Top 10: Small but powerful – the best mini smartphones They still exist: small smartphones. We show the best small cell phones with top features, such as the iPhone 14 Mini, Asus Zenfone 9 or Samsung Galaxy S22. 8:00 p.m. tech stage

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Brian Adam
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top 10 small but powerful the best mini smartphones.jpeg
top 10 small but powerful the best mini smartphones.jpeg

They still exist: small smartphones. We show the best small cell phones with top features, such as the iPhone 14 Mini, Asus Zenfone 9 or Samsung Galaxy S22.

Small mobile phones have become rare. Especially with Android devices from Samsung, Xiaomi, Oneplus, Motorola or Realme, large models dominate. Displays with high resolution, plus powerful batteries – smartphones are getting stronger, but also growing in the truest sense of the word. Some might have trouble using a new device comfortably with just one hand. Many of the new mobile devices no longer fit so easily in your pocket.

But there are a few exceptions. This includes Apple with the iPhone SE. The small variant for newcomers to the world of Apple devices has only recently received a new edition. Even the top smartphones like the iPhone 13 are available in mini versions – without buyers having to compromise on performance. Fortunately, the new flagship Samsung Galaxy S22 (test report) is also available in a compact version.

The actual size cannot always be inferred from the display of the smartphone alone. The keyword here is screen-to-body ratio. This value describes the ratio of the display size compared to the entire mobile phone housing. For example, the iPhone SE from 2022 with a 4.7-inch screen offers a screen-to-body ratio of around 65 percent. This is primarily due to the home button placed below the screen.

The iPhone 13 Mini, on the other hand, offers a screen-to-body ratio of 85 percent with the 5.4-inch display thanks to the lack of a physical home button. With the Samsung Galaxy S22 it is even 87 percent. We explain more on the subject in the Top 10 list: The best smartphones with a particularly large display .

Apple iPhone 13 Mini 

When selecting smartphones, we limit ourselves to models with a maximum length of 15 cm – with two exceptions and one foldable. In our opinion, the mobile phone still fits comfortably in the trouser pocket. These smartphones are not really tiny, but they are currently the “smallest” that you can get with good technology. Only the iPhone 13 Mini (test report) is really compact and yet technically top . The iPhone SE has good hardware, but in our opinion it has a design that is no longer up-to-date with a small display area in relation to its own size. The smallest good Android smartphone is already as big as the regular iPhone.

Especially small Android phones with good hardware are rare. Although there are also significantly more compact mobile phones from lesser-known manufacturers, these often offer simple or outdated technology. If that doesn’t bother you, we recommend the guide to mini cell phones with Android: The smallest smartphones up to 4 inches . Interesting fact: Almost all devices presented here are waterproof according to IP68, the iPhone SE and Google Pixel 6a are at least sufficiently protected against water according to IP67.

With a length of 13.2 cm, the iPhone 13 Mini (test report) is the smallest smartphone in this leaderboard that cannot be folded. The width is 6.5 cm. In terms of dimensions, it corresponds to the predecessor iPhone 12 Mini. Even the 2022 model of the iPhone SE is a bit longer and offers less display area. Due to the compact format, the low weight of 140 g and the powerful hardware, the tiny Apple has more than earned first place.

The workmanship and the design are impeccable. Buyers hardly have to make compromises in terms of technology and equipment. This is almost identical to the iPhone 13. At 5.4 inches, the OLED display is a bit smaller than that of its bigger brother, but it still offers a decent screen-to-body ratio of 85 percent. It is also quite bright with a brightness of up to 800 cd/m². The resolution is slightly lower at 2,340 x 1,080 pixels, but due to the smaller display it still ensures a razor-sharp pixel density of 476 ppi. However, the refresh rate is only 60 Hertz. Modern Android smartphones from the middle class create 90 to 120 Hertz here.

These little smartphones are great

The powerful Apple Bionic A15 provides enough power. The working memory is not excessively large with 4 GB of RAM, but due to the good interaction of software and hardware in Apple devices, it is more than enough. The camera uses two lenses, each with 12 megapixels, one of which is intended for wide-angle shots. The compact format has one disadvantage: the battery has a very low capacity of 2438 mAh compared to Android models. Despite the efficient energy management of iOS, this ensures natural limits for the battery life, which is just under 10 hours on average when using multimedia. The bigger brother should last about 1 hour longer here.

Unfortunately, there will no longer be an iPhone 14 Mini. We can envision a fourth-gen iPhone SE possibly following in the footsteps of the “smallest” iPhone in 2023, possibly with an updated iPhone XR-style home button-less design.

