Me reading this on an A15:
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Bloatware is a pain.
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Well, I finally got the Pixel 8, opened it… and it’s too fucking big. I’m exhausted. 
It’s considered small by today’s standards. Granted, it’s not as small as the S24, but it’s the smallest of the modern Pixels. Congrats on your purchase! I miss mine
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The age of small phones is over. Pixel 8 is not big at all by today’s standards. The iPhone mini was my favorite phone because of its size, but it never got a follow-up which should indicate the modern customer’s preference.
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It seems I found this thread too late, but an iPhone 17 or iPhone Air could be a solution. As for transferring photos, there is an app for that recommended by Apple. Details at the link below (scroll down to the Windows PC section). I have not tried it myself as I have been on Mac for a decade now.
That’s so unfortunate. It seems despite all the other concerns, the biggest deal-breaker for you is physical size. Even one of the smaller phones in today’s market is still too big.
I did come across a random comment from someone saying that despite the Apple iPhone Air’s size on paper, it felt much easier to hold than phones of that size. I guess thickness and weight plays a role in how handle-able the phone is.
So if you want to go that route… definitely try it in an apple store first beforehand.
I am perhaps a little late to this party, but I have some experience with small hand. My previous phone was a Samsung S24 and I moved to my current phone, which is a pixel 8 in order to move to graphene. My advice is don’t go just by the measurements, the curved back of the pixel 8 makes it feel in the hand significantly smaller and comfier than the S24 and even the pixel9A which both sport, the ridiculous iPhone style straight sides.
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it is not thickness they’re are looking for nor lightness.
im saddened to see OP didnt like the choice, I guess research doesnt always pay off, I understand the frustration but lets see if @Grapeg can help out
tbh you should expect iphone mini sized in 2025 hence at that, the smallest for that year goes to the S24/S25 but thats it. Maybe the 16 gets it too but the width is wide enough imo than even samsung’s offering
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Unfortunately, the Pixel 8 with GrapheneOS is the smallest and most comfortable phone that respects our privacy. I simply don’t think there are any other options.
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there is the pixel fold but it is a W I D E phone and may be uncomfortable to use for how wide it is, not mentioning it has like what, 2 years left? if you buy a pixel fold you’re looking to use GrapheneOS for a few years and then harm reduction which of course as is tradition in privacy guides we generally dont recommend phones like it even in harm reduction unless some other conditions applies but still
Missing out the biggest detail here regarding the fold aka the price of it maybe? 
But yes, companies do not want or care to build smaller phones.
People needed to buy the hell out of the small Zenfones while it was still a thing, too late there wasn’t enough demand to justify more of those.
MKBHD spoke about that topic well
Are Ulefone phones any good? Not even for privacy atp, but for basic security and maybe repairability (given that they’re not a popular brand where I live so I guess that impacts whether my phone guy will be able to fix it, no?).
I guess it’s between this, Samsung s23 (which is only 4.2 mm shorter than the Pixel 8, so at this point why bother) and a fucking iPhone again.
I managed to find a single lonely Asus Zenfone 10 in a local store and it costs like 2 iPhones. And GSM arena told me that it comes with Android 13 and up to 2 major Android updates, so how long is this going to last in layman’s terms? Not long, I suppose.
These are my options, I guess. The foldables all seem way too fkn big.
edit: I looked into that Clicks Communicator phone too. Looks gimmicky but atp I might consider it too…
For security it goes like this:
1.) Pixel + GOS
2.) iPhone 17
3.) Other iPhones
4.) Pixel
5.) Everything else aka the dumpster
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maybe 5. Samsung because of Knox
and 6. The rest
ngl 5 and 6 are still low bars
I don’t think Knox has any benefit on the consumer side. It’s mainly a MDM tool. Samsung Knox | Fundamentals | Samsung Knox Documentation
That’s a good distinction to put A19 equipped iPhones above other iPhones.
Hardware enabled MIE is a huge deal for security.
Knox is not just an MDM thing
Interesting list, which means that if you live in a market that doesn’t have Pixels and want real hardware security - your only options is iOS. A few questions (just thinking out loud):
but wouldn’t Pixels rank above iPhones from a purely security perspective (no privacy considerations)?
For iPhones, the MTE/MIE scope is still pretty limited (kind of like Lockdown Mode), but I guess that should change in the future. Speaking of, does Lockdown Mode deserve to be mentioned on this list (so, 2x2 categories of supported iPhones)?
Are there dumpster tiers (e.g., are Samsungs significantly less a dumpster than your typical Xiaomi)?
Isn’t Knox just a brand name for standard Android security features? Do no other brands really have that?