I suppose that Android is most popular in the mid-range category, which I assume it's where people who cannot afford/or doesn't want an iPhone use their phone as their main device. They need a device that excels in content consumption/gaming, and maybe even work - you probably don't want to watch a movie or play a game in a small screen -, so big is probably better here.

I think people looking for smaller phones think of it more as a secondary device, they have bigger screens on their main devices (desktop/laptop/tablets).

I have an iPhone SE (2016) and I'm looking for a mid-range compact Android device that doesn't weigh ~200g, but I'm giving up. Between availability in my region (or the lack of), phones without development/custom ROM support, and cost/benefit ratio, I'm left mostly with imported Xiaomi devices that a few years back we'd call "phablets".

I've been wanting to replace my iPhone SE for more than a year, even tried a Samsung Galaxy S10e (Exynos version) for a week, but it didn't feel like it worth the price for what I wanted.

The only "compact" Android phone available officially in my region is the Asus Zenfone 8, which is the price of an iPhone 12 Mini, and then it doesn't feel like a good deal in comparison.

There are some seller refurbished Pixels (3, 3a, 4a) on AliExpress, but from some comments, it seems they're using parts with questionable quality.

> but it seems that phone makers who usually copy Apple on everything, just skip this idea at all. If anyone has thoughts on it or a compact model to recommend I'll be glad to hear.

I was also hoping that the iPhone Mini would influence Android manufacturers to make compact phones, since they seem to follow in almost everything else, but seems it won't be the case, unfortunately.