powerful Small-mide size phones

[Cronis]

Hey guys not sure if this is the right forum to post this in but my wildfire S is getting a bit long in the tooth.

I noticed as I started shopping though that most of the higher end phones are these monster 4.3-5" screen phones. So was curious if you guys knew of any android phones out now or coming soon that have a really good camera (for a phone) and decent specs in the 3.5-4" range.

price and carrier are not really a concern but obviously less expensive is better =p

 

[Joelgp83]

S3 mini, perhaps? Not sure on the exact sizes, but should be a scaled down S3, which is a decent phone already.

 

[chanchan05]

I got an S3 mini. It's a bit smaller than the original Galaxy S, and the specs are good enough to take on the GNex and S2.

 

[jhawkkw]

Motorola is suppose to be coming out with the droid mini in the near future. That's another possibility to consider.

I've also moved this to device comparisons. Thanks for your understanding.

 

[jjfad]

I've been trying to find a sub-4" phone with good specs. They don't really seem to exist. iPhone 4S was probably the last of them. I really hope the phablet phenomenon dies out soon.

 

[Cronis]

yea right now from the research iv done the upcoming Samsung S4 mini seems to be the closest thing to what im looking for. Good camera, decent specs etc. From what I can tell its roughly the same size as the Iphone 5, Still bigger then I want though.

I'm almost tempted to look at the older super phones back when 4" was a huge phone.

All I want is a reasonably fast 4" or smaller phone with good battery life a great camera and well built. I don't want some glass thing thats gona break if its slightly miss-handled (looking at you Iphone and Nexus 4). Yes artistic design/material combination is cool but its just not practical for someone with a active/athletic lifestyle.

The size is a huge issue, I jogg/run a lot and I cant be carrying some 4.7-5" super phone around.

So i guess to summarize the specs I want

• 4" or smaller screen (4.3" if there is nothing else out there) Don't care if its HD or not.
• Excellent camera (for a phone). At this point I don't carry a camera around anymore, so this would become my main shooter.
• Good battery life (should last 2+ days under light use). by light use I mean, 5-10 mins of internet browsing, 10 mins of txting, 2 mins of call time and maybe 5-6 pics over the course of a day.
• CPU can either be a fast single or dual core. quads are not needed or even wanted since I never game on my phone so it would just end up sucking battery life.
• Sturdy build (NO GLASS BACKS, also I love unibody designs)
• Any carrier will do, but I prefer a prepaid plan from T-mobile
• While Android is my favorite mobile OS I could be tempted away to W8 or even Apple if the hardware fits.

 

[chanchan05]

Try using this to narrow down your choices:

www.gsmarena.com/search.php3

 

[jj2me]

• While Android is my favorite mobile OS I could be tempted away to W8 or even Apple if the hardware fits.

Excluding the newest offerings, historically (up until 2013 or so), iPhones and Nokias were generally known as having the best cameras. Here is a chart of smallish Nokias currently offered by US carriers.

 

[Cronis]

Hey thanks, thats an awesome research tool!

Sony Xperia SX has a great form factor and the right specs but at $600+ for a unlocked version its a little more then I want to pay lol.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Sony-Xperia-SX_id7098

 

[mohit9206]

You could also look at Xperia L,M,P etc.

 

[bob60626]

How about the Samsung Blaze?

 

[jjfad]

How about the Samsung Blaze?

I really wanted to like the Blaze. The size was perfect, it was speedy enough (I don't really do any gaming), but the main issue I had with it was that the camera had an incredibly annoying shutter lag. I'm not a big time photographer but it really was like 1-2 sec.

Now I'm looking into:

LG Optimus F3
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini
IPhone 4S or 5

I haven't been able to find any other decent Android phones that are sub 4" with decent speed. These days it seems pretty much any decently specced phone is huge (4.3"+), and small phones are budget clunkers.

 

[jjfad]

By the way, in my research I came across a few decently rated <4" Windows Phones, but I don't think I'm quite ready to make that transition just yet.

 

[Cronis]

The new Driod MINI looks very promising, its probably got the best specs currently available in a mid size phone.