera.

I imagine few who have used one would ever be able to say this with a straight face. I never met an iPhone user who believed me when I told them all the photos I was showing them were taken with an Xperia XZc (1 and 2, respectively) and that's with every single one of them. There may be half a dozen compact smartphones that really compare to the XZ2c. Sony just gave up on them because the herd loves their phablets so much.

I am also a current owner of the Zenphone 8 and its camera is also decent. If it's really important that you be able to snap the best photos possible, though, they've been developing these discrete camera things for over a century (and the best of them will likely continue to outperform any general purpose device for the foreseeable future).

Probably not what you would deem decent specs .. but small.

SHIFT5me - 141,5 mm x 71 mm x 9 mm

https://shop.shiftphones.com/shift5me.html

only 3mm shorter, but other dimensions bigger than pixel 5 plus MUCH smaller display thanks to huge bezels

Meanwhile the iPhone 13 mini is 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.7 mm

There's really nothing small about any of the Androids.

I've been burnt by Sony. Back in the first generation of the compact flagship. A great phone in all aspects... Until it was dropped. A tiny crack in the corner of the screen, you wouldn't notice without looking for it. Unfortunately engineering choices by Sony folk meant that any crack anywhere disabled the digitizer (i.e. the touchscreen loses the touch part). Such a bummer.

Countering your anecdote with mine.

I have an Xperia 10 II (or something like that, the slimmest Android device I could find back in early 2021). The back cover is cracked all over, to the point I sometimes get cuts on my fingers. Two of the corners have dents.

The back camera that takes the actual photo is several degrees off (like 10 or 15°) from whatever is used for the preview. Works perfectly in all the other ways. Probably isn't waterproof any more, but I never needed that before, either.

Is there a crack on the touchscreen itself though?

> Sony Xperia 10 IV

Unfortunately, it looks like it won't be sold in the US. Does it support US LTE bands so I can import it at least?

Band support seems to be better, though I’m not sure which band would work in the US. Also they haven’t announced the non carrier bundled model yet, so I’m stil waiting as well to see how it pans out.

Is Sharp R7 your option? It's just a normal sized (read: big/weighty) flagship phone.

Snag up a lightly used Pixel 5 while you can. You get 5G and it is basically the same form factor, just a bit better all around. (I've had both and the Pixel5 is a step up for sure)

The 5 was already available here when I purchased the 4a (Europe), but the 5 was twice as expensive - which is hard to justify for "a bit better".

A headphone jack is much more useful for me personally than 5G, so I happily saved the money.

5G is completely useless in The Netherlands for the time being (until at least end 2023). You can safely ignore it if you're from NL. In other countries, how useful it is going to be depends on your use-case. For example, German autobahn has good 5G coverage.

I faced a similar problem when I didn’t find a sanely sized flagship non-bloated (though that’s essentially an oxymoron in Android world including the Pixels) Android phone sometimes back and I decided to vote with my wallet and I bought the first iPhone SE, then 7, and now 12 Mini. I am an Android developer and the way the OS is designed (UX and privacy wise; even the stock one) I don’t really see myself moving back to Android anytime soon but I wish there was a a flagship normal sized phone.

I dislike Apple for a lot of things but in this duopoly the size of a phone is such a fundamental characteristic that you’re out of options anyway.

I think most of the people are “swiper users” — the “content consumers” — so they want big phones and OEMs are simply making what the near 100% majority (yup!) wants.

Growing up I was told the major advantage of capitalism is that you get a diversity of offerings. This seems less and less true as time goes on, but maybe it was always an illusion.

It is only true when entry barriers to the market are low. Capitalism will give you a diversity of toasters or beer. Complex tech devices like phones have higher barriers, you can't just hack up a phone in a team of 5 people. Besides, economy of scale makes niche products more expensive.

The pixel 4a will be good for another 3 years? What kind of apps are you using? I'm still using a Samsung S7 and don't plan to replace it until it explodes or turns into dust. Then again I don't play games, but I do use it extensively to write/browse/chat. It's somewhat sluggish, but who cares? This idea that we need perfect loading times and constant high-tech phones is such a spoiled mindset.

> It's somewhat sluggish, but who cares? This idea that we need perfect loading times and constant high-tech phones is such a spoiled mindset.

It is, however, probably not a great idea to use a device that hasn't had a security update for several years.

Even if you were using a custom ROM and trusted that it was correctly patched (which is a big if) then there's hardware exploits on the Snapdragon 820, and I imagine there are probably similar on the Exynos 8890. Some of these can't be mitigated by software.

Just buy another Pixel 4A. There must be a brand new model still available with some retailer.