The 5 best small smartphones from 2019

Can you remember how great you thought the first Samsung Galaxy Note was? That monster of a device had a whopping 5.3 inch screen on board, gigantic for that time. Nowadays we laugh about that and we find that even on the small side. Today, “normal” smartphones are already bigger than that. Nice for fans of large screens, not so nice for people with small pockets, small hands and / or short fingers or people who like to operate their smartphone with one hand. Sure, there are tricks and settings to make the image on your smartphone smaller so that you can still control it with one hand, but then you still have a large device in your hands, so that is not a solution for everyone.

We see (and hear) a lot of complaints from people who prefer to have a somewhat smaller (modern) smartphone accompanied by complaints that these are hardly ever made anymore. But don’t worry, if you look a bit well you will still find them. Do you find that too much trouble? Then you’re probably very happy with this article. We have searched the city and country for small handy smartphones.

The devices must be smaller than 5 inches and modern / powerful enough to run all common Android apps. It would be great if the device was still supported by the manufacturer and (security) updates were still being pushed. If that is not the case, the device must in any case contain a chipset, so that it can be supported by the community and you can set up a more modern version of Android.

We know, the list is not as big as hoped for, but hopefully there is enough to delight the little smartphone fan.

Nokia 1

The Nokia 1 may not be a powerhouse if you look at the specifications (although the Mediatek MT6737 is not exactly a weakling), the device is certainly not a slow diver. That is because it is the only device in this list that runs on the lighter Android Go. This makes your apps work smoothly and for heavy apps like Facebook and some Google apps lighter versions are available that do not require too much of your processor and memory.

In addition, this smartphone is still nicely supported by HMD / Nokia, so you don’t have to worry about security issues. And the best thing about all this is that the price is nice and low. The device costs less than 100 euros and is available in many different places.

The Nokia 1 has a 4.5 inch LCD screen with a resolution of 850 x 480, 1 GB RAM and 8 GB storage memory on board. Fortunately, the few internal storage memory can be expanded with a MicroSD card. The device runs on a quad core Mediatek MT6737M processor at 1.1 GHz and has space for 2 SIM cards.

Jelly

Do you still find the Nokia 1 too large? Then have a look at the Unihertz devices. We wrote about the Jelly and Jelly Pro a few years ago and these smartphones are still supported. The company has now released the Atom. This smartphone is not only nice and small, but also rugged. Very sturdy (shockproof), dustproof and waterproof.

All Unihertz devices have a 2.45 inch LCD screen with a resolution of 240 x 432 on board. The Jelly has a 1.1 GHz quad-core CPU with 1 GB RAM, 8 GB storage and a 950 mAh battery under the hood, the device also has support for a Micro-SD card, 2 SIM cards, removable battery, 8 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front camera. The Jelly Pro has 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage and otherwise the same specifications as the regular Jelly.

The Atom is a bit more powerful and has 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage and a 2GHz octacore CPU on board. The rest of the specifications are the same as the other Jelly smartphones. Because of these more robust specifications, the Atom is a bit more expensive and will cost you around 250 euros.

Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact

It is not going so well with Sony’s smartphone division and that is very unfortunate. The company has been making very good smartphones for years and is going its own way. It is one of the few well-known companies that (abandoned by other manufacturers) embraces technologies for longer. It was one of the last manufacturers to release devices with an extendable keyboard and still release mini versions of its flagships.

The Xperia XZ1 Compact is such a device and can keep up nicely with midrange devices. In addition, Sony’s smartphones have above average good cameras on board, which means that you can also shoot nice snaps with your small cell phone.

The Xperia XZ1 has a 4.6 inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720, 4 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, Octacore Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835 at 2.45 GHz and a microSD card slot on board.

K-TOUCH I9

The odd man out. The K-TOUCH I9 is ​​a small elongated device that tries to measure itself in terms of form factor with the trend of 2019 (extra long screens for a cinema experience). This device is nice and small, but a bit longer thanks to the 18: 9 screen ratio. It is a Chinese-made device so don’t expect too much from the Android update policy. On the other hand, considering the price, that is perhaps not so strange.

The specifications are also not bad. 2 GB RAM, 32 GB Storage, 3.5 inch OLED screen with a resolution of 800 x 340, a Quad Core Mediatek MTK6739 processor running at 2.4 GHz and support for two SIM cards and a Micro SD card.

Don’t be put off by the screenshot, the smartphone simply has the Dutch language on board.

iPhone SE

Apple has also said goodbye to the small smartphone, but not without rejoicing the fans with the iPhone SE. This device is still supported by Apple, so you can still run all your iOS apps on your small iPhone without any problems.

The device has 2 GB RAM and 16/32/64/128 GB storage, Dual core Apple A9 at 1.84 GHz, 4 inch IPS-LCD screen with a resolution of 640 x 1136 on board.