Best compact phones 2026 - buyer’s guide

Once an iPhone mini domain, nowadays the top pick in this category has been a reserved spot for the Moto Razrs. Indeed, the new Motorola Razr 60 Ultra offers a ton of flagship features in its super compact body.

The Motorola Razr 60 Ultra (or Razr Ultra in North America) is a thoroughly excellent small foldable that could very well be the best-performing specimen of its kind that we've seen to date. Its flaws are few, the most important being the aggressive CPU throttling. It robs the phone of some of the positives of having the best Android chipset currently available, and it's seemingly an inherent limitation of the model's thermal design.

Other than that, the Razr's showing is class-leading in most respects. Battery life is excellent across the board, and charging remains best-in-class, as last year. The displays can, actually, put out plenty of nits when the ambient light calls for it - also scoring higher than the rest in that test. The camera setup doesn't suffer too much from not having a telephoto, and its replacement with an ultrawide is actually beneficial in several ways. The Razr also remains the most functional small foldable if you'd prefer to keep it closed, thanks to a larger-than-most display and the software package to make use of it.

All things considered, as small-size foldables go, the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra is quite the enticing proposition.

The market, and this price segment in particular, is far from crowded with compact smartphones. Quite the opposite, really. That scarcity plays directly into the Reno15 Pro (mini)’s favor, allowing it to stand out easily.

First off, the phone comes with a familiar-looking but well-executed design, centered around a solid build and well-chosen color options. The display impresses as well - it is sharp and bright, with smooth motion and vivid colors, and it supports HDR10+ across all streaming apps we tried.

Despite its compact footprint, the Reno15 Pro (mini) houses a surprisingly large battery, delivering excellent endurance on a single charge. Add to that the decently fast wired charging and the impressive stereo speakers, and the overall package becomes well-rounded.

Then there is the camera setup, which proved to be one of the phone’s highlights. All four cameras, including the selfie unit, deliver consistently excellent photos throughout the day. Video quality follows the same trend, helped along by near-flawless stabilization that works reliably across the board.

Finally, the Reno15 Pro (mini) comes with a genuinely fast chipset, though sustained performance is clearly not its strong suit. Peak performance drops off quickly under prolonged CPU or GPU loads, which is quite typical for the compact devices we've reviewed. The good news is that such extreme scenarios are unlikely to be common in day-to-day use.

And that just about sums it up. The Reno15 Pro (mini) gets almost everything right - a relatively compact size, an excellent display, impressive battery life, standout camera quality, and competent speakers. If it were not for the underwhelming sustained performance, it would have been perfect, but even as it is, it deserves an outstanding recommendation.

The vivo X300 turned out to be an exemplary phone in pretty much every department - size, design and build, battery life, screen quality, camera experience, and OriginOS got a massive upgrade that made vivo's phones on par with all recent Androids. And that's just great!.

The vivo X300 impressed us with its smooth design and its super bright screen that has an impressively dynamic refresh rate. The battery life is a blast, too.

The X300 is part of the vivo's photography flagship series and it does not disappoint - all four cameras deliver superb photo and video quality during the day. While the low-light photos remain impressive, the videos are somewhat average and that's our only remark here.

We are glad that vivo has worked a lot on OriginOS and the underlying Android, and it has made some impressive improvements. The iOS and macOS integration were surprising, or were they given how much vivo has taken from iOS 26? Still, iOS inspired or not, we liked OriginOS very much.

There are few compact flagships out there, and fewer compact cameraphones. But vivo X300 is amazing in both categories and we think it will easily find many fans out there looking for either option.

It would be unfair not to highlight Samsung's efforts to optimize for the existing hardware. Compared to last year's Galaxy S25, there are certainly some improvements. We see a notable gain in battery life, a tad faster charging, and a bunch of new AI and video recording features that may sound enticing enough to the right crowd.