While the normal iPhone 13 is technically identical to the iPhone 13 Mini except for the battery, the iPhone 13 Pro offers a 6.1-inch display with OLED with a significantly higher brightness of up to 1000 cd/m² and a refresh rate of 120 Hertz. This ensures a smoother display when scrolling and videos. The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro are roughly the same size as the Samsung Galaxy S22.

The Pro model also offers a more powerful GPU in the Bionic A15 chip with five instead of four cores, which ensures even better performance. At 200 g, it is significantly heavier than the Galaxy S22 and, with prices starting at 1000 euros, it is also expensive. Compared to the iPhone 13, a telephoto lens is also used.

The Asus Zenfone 9 (test report) is one of the few compact Android phones with really strong performance . It is among the first mobile devices to use the fast-paced Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. This is on par with Apple’s Bionic A15. At almost 14.7 cm, it is as long as the Galaxy S22 or iPhone 13. With a width of 6.8 cm, it is slightly narrower and at 169 g it is similarly light. In addition, the housing is waterproof according to IP68.

Asus Zenfone 9 

The OLED display is a bit smaller at 5.9 inches. It has a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels. The image quality and brightness are impressive across the board, with 120 hertz ensuring smooth image reproduction. The battery offers 4300 mAh and allows a decent runtime of more than 10 hours. The dual camera uses a 50-megapixel main lens and a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens. The image stabilization, which uses elements of gimbal technology, is exciting. An inexpensive alternative is the equally strong predecessor Asus Zenfone 8 (test report) with Snapdragon 888.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 is a particularly exciting variant as a foldable. The successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G (review) . It is a clamshell phone. What was normal in the early ’00s has been forgotten with the advent of touchscreens. But flexible displays are now making a comeback. When unfolded, it is actually much too long for this overview with a length of 16.5 cm. When folded, it fits perfectly into any trouser pocket at 8.5 cm.

When unfolded, the Flip 4 offers a bright OLED display with a lush diagonal of 6.7 inches. The resolution is quite high at 2640 x 1080 pixels, and it also offers 120 Hertz. The visible creases on the screen are hardly noticeable over time. In addition, there is a 2-inch outdoor display for notifications on the back.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G 

As with the Zenfone 9, a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 provides a lot of power. The dual camera with 50 megapixels and 12 megapixels for wide-angle is more of a standard fare. However, the battery capacity is not overly large at 3700 mAh. The predecessor Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G (test report) is now significantly cheaper and also fast . However, the battery is even weaker here.

The “standard” version of the new flagship from South Korea is surprisingly compact. With an OLED display of 6.1 inches, the Samsung Galaxy S22 (test report) has a length of 14.7 cm. The width is 7 cm and the weight is 167 grams. This makes it significantly larger than the mini iPhone, but about the same size as the iPhone 13.

Compared to other top smartphones with Android, this is even handy. The predecessor Galaxy S21 5G is just over 15 cm long, the Galaxy S21 FE (test report) even measures 15.5 cm. The Samsung Galaxy S22+ and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (test report) are also significantly larger . The OLED display offers a diagonal of 6.1 inches, 120 Hertz refresh rate and a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. This ensures a high pixel density of 425 ppi.

Samsung Galaxy S22 

Samsung’s Exynos 2200 processor offers strong performance, even if it can’t compete with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The main memory is 8 GB, the internal memory starts at 128 GB and goes up to 256 GB. The camera uses three lenses: a 50-megapixel lens, a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, and a 10-megapixel telephoto lens. The biggest weakness is the battery with a low capacity of 3700 mAh – as with the Flip 4. It only lasted about 6.5 hours in the test.

In principle, the iPhone 13 has the same technology as the iPhone 13 Mini and is as big as the iPhone 13 Pro. Unlike the Pro model, only a dual camera is used, and the display does not shine quite as brightly and only flickers at 60 Hertz. It is also around 200 euros cheaper.

Let’s come to our first “borderline case”. The new Pixel 6a (test report) from Google is actually too big for this overview. With a length of 15.2 cm it is a bit too long. However, since the range of good Android smartphones with displays up to 6.1 inches is manageable, we still included it in the top 10 and will ignore the 2 mm.

The excellent camera, the great hardware and the well-adapted software speak in favor of the Google Pixel 6. The update to Android 13 (guide) is also already running. Purely from the sheet of paper, the dual camera, each with 12 megapixels and sensors from Sony, does not look outstanding. But the photos are excellent, thanks to the good coordination of the software. But there is no telephoto lens. The in-house tensor chip offers a strong performance. The display is razor-sharp, but only flickers at 60 Hertz. This is no longer up-to-date with Android.

Google Pixel 6a