There’s been some talk lately about the slow death of the compact phone. To me, the whole situation is odd, as I’ve been watching for years how numerous smartphone users online claim to want a compact device, only for compact devices to constantly fail to reach significant sales figures. I wonder, how often has this highlighted the disparity between what some people claim to want and what they end up buying?
Some of those self-proclaimed compact phone enthusiasts will often share one or more reasons why X or Y compact phone wasn’t their ideal choice. But in the end, no compact phone seems to ever tick all their boxes. Hence, they end up buying a regular phone instead. Which, in effect, turns them into regular phone users who claim to be die-hard compact phone fans.
Unfortunately, the other people in this crowd who have always supported compact phones sincerely and put their money where their mouth is are too few and far between. Certainly not enough for compact phone makers to make a dent in the market.
Dare I say it, it’s almost like a good portion of phone enthusiasts who loudly claim to want a compact phone sometimes bait-and-switch OEMs, albeit unwillingly. One OEM or another falls for it and creates a compact phone, only to later realize that, in reality, there wasn’t enough demand for it, despite what some of the loudest ‘voices’ they may have heard online were saying.
But what if the ideal compact phone is one that can pull a similar bait-and-switch tactic, only in reverse?
Galaxy Z Flip 5 is not like any other model before it
I want to put a different spin on the compact phone saga for those few sincere phone users who truly wish for a compact device but can’t find one. I’m here to tell you that the king of compact phones already exists, and you might be looking for it in the wrong place. It’s undercover and in disguise, but it is here and dominates its market segment.
I believe the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is, without a shadow of a doubt, the king of compact phones right now. And its sequel, the Galaxy Z Flip 6, will likely be just as unbeatable.
To be perfectly clear, I am deliberately excluding the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and older models from this argument. Not because of their age, but because they lack the one key component that makes them truly compact kings — a large-enough cover display.
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the first in its series to have a 3.4-inch cover screen that’s big enough to be used for virtually any task — especially when paired with Good Lock for extended support for more (if not all) apps.
The key distinction between the Z Flip 5 and older models is that even if the older versions are extremely compact, they rarely can be used as compact phones. Sooner rather than later, you’ll have to flip open a Galaxy Flip 4 if you want to do just about anything significant on your phone. However, that’s not the case with the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the first that can be used as a non-foldable 3.4-inch slab-type phone the vast majority of the time. Granted, it’s a 3.4-inch slab phone with the thickest bezels you can find and an even thicker 15.1mm profile.
Even so, it is absolutely tiny compared to any slab-type phone on the market. When folded, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 measures just 85.1 x 71.9mm. And when you use the Galaxy Z Flip 5 folded and forget about the inner screen, you get the most compact slab-type high-end phone you can buy.
I bet the majority of Galaxy Z Flip 5 users already know this. They’re using the cover screen more than they do the foldable panel. They never realized they’d sign up for this type of user experience, but that’s where many ended up. Whenever they ignore the foldable panel — which is often — they are using the most compact slab-type smartphone they have probably ever used.
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 was probably never meant to occupy the compact phone niche the way it does, but here we are. Whoever thought that the king of compact slab-type phones might one day be an undercover Galaxy Z Flip?!