On the other hand, it's becoming increasingly hard for Samsung to sugar-coat the minor upgrades offered by the new generation. The Galaxy S26 still feels like the flagship underdog next to the Plus and Ultra. Even the mid-range Galaxy A57 gets 45W fast wired charging. The vanilla S26 is also more than a few laps behind the competition in terms of camera hardware, battery technology and charging.

At the end of the day, Galaxy S26 is a solid all-rounder. It doesn't stand out, but it's somehow "good enough", especially if you are looking for a compact Samsung flagship. That's pretty much your only choice. You can rest assured that the display is excellent, performance is on point, the camera experience is just okay and battery life is dependable.

In keeping with tradition, the Galaxy S26 continues to be a mighty yet surprisingly compact package. It is one of the few small flagships left out there, and that alone will ensure its popularity with buyers. Also, as usual, it is the cheapest way to get into Samsung's latest flagship line and for better or worse, that appeals to a particular crowd.

Apple finally gave the most compact iPhone – the iPhone 17 - the two upgrades that matter most day-to-day: a premium 120 Hz LTPO display (with thin bezels) and usable base storage. A meaningfully better selfie camera, an upgraded 48 MP ultrawide (with AF for macro) and finally some progress in terms of charging speed make this the best rounded vanilla model Apple has ever made. It is also by far the easiest iPhone to recommend in the 2025 lineup.

It's not like it's flawless, but none of the downsides are actually deal-breakers. The A19's lack of a vapor chamber means noticeable heat and throttling under sustained load, but how often are you even going to push it that hard. The stereo speakers are quieter than last year's, the USB port still operates at 2.0 speeds, and Apple has effectively capped the brightness to 1,000 nits in what we assume is an attempt to extend battery life. iOS 26 brings Liquid Glass, but lacks polish.

Thus the overall package is very compelling: a phone with traditional Apple aesthetics, Pro-grade screen and performance, a capable camera and usable storage capacity was never this cheap. We'd be amazed if it's not by far the most popular option in Apple's 2025 lineup. Read full review

The Pixel 10 Pro doesn't bring a whole lot of improvements, instead iterating on what was sort of a good overall package. Predictably (no need to kid ourselves with unrealistic expectations), some classic Google pain points haven't been addressed - charging remains unacceptably slow, battery life isn't competitive, the chipset is behind the curve and throttles like few others. This year the phone is also heavier.

The Pixels aren't really moving forward much in terms of camera hardware, and they're outspecced by Chinese makers (and outperformed too). There's a glimmer of hope in the improved closeup shooting this year, which still remains hampered by a suboptimal camera app implementation (which is less than perfect in numerous other ways). All in all, the camera experience is reasonably nice, but it hasn't been nice enough to be the reason you'd get a Pixel for several generations now.

The super-bright displays have been a thing with Pixels lately, and the 10 Pro does score top marks there. Another hardware win is the Qi2 wireless charging with magnetic attachment capability that just might be useful for the right crowd. The wider-than-most selfies are also a welcome sight.

But it's really the software where the Pixel 10 Pro's main appeal lies. All the smoothness and attention to certain details that other makers overlook (once Google clears up all the early bugs), plus AI-based features that you can't quite get elsewhere (maybe on a Galaxy, but not really) - a Pixel phone is a showcase of the software company doing software mostly right. And the Pixel 10 Pro is one of the most attractive compact flagships right now, but a particularly heavy one, too.

The compact, yet heavy, iPhone 17 Pro is in many ways different from last year's model, yet it's also kind of the same - underneath and in principle. On the surface, you're getting a fresh redesign that was really needed after several years of minor tweaks. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's recognizable and comes with some practicality benefits.

It's a vehicle for getting heat out, and it appears to be helping, at least a little, in tandem with the new vapor chamber - but neither is a miracle worker and there's still a fair bit of throttling, particularly on the GPU side of things. Well, performance is also improved, of course.

In the same-but-different-but-same category, we'll have to file the new iOS 26 - it's looking fancier, but it's not gotten any more intuitive or user-friendly. There's a new charging standard being thrown around and indeed top ups are now speedier, but we can't help but wonder if that could have happened earlier, without the new abbreviation. The display is not as bright as before, but it also is as bright as before, only not so cooperative when it comes to our testing. It's less reflective, which is a welcome development.

Then there's the new telephoto camera which sounded exciting at first, but it's not a dramatic improvement over the old one. The every-which-way selfie camera is cool too, don't get us wrong, but it's also solving the most first-world problem - spending the extra effort to rotate your phone. It is higher-res and wider-angle - those are objective improvements, we'll give it that.

There's a lot of back and forth with the iPhone 17 Pro - you're getting this, but... that thing's improved, however... that other thing's changed, and it's not exactly better, but different instead. Ultimately, it's an excellent compact phone with a premium package with huge sales numbers in its future, but definitely not the most exciting one.

We didn't go in expecting dramatic changes and we didn't get those with the Galaxy Z Flip7. Perhaps the most notable development is in the physical appearance of the clamshell, and the slim body coupled with the new large cover screen make it that extra bit more of a looker than previous attempts. The fact that we've also gotten higher battery capacity and a meaningful improvement in endurance is also not to be overlooked.

Some of the Z Flip7's pros are as true now as they were true of the previous generation. One UI is about as feature-packed as there is and remains a key Galaxy selling point in every comparison despite, in this particular case, Samsung's continued refusal to unlock the full potential of the cover screen. The camera system may not exactly be top-cameraphone-grade, but it's pretty great for a clamshell.

Some of the Z Flip7's shortcomings aren't unique to it - whether it's the painfully slow charging that in one way or another is a problem for every Galaxy, or the high thermal throttling that comes with the form factor (or simply the high-end chipsets). We wouldn't call this making excuses, but rather establishing perspective.

In the end, the Galaxy Z Flip7 is an excellent compact foldable - but maybe not for everyone.

The Xiaomi 17 is a solid all-around flagship phone with no critical flaws in any aspect, despite its size and overall portability. It's the perfect choice for users looking to buy into the premium Android experience, without having to deal with today's humongous screens.

The ultrawide camera may not be the phone's strongest suit, and the zoom camera has a modest focal length, but it gets everything else right. The display is flawless, the battery life is chart-topping, charging is more than decently fast, and the simple and elegant build is easy to like. We just wish the telephoto camera had a longer optical zoom like most competitors and a nicer ultrawide camera that's as wide as its name suggests.

Overall, despite the couple of shortcomings, the Xiaomi 17 is one of the best compact flagships you can get right now.

Motorola has found a successful formula with some of its Edge devices for the last couple of years, and we believe that the Neos stand out even more as delivering great value. Strangely enough, only a few brands offer compact mid-range solutions, so the Edge 60 Neo finds a very tight but comfortable niche for itself.

The Neo is based on a compact 6.36-inch LTPO OLED with hire resolution and high refresh rate, it offers MIL-STD-810H military standard, runs on a capable chip, supports wireless charging and adds a 3x telephoto camera.

Despite its size, the Edge 60 Neo is indeed well-equipped. You don't see many compact midrangers with a telephoto camera and wireless charging. The handset also offers a higher-end LTPO OLED panel, decently fast charging capabilities and long battery life. The design is ergonomically-sound and the finish is soft and grippy. It is a phone worth considering.

The Pixel 10a is incredibly compact, with great camera, screen, and performance capabilities. We also loved the stock Android and its AI options, the good speakers, and the excellent battery life.

It is a great little phone despite the lack of any upgrades over the Pixel 9a. It was not meant to please the Pixel 9a owners, but more like those having a Pixel 6 or Pixel 7, maybe even Pixel 8. And it should work for them nicely if they can stomach the high launch price.

Our advice is quite simple - if the feature set and the price tag work for you, you will not regret getting the Pixel 10a..