small android phone with a good camera and battery life?

any opinions? looking for an android phone. The only features I care about are having a good camera and battery life, and being small enough to fit in my pocket (i was disappointed with how huge the recent Pixel phones have become - it doesn't fit in my climbing pants' zippered pockets and always feels like it's fighting my leg loops to fall out and into the abyss. not interested in changing network providers or changing to apple

I have a Motorola Razr folding phone.

Half the size of a typical phone (when folded.)  Easily fits in a pocket.  

Battery life is good (generally charge it only when I'm asleep.)  

Camera seems fine for casual photos.  

Pixel 6a, quite cheap these days, around $100. Great camera, small, good battery life. 

I use a pixel 6a but it's a little bit too big still.  I'd hate to use anything that's bigger.

I played with the mini photos - specifically I have a unihertz atom.  It's TINY to the point of being mostly unusable, but is waterproof, shockproof etc etc.

I know you specifically said "not apple" - that echoes my own opinion as well, but for a while I was hopeful that an iPod touch would be viable as a portable digital topo platform as well as having an onboard camera.  As it happens the Rockfax app which I use doesn't work on the gen 6 (the ios version is too old) and the gen 7 are still too expensive to test out.  Point being - maybe you don't need a smaller phone in your pocket, maybe you need a smaller camera in your pocket.

The other thought for cameras is that one of the guides I've used a few times keeps a gopro on a tether around his shoulder.  Perfect for photos on the go as you can lift, aim, shoot and drop.  Maybe that would scratch your itch.  Depends on if you want everything in one device, or, like the ipod touch thought, you would be ok with the camera being separate.

I've been a fan of the samsung flip phones for a few years now. I currently have the flip 6 and have been very happy with it. I made the switch to flip phones for the same reason that you stated. Mine is always with me when climbing, residing in a front pants pocket. 

I really like the size and battery life of my Asus Zenfone 10. The camera is pretty good - not as amazing as an iphone15 but for a phone I can stuff into a chalk bag pocket, totally works

I have the base model galaxy s24. It's small. Very thin, and like 6.1" (no case) 

The camera is the same as the next model up, so it's still very good. 50mp standard, with 8k video at 30fps, up to 120fps with 4k.

Because it's a smaller screen, the battery lasts LONGER than the larger models. On battery saving mode, playing some tunes, taking pics, and occasionally texting, it lasts all day and then some. Kinda slow to recharge, however.

There's several options for increasing the battery life too, but I only use those for long backpacking trips

S23, S24, or. Asus Zenfone 10.  I have an S22 and will upgrade to one of those if this one dies.  Zenfone is the best one but no Verizon.

Unfortunately those of us who want small phones are clearly in the minority. The market has spoken!

Scott Dwrote:

Pixel 6a, quite cheap these days, around $100. Great camera, small, good battery life. 

This is the phone I have.  Had it for about 3 years.  The battery can last a few days if you aren't using a lot of data or recording long videos.  It's not a big phone but the screen is large and easy to see in the bright light.  The camera is fantastic.  Absolutely no complaints.  

Pixel 8 & 9 are also fairly small if you like the "Pixel experience". 

Thanks for all the input everyone. Agreed on the pixel 6a... I wish I hadn't lost my old one. It's so frustrating that most decent phones are now well over 6". And the options are further restricted in the US where we have no access to those awesome Huawei phones. Zenfone and S24 are intriguing and I'm giving it another day to think about it but will probably go with a refurbished pixel 6a because of money reasons.
Maybe one day we'll get the option to buy a compact phone with a great camera and without all the extra unnecessary bells and whistles that bring the cost up and battery life down. Maybe..

I wish they'd have kept the 4a size and updated the components like iPhone SE.
The 4a was small and light. 6a/8a we've had since are nice, but bigger than I'd like for outdoorsy stuff. 

I'm running a pixel 5 and it's excellent, battery life is great, 2 day battery if I don't really use it, great camera. It's starting to get a bit slow is the only issue but otherwise I'm very happy. Plastic so durable and pretty damn burly with a case and a plastic screen protector. 

It's smaller than the 6a and 9 and fairly thin. Not dramatically smaller though. 

Maybe getting different climbing trousers or a zippered chalk bag is the simpler option. 

evan freemanwrote:

Unfortunately those of us who want small phones are clearly in the minority. The market has spoken!

I have a feeling this is not true about phones being big because that's what consumers want. 

I bought a Pixel 9 when I was in a pinch after breaking my Pixel 5a, which had excellent battery life.  My initial take after a couple weeks is that it is significantly worse for battery life, despite having excellent reviews and an 'extreme' battery saver mode.  Over 12 hours of climbing and camping it dropped from 100% to 50% when in the same conditions my 5a phone would loose 5-10%.  I tried to turn off all the fancy shit but maybe I missed something.  If this is the best it can do then I severely regret my purchase.

Adam Rwrote:

I have a feeling this is not true about phones being big because that's what consumers want. 

Well, every time they release a small phone it sells poorly.  Asus stopped making the small Zenfone and Apple stopped making the Mini due to poor sales....  Ofc there's always the argument that people want what they are told to want, but that's a much wider discussion than we can tackle on a wee phone thread.

Cocoapuffs 1000wrote:

I bought a Pixel 9 when I was in a pinch after breaking my Pixel 5a, which had excellent battery life.  My initial take after a couple weeks is that it is significantly worse for battery life, despite having excellent reviews and an 'extreme' battery saver mode.  Over 12 hours of climbing and camping it dropped from 100% to 50% when in the same conditions my 5a phone would loose 5-10%.  I tried to turn off all the fancy shit but maybe I missed something.  If this is the best it can do then I severely regret my purchase.

I suggest turning 5G off and doing a more frequent reboot. My 6a runs out of battery quickly in 5G mode vs 4G. It could also be an app using a bunch of battery. Something is definitely not working correctly. My 6a will last 3+ days on a big wall in airplane + battery saver. 

evan freemanwrote:

Well, every time they release a small phone it sells poorly.  Asus stopped making the small Zenfone and Apple stopped making the Mini due to poor sales....  Ofc there's always the argument that people want what they are told to want, but that's a much wider discussion than we can tackle on a wee phone thread.

Explicitly smaller than other smart phone phones are too small, Google pixel 3a is the perfect size I think but it is still larger than the Galaxy I had ~10 years ago which was also fine. I went back to a flip phone for about 5 years and I didn't miss smart phones at all but now I need one for travel and work unfortunately. 

ETA: I've had the Google pixel 3a for a while now and as long as I charge it once a day I don't even think about battery life. Camera is pretty adequate too