Do Quality 5" Screen Phones Still Exist?

Paul_Kersey · Jun 10, 2018

As you can tell by the title, I'm not a fan of phones with big screens, but it seems like most people are.. manufacturers make all their better phones with giant screens.

My current phone is on it's death bed, and when I googled best phones for $300 or less (my budget), all of them had close to 6" screens.

Anyone familiar with a phone(s) out there with quality specs and. a 4.5"-5" screen??

I don't care about top of the line cameras. I don't play many games, if any.. I just want long battery life, a phone that doesn't lag while typing, opening an app, loading a website, etc.

I'm constantly listening to music, so one with good sound thru headphones and
speaker(s) is important. The loud speaker actually being loud would be cool as well.

Thanks.

kate · Jun 11, 2018

Samsung Galaxy J3 - 5.0"
Moto E4 - 5.0"
Moto G4 Play - 5.0" (from 2016)
LG K8 - 5.0"

Motorola has some options a little larger:
Moto G5 Plus - 5.2"
Moto X4 - 5.2"
Moto E5 Play - 5.2"

girolez · Jun 11, 2018

Also

Samsung galaxy A3 4.9"

Sony Xperia Z3 compact 4.6"

svim · Jun 11, 2018

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-budget-android-phone/

Hadron · Jun 11, 2018

Pixel 2 is 5".

Incidentally the screen diagonal isn't enough these days. For example the Galaxy S9 is 5.8", but because of the tall ratio (and curved edges) is about the width of a traditional 4.8" phone. The Sony XZ2 Compact is 5" but the width of a 4.6" phone, again because of the different aspect ratio. As a guide, if a phone has a 2:1 ratio (often called 18:9 by people who can't simplify fractions) then a 5.5" display is the same width as a 5" 16:9 display and 12% taller.

chanchan05 · Jun 11, 2018

Okay, let's clarify a bit. Do you want a smaller screen or a smaller phone? Keep in mind that you are coming from an older phone. The 5.8 inch S9 has the same size body as the 5inch Pixel 2, It's smaller I think than the 5 inch Pixel 1, and about the same size as the 5 inch Galaxy S7.

Paul_Kersey · Jun 12, 2018

chanchan05 said:
Okay, let's clarify a bit. Do you want a smaller screen or a smaller phone? Keep in mind that you are coming from an older phone. The 5.8 inch S9 has the same size body as the 5inch Pixel 2, It's smaller I think than the 5 inch Pixel 1, and about the same size as the 5 inch Galaxy S7.

In that case I guess it'd have to be the body of the phone itself I should be looking at and not just the screen size.

I've had a LG G5 for the past year. I was in this same situation when I bought that.. I basically settled for something a bit larger cuz all the smaller options sucked.

When my G5 broke last week I bought a cheap $10 burner phone with a 4.5" screen. While the phone itself is kinda laggy, I enjoy the smaller size and weight.

chanchan05 · Jun 12, 2018

Paul_Kersey said:
In that case I guess it'd have to be the body of the phone itself I should be looking at and not just the screen size.

I've had a LG G5 for the past year. I was in this same situation when I bought that.. I basically settled for something a bit larger cuz all the smaller options sucked.

When my G5 broke last week I bought a cheap $10 burner phone with a 4.5" screen. While the phone itself is kinda laggy, I enjoy the smaller size and weight.

The Galaxy S9 is about 2mm shorter and 5mm narrower than a G5.

Do you have an actual phone in mind with the size you want?

For example, the Sony XZ2 compact is about the size of an iPhone 7/8 (the smaller one) with a 5inch screen and top of the line processor.

Paul_Kersey · Jun 13, 2018

chanchan05 said:
The Galaxy S9 is about 2mm shorter and 5mm narrower than a G5.

Do you have an actual phone in mind with the size you want?

For example, the Sony XZ2 compact is about the size of an iPhone 7/8 (the smaller one) with a 5inch screen and top of the line processor.

Nope. Nothing brand specific, just something with the specs I mentioned, as well as it being unlocked. Those Xperias would be perfect, but the XZ2 that you mentioned is $5-600. The XZ1 and X are both $400. I only have $300 tops.

chanchan05 · Jun 13, 2018

Putting the size specs you mentioned into GSMArena's advanced search(approximate size of the smaller iPhone with an allowance of extra 5mm in height and 3mm in width), with a max price of $350 and nothing older than 2016 models, I get 70 results.
https://www.gsmarena.com/results.ph...ceMax=250&nHeightMax=150&nWidthMax=70&sOSes=2

Out of those, I'd look into
Sony E5, XA and XA1
Samsung J5 Prime, A3 (2017), J1 Prime, J1Nxt, and J1 (2016)
Nokia 3.1
LG Q6, and K4.

Prices of course vary on regions. AFAIK GSMArena is based in Europe.

Checking out Flossy Carter's reviews on Youtube (He's US based), he recommends/reviewed the following budget phones (with links to his reviews you can watch)- Note though that not all these phones fit your screen size requirements. These are just the best you can get for a lower price. Although if I remember correctly, the BLU phones have mini versions.:

BLU Pure View ($129) -

Nuu Mobile G3 -

Honor 7X (He called this the best $200 phone) -

BLU Life One X3 -

Moto X4 ($300) -

Do Quality 5" Screen Phones Still Exist?

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