Small phones are dead and I am not okay with it

[Cass81]

I want a phone I can use one handed while holding a coffee, and apparently that makes me a market of one. Every flagship now starts at sizes that were called phablets and mocked mercilessly a decade ago. The compact options are either underpowered, ancient, or discontinued the moment I get attached

The manufacturers all say the same thing, small phones do not sell. But I wonder if that is a self fulfilling prophecy when the small option always gets the worse camera, the worse battery and half the marketing. Of course the deliberately gimped version sells badly

Is anyone else holding out, and what are you actually using? I am nursing an ageing compact and dreading the day its battery finally gives up, because the upgrade path looks like choosing which giant slab I resent least