This, really. While screen sizes have been getting bigger, the aspect ratio has been getting taller and the bezels/body of the phones has been getting smaller. While I agree that regardless of all of this modern phones are too big, you can't just look at the screen size.

Here is a comparison between a few phones: https://phonesized.com/compare/#1784,1862,1863,365,632,126 (the Zenfone 9 is not in the database yet, but it's almost identical at the Zenfone 8).

What I find more interesting is that their website focus so much on it being compact, but it's actually just pretty much the same size as the regular iphone.

Yes and the iphone is one of the very few competent phones that are not (that) large.

I like it how in your comparison that these modern "compact" phones are almost the same size as the Note 3 which was a phablet when it came out.

Okay, but the "physical" outer dimensions must be bigger than the screen size.

If 5.9" were ridiculously large (it is), then so is anything bigger, including the phone that must contain the 5.9" screen.

Aspect ratio also has an effect. Squarer phones have more surface area at a given screen diagonal.

A 'smaller' screen can actually be larger in area. Take the 5.7 inch note 3 mentioned earlier.

https://m.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5665&idPhone2=1...

Its screen is nearly 7% larger than the 5.9 inch zenphone 9. Skinnier aspect ratios exaggerate the growth in phone screen sizes.

http://www.displaywars.com/5,9-inch-d%7B20x9%7D-vs-5,7-inch-...