I like the feeling of holding and using a phone in one hand. I am using a Pixel 5 right now, but it feels a bit too large for me. I know nobody makes phone that small like the iPhone 4S or the Samsung S3 mini anymore, but is there at least a phone smaller than the Pixel 5? Maybe around the size of a iPhone 12/13 mini?
Also looking for a new small phone. I had the last two Xperia 5's and they never felt premium enough to justify the price. Holding out for the Zenfone 10, Asus is pretty consistent with their Q2 releases.
The one thing I find annoying is our compact phone options (Sony & Asus) both refuse to support their devices for more than a couple years of android OS updates. (I don't expect to see Android 14 on the sony mk3 series, and asus likely won't support the Zenfone 9 past android 15.
and aside from that we just have the meme that is Unihertz.
OS update is less of a concern to me. If the phone is from a major company, there will be custom ROMs like the LineageOS sooner or later. It will last me a good while before becoming obsolete as long as the SOC is good enough